Bitty

Bitty is a Rust terminal workspace: a GPU-rendered terminal emulator and multi-pane window manager for shell sessions. It is pre-1.0 and pre-alpha; the current release line is v0.0.28, there is no stable public API, and behavior, configuration keys, and package names may change between releases.

The product site is bitty.run. Release artifacts and release notes are published on GitHub Releases and on the R2-backed CDN at https://cdn.bitty.run/releases/<tag>/ (the preferred download source).

Install

Every supported install channel verifies downloads before installing and fails closed on mismatch. Detailed instructions, repository keys, and troubleshooting are documented in packaging/INSTALL.md.

One-line installer (recommended)

Linux and macOS:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.bitty.run/install/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://cdn.bitty.run/install/install.ps1 | iex

Package managers

Linux

• Arch Linux (AUR):

  paru -S bitty-bin  # prebuilt release binary (recommended)
  paru -S bitty      # build from source

• Debian / Ubuntu (APT):

  curl -fsSL https://cdn.bitty.run/apt/setup.sh | sudo bash
  sudo apt install -y bitty

  (See packaging/debian.md)

• Fedora / EPEL (Copr):

  sudo dnf copr enable -y xuepoo/bitty-terminal
  sudo dnf install -y bitty

  (See packaging/fedora.md)

• Nix / NixOS:

  nix run github:bitty-terminal/bitty

  (Binary cache on bitty.cachix.org, see packaging/nix.md)

• AppImage (Universal Portable Linux): Download bitty-<target>.AppImage, chmod +x, and run. (See packaging/appimage.md)

• openSUSE (Zypper / OBS): (See packaging/opensuse.md)

• Alpine Linux: (Native musl APKBUILD template in packaging/alpine.md)

• Gentoo Linux: (Portage overlay ebuilds in packaging/gentoo.md)

• Void Linux: (xbps-src template in packaging/void.md)

• Solus Linux: (ypkg recipe in packaging/solus.md)

macOS

• Homebrew:

  brew install bitty-terminal/tap/bitty

• Apple Disk Image (DMG): Download Bitty-<version>-universal.dmg from GitHub Releases or the CDN.

Windows

• Windows Package Manager (winget):

  winget install BittyTerminal.Bitty
  # or using the moniker
  winget install bitty

  (See packaging/winget.md)

• Scoop:

  scoop bucket add bitty https://github.com/bitty-terminal/scoop-bucket
  scoop install bitty

• Setup wizard (Inno Setup): Download bitty-<version>-windows-x86_64-setup.exe from GitHub Releases or the CDN. (See packaging/WINDOWS-SMARTSCREEN.md)

BSD

• FreeBSD Ports: Ports recipe in packaging/freebsd/x11/bitty/. (See packaging/freebsd.md)

• OpenBSD Ports: Ports recipe in packaging/openbsd/x11/bitty/. (See packaging/openbsd.md)

• NetBSD pkgsrc: pkgsrc recipe in packaging/netbsd/x11/bitty/. (See packaging/netbsd.md)

Release binary (manual download)

Download a platform package or archive from the R2-backed CDN at https://cdn.bitty.run/releases/<tag>/ (preferred) or GitHub Releases (the same bytes, documented fallback). Supported release artifacts include Linux, macOS, and Windows binaries, plus selected Linux packages. Every bare binary and archive has a .sha256 sidecar, and the install scripts and package-manager channels verify it. Packaging details are in packaging/README.md.

Build from source

The repository pins the Rust toolchain in rust-toolchain.toml; Rustup installs it when needed. Linux source builds also need fontconfig and freetype development packages.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/bitty-terminal/bitty.git
cd bitty
cargo build --release --locked -p bitty-terminal
./target/release/bitty

The binary crate is bitty-terminal and is not published on crates.io. A git source install is also available:

cargo +1.98.1 install --git https://github.com/bitty-terminal/bitty.git bitty-terminal --locked

Quick Start

Run the setup wizard once, then launch Bitty:

bitty init
bitty

Use bitty init --yes for default answers, --force to replace an existing configuration, and bitty --help for the current CLI surface. Headless smoke execution is available with bitty --headless.

Documentation

Canonical platform documentation is maintained in bitty-terminal-docs, whose documentation map is at docs/README.md. The checkout mounts that repository at docs/ as a submodule; edit the canonical docs repository rather than the mount.

Shared governance, decisions, reviews, and security material live in bitty-docs. AI and plugin documentation live in bitty-ai-docs and bitty-plugins-docs.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history and CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidance.

Inspiration

Bitty is shaped by the tools its authors use every day:

• Neovim for a keyboard-first workspace, Lua configuration, and an extension model that keeps the core small.
• Hyprland for tiling window management, workspaces, and the idea that a terminal workspace can be visually deliberate.
• Kitty, WezTerm, Alacritty, and Foot for GPU rendering, terminal protocol coverage, performance discipline, and configuration ergonomics.

Bitty does not share code with these projects; the inspiration is in the product ideas and the standards they helped define.

Development

Prerequisites and the pinned development tools are documented in CONTRIBUTING.md. Common commands are:

just setup
just check
just test

The workspace contains the terminal core and its supporting crates. External compatibility and performance validation suites are maintained separately.

License

Released under the MIT OR Apache-2.0 license. See LICENSE.