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Configuration

Phantom reads Ghostty’s configuration format — key = value, one per line — from its own directory.

Directory $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/phantom/, default ~/.config/phantom/
Yours config — hand-edited, never rewritten
The app’s gui-settings — everything the Settings window writes

config is yours. Phantom appends exactly one line to it, a config-file directive that pulls in gui-settings, and nothing else. Values in gui-settings are read after yours, so the Settings window wins on a key you both set — move a value into config and delete it from the settings pane to keep it.

A build whose bundle identifier is not com.ipetinate.phantom uses a directory of its own. See Build from source.

Key Type Default Meaning
sidebar bool false, seeded true Show the sidebar and hide the native tab bar. macOS only.
sidebar-width integer 480 Sidebar width, in points.
Key Ghostty Phantom
background-opacity 1.0 0.85, seeded 0.70
background-blur off radius 50, seeded 80

“Seeded” is the value a fresh install writes into gui-settings; the other is the compiled default that applies when nobody wrote the key.

About 211 options — font, cursor, scrollback, shell integration, keybinds, window behaviour, colours — come from Ghostty unchanged. They are documented in Ghostty’s own reference, and the same text is in man 5 ghostty.

Only put keys Ghostty knows in gui-settings. An unrecognised key there raises a configuration error on launch.

A bad value does not fail silently: Phantom reports the file, the line and the key, and carries on with the previous value.