Tilix2

A tilix-style tiling terminal in a single Python file, powered by libghostty-vt (the same VT core ghostty uses) via pyghostty — not VTE.

One file, no framework acrobatics: tilix2.py is the whole app. GTK4 for the UI, cairo/pango for rendering from ghostty's render state (only dirty rows get rebuilt), each tile gets its own pty + ghostty terminal. Keys go through ghostty's key encoder (kitty keyboard protocol, so ctrl+enter in a TUI arrives as CSI 13;5u) and through a GTK input method first (dead keys, compose, ibus).

not affiliated with tilix — just a similar name and a similar idea.

make install # -> ~/.local/bin/tilix2 with its own venv in ~/.local/share/tilix2/venv

arch linux: makepkg -si in the repo builds a real package (system python, pyghostty wheel vendored to /usr/lib/tilix2, desktop entry osuv.tilix2.desktop).

python3 -m venv --system-site-packages venv # --system-site-packages: gi/gtk4 come from the system ./venv/bin/pip install pyghostty==0.1.4 ./venv/bin/python tilix2.py

System requirements: GTK4 + gobject-introspection (python3-gi), pycairo, a monospace font.

right-click a tile: split right/down, maximize, new tab, move tile, copy/paste, zoom, close (shift+right-click when the app grabbed the mouse)

shortcuts: ctrl+alt+right/down split, ctrl+shift+w close tile, ctrl+shift+c/v copy/paste, ctrl+shift +/-/0 zoom/reset (active tile only), ctrl+shift+x maximize/restore tile, ctrl+shift+t new tab, ctrl+pgup/pgdn previous/next tab

maximize a tile (button on the right of its header, or ctrl+shift+x): it fills the tab, the others are hidden but keep running. same button/keys restore the layout; splitting, closing or moving a tile in that tab restores it too

only the focused tile gets the blue frame (not with a single or maximized tile)

tabs: the tab bar shows up from 2 tabs on; all tabs are equally wide (bar width / number of tabs), the title gets shortened in the middle (full title as tooltip), the number on the right is the count of tiles in that tab. closing the last tile of a tab closes the tab, the last tab closes the window. a new tab starts in the cwd of the active tile

dark theme (headerbar, menus, tile headers)

select with the mouse (shift+drag inside mouse-grabbing apps) -> primary selection, middle-click pastes it. selections survive scrolling.

pastes are sanitized by ghostty (no escape out of bracketed paste)

drop files from a file manager onto a tile: their paths get pasted, shell-quoted and space-separated (bracketed paste, so e.g. opencode attaches them); dropped text is pasted as is

drag a tile's header onto another tile: the half nearest to the cursor lights up, the tile gets moved there (left/right/top/bottom of the target)

a new split starts in the cwd of the active tile

each tile has a header with its cwd and a slim scrollbar

closing a tile sends SIGHUP to its shell (bash saves its history); a shell exiting closes its tile, the last tile closes the window

box drawing (─│╭╮┼━┃…) and block elements (▀▄█▌▐▁▔▊░▒▓, quadrants) are drawn on the cell grid, not taken from the font (like kitty): tui borders (textual, htop, …) have no gaps. text glyphs are stretched to exactly one cell, long runs don't drift off the grid

kitty graphics protocol (e.g. kitten icat): images via direct, file and shared memory transfer, png/rgb/rgba/gray, z-layers below/above text. the pty reports its size in pixels, CSI 14/16/18 t get answered. 64 MB of images per tile; png only (no other image formats sneak in through gdk), size checked from the header before decoding

a program that doesn't read (stopped, ctrl+s) doesn't freeze the window on a big paste, output floods (yes) don't stop redrawing

every start is its own process (no D-Bus single instance)

tilix2 --version

env vars: TILIX2_SHELL (a single executable; falls back to /bin/sh if it doesn't exist), TILIX2_FONT (e.g. Monospace 12, without a size 11 pt), TILIX2_FG/TILIX2_BG (#rrggbb)

python tests/checks.py encoder # headless: key encoder / vt (no display needed) xvfb-run -a python tests/checks.py # everything xvfb-run -a python tests/checks.py render # one gui check: layout|tabs|maximize|dnd|filedrop|input|clipboard|render|images|robust|scrollbar|perf

the gui checks use x11 when DISPLAY is set (xvfb), dnd and filedrop need x11 (they drive the real mouse via XTest; filedrop drags out of a second process, like a file manager would).

software rendering (cairo on CPU) — fine for typing; cached pango layouts per row, converted images are cached per image

double lines (═║╔), dashed and diagonal box chars still come from the font

kitty graphics: no unicode placeholders (virtual placements: tmux, probably yazi), no animation, no temp-file transfer (that option is broken in the libghostty-vt bundled with pyghostty 0.1.4; icat falls back to file/shm/direct)

tabs can't be reordered; tiles can't be dragged to another tab, the only tile of a tab can't be dragged at all

ctrl+pgup/pgdn switch tabs, programs never see them (same as tilix)

no sessions/profiles, no cursor blinking, no hyperlinks, no OSC 52 clipboard

License

tilix2 itself: WTFPL v2 — do what the fuck you want to. the vendored pyghostty wheel is Apache-2.0, libghostty-vt is MIT; their license files land in /usr/share/licenses/tilix2/ when installed via the PKGBUILD.