JetBrains IDEs switch built-in terminal to libghostty, reaching 12.5M users
dfinke · x · 2026-10-28
JetBrains announces that starting with 2026.3, the built-in terminal in its IDEs runs on libghostty, replacing the long-serving JediTerm. Ghostty author mitchellh notes libghostty was always the project's primary goal, and JetBrains' annual reports put the affected active users at over 12.5 million.
- libghostty handles parsing and terminal state; the IDE keeps rendering and higher-level integrations
- Kitty keyboard protocol support lets apps distinguish Enter/Shift+Enter/Ctrl+Enter and receive key-release/repeat events
- CLI AI agents like Claude Code, Codex and Pi, plus Neovim, tmux and fish shell, benefit directly
- The move is driven by AI coding agents and TUI apps pushing modern terminal protocols harder than shells ever did
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