Ghosteel Terminal
Ghosteel brings a modern terminal engine to SailfishOS. Most mobile terminals use legacy VT parsers that struggle with complex TUI apps. Ghosteel uses the same engine that powers Ghostty, giving you accurate rendering for tmux, neovim, htop, and other TUI applications.
- Ghostty VT engine with full escape sequence support, 24-bit truecolor, alternate screen buffer
- GPU rendering via OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0 with cursor trail shaders
- Launch TUI apps from desktop shortcuts (ghosteel -e htop)
- Multi-session support with named sessions, switching, and persistence
- Touch text selection with Sailfish-style magnifier and double/triple tap
- Configurable extra keys bar with sticky Ctrl/Alt modifiers, arrow keys, F1-F12, PgUp/PgDn
- Automatic URL detection and hyperlinks, tap to open in browser
- Inline images via Kitty Graphics Protocol with PNG decoding
- Encrypted scrollback via Sailfish Secrets (configurable 7-365 day retention)
- Dark and Light color schemes with adjustable opacity
Source code: github.com/zackslash/Ghosteel
License: MIT
Screenshots:
Category:
Application versions:
| Attachment | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|
 ghosteel-1.5.0-1.i486.rpm | 1.49 MB | 03/10/2026 - 16:35 |
| ghosteel-1.5.0-1.armv7hl.rpm | 1.41 MB | 03/10/2026 - 16:35 |
| ghosteel-1.5.0-1.aarch64.rpm | 1.36 MB | 03/10/2026 - 16:35 |
Changelog:
v1.5.0:
- Add -r/--restart arg so exec launchers can re-run on every launch
- Bump ghostty submodule to f523504ea
v1.4.0:
- Preserve Ctrl and Alt modifiers in kitty keyboard protocol apps & shells
- Map F13 to F24, Help, and Menu keys for hardware keyboards
- Ensure new sessions start in the home directory
- Display full truecolor instead of the 256-color palette
- Control key handling improvements
- Bump ghostty submodule to b32f20f3e
v1.3.0:
- Launch shells as login shells (so ~/.profile loads)
- Reset inherited signal handlers in PTY children before exec
Comments
zackslash
Fri, 2026/06/26 - 20:59
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This should be fixed in the new v0.6.2 release now available
kan
Sat, 2026/06/27 - 23:37
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Thank you, it works. I have another issue and it started looking like a stress test :). There is app iftop that requires root privileges and in fingerterm I am able to use command "pkexec /usr/bin/iftop -i wlan" but in ghosteel it starts, asks for root credentials and then something goes wrong.
zackslash
Sun, 2026/06/28 - 02:11
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I appreciate the report! I tried reproducing this but pkexec works fine for me in Ghosteel (I ran ` pkexec /usr/bin/iftop -i wlan0`).
I noticed that your command is `wlan` and mine is `wlan0` I wonder if could be missing the zero on the end and the ghosteel session closes as iftop exits. If that is the case and adding `0` fixes it for you, I think Ghosteel could still have better UI around this to make exits from command sessions clearer.
If you do still have the issue, could you share what SailfishOS version and device you're on? Also, does the auth dialog actually appear for you, and does iftop start at all before it goes wrong? If you get a chance, a GitHub issue with the details would be great: https://github.com/zackslash/Ghosteel/issues
kan
Sun, 2026/06/28 - 10:57
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Yes, this the issue. Definitely it was very late in the evening...
zackslash
Mon, 2026/06/22 - 12:20
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Hey Kan, yes, you can set an 'Autorun command' on a per-session basis. Long-press on a session in the session list and select 'Autorun command' from the context menu. You can enter any shell command (e.g. top) and it will automatically run when that terminal session opens in-future.
kan
Mon, 2026/06/22 - 20:23
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Thank you for your reply but this is not what I need. I am looking for a solution like "-e" switch in fingerterm, to be able create a .desktop file for runnig terminal apps from a grid. Just like in Arcanechat TUI. At the moment I am using fingerterm but looking for a terminal with a better keyboard.
zackslash
Mon, 2026/06/22 - 20:34
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Ah I see, that's a great use case. I can see how a param for a .desktop file would be really useful.
I'm going to investigate adding this to the next release. The idea would be something like `ghosteel -e htop` to launch directly into a terminal session running that command, with optional `session` param too so the same desktop icon always opens the same ghosteel session.
Thanks for the feedback!
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