My Mac terminal setup in 2025

I recently set up my new MacBook Pro M3 from scratch, and this time I decided to try a new terminal emulator.

In the past I’ve used mostly iTerm 2. This time I wanted to try Ghostty because I’ve seen it performs very well in performance benchmarks and I liked their zero-configuration philosophy. It also comes built-in with some features like Nerd Fonts and the option to split the screen.

Today, I’ll share my configuration, not only for anyone who might find it useful, but also as a reference for myself when I need to set up a new machine.

First, download and install Ghostty. You can do this either through the binary file or using Homebrew. I went with the binary installation.

Once installed, create a config file at $HOME/.config/ghostty/config. Ghostty will load this automatically. This file uses a simple key = value syntax. Here’s my configuration:

font-family = Geist Mono
font-size = 16
background-opacity = 0.9
theme = Vesper

As you can see, I went with the Vesper theme and Geist Mono font, both built-in. You can browse all available themes by simply running:

 ghostty +list-themes

Powerlevel10k is a highly customizable theme for Zsh where you can change what the command prompt looks like.

To install it with Homebrew:

brew install powerlevel10k

Then add it to the ~/.zshrc to enable it:

echo "source $(brew --prefix)/share/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme" >> ~/.zshrc

Now source your ~/.zshrc, which will automatically trigger the configuration wizard (or run p10k configure manually):

source ~/.zshrc

The zsh-autosuggestions plugin provides autocompletion functionality. As you type a command, it suggests commands you’ve used in the past. To accept a suggestion, just press the right arrow key.

Install it with Homebrew:

brew install zsh-autosuggestions

Add it to your ~/.zshrc:

echo "source $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc

eza is a modern replacement for ls with better defaults, colors, and icon support.

Install it with:

brew install eza

Then you can replace the default ls command by adding an alias to your ~/.zshrc:

alias ls="eza --icons=always"

zoxide is a smarter alternative to cd. Instead of typing the full path to a directory you’ve visited before, you can just type part of its name.

Install it with:

brew install zoxide

And add it to the ~/.zhsrc

eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

Now, for example, if you’ve previously navigated to ~/projects/foo/bar, you can jump there from anywhere by typing z bar

With these tools configured, you have a fast, beautiful, and productive terminal setup. The best part? Everything here works out of the box with minimal configuration.

If you found this helpful or have suggestions for other tools I should try, feel free to reach out!