Ghostty Terminal Emulator Adds Long-Awaited Scrollbar Support

Developers of the Zig-based terminal emulator, Ghostty, have finally implemented scrollbar support, addressing a frequently requested feature from its user base. The addition closes a bug report – #111 – originally opened in March 2023, and resolves a long-standing user experience gap.

A Feature Years in the Making

Since its initial pre-release in 2024, Ghostty users have relied on mouse wheel momentum or keyboard shortcuts to navigate through terminal history. While functional, the lack of a visual scrollbar made it difficult to quickly assess position within long outputs or code blocks. As one user noted in a community discussion, a scrollbar isn’t necessarily about faster scrolling, but about providing a clear reference point for scroll position. Issue #111 garnered 171 upvotes, demonstrating the demand for this functionality.

Availability and Implementation

Scrollbar support is currently available in Ghostty’s development builds for both Linux and macOS. The feature is slated for inclusion in the stable Ghostty 1.3.0 release, expected in mid-March 2026. OMG! Ubuntu first reported on the upcoming release.

To enable scrollbars in development builds, users need to add scrollbar = system to their Ghostty configuration file. Alternatively, scrollbar = never can be used to disable the feature. Users must reload their Ghostty configuration or restart the application for the changes to take effect. The ‘system’ setting utilizes the desktop environment’s scrollbar preferences; on Ubuntu, this typically results in overlay scrollbars that appear only during scrolling.

Beyond Scrollbars: Ghostty 1.3.0

The addition of scrollbars is just one of several new features planned for Ghostty 1.3.0. Other enhancements include a “jump to terminal” session search within the command palette and the ability to rename terminal tabs on Linux. A read-only indicator will also be displayed on tab screens when appropriate.

Building from Source

While scrollbar support is available in nightly builds, users seeking early access may need to compile Ghostty from source. Michael Bommarito’s blog provides detailed instructions on enabling native GTK scrollbars on Linux, noting that the feature was merged on October 17, 2025, via PR #9245. It’s important to note that documentation within the source code regarding scrollbar support was outdated as of the blog post’s publication.