kitten-@(1)

📦
version 0.49.2 · 12 versions
, in arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

🌸 kitten-@ — control kitty remotely (yes, from the outside, bestie) 🌸

Okay so real talk: this is kitten-@, part of the kitten manual. She's the remote control for your terminal, and honestly? Iconic. 💅

✨ USAGE ✨

kitten @ [global options] [sub-command] [sub-command options] [sub-command args]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So what does she do? She controls kitty by sending it commands. That's the whole vibe. 🎀

⚠️ Bestie, listen: you must set the allow_remote_control option in kitty.conf for this to work. No setting, no slay. Periodt.

And here's the cute part — if you run her with no sub-commands at all, she just starts up an interactive shell so you can control kitty by hand, like a little chat with your terminal. 🫶

🦋 COMMANDS 🦋

She's got range, okay. Every single one of these has her own manual page:

  • action — runs the mappable action you specify. See: kitten-@-action(1)
  • close-tab — closes the tabs you point at. See: kitten-@-close-tab(1)
  • close-window — closes the windows you point at. See: kitten-@-close-window(1)
  • create-marker — drops a marker that highlights the text you chose. See: kitten-@-create-marker(1)
  • detach-tab — detaches the specified tabs and puts them in a different (or brand new) OS window. See: kitten-@-detach-tab(1)
  • detach-window — detaches the specified windows and puts them in a different (or brand new) tab. See: kitten-@-detach-window(1)
  • disable-ligatures — controls ligature rendering. See: kitten-@-disable-ligatures(1)
  • env — changes the environment variables that future children will see. See: kitten-@-env(1)
  • focus-tab — focuses the tab you specify. See: kitten-@-focus-tab(1)
  • focus-window — focuses the window you specify. See: kitten-@-focus-window(1)
  • get-colors — gets you the terminal colors. See: kitten-@-get-colors(1)
  • get-text — grabs the text out of the window you specify. See: kitten-@-get-text(1)
  • goto-layout — sets the window layout. See: kitten-@-goto-layout(1)
  • kitten — runs a kitten. See: kitten-@-kitten(1)
  • last-used-layout — switches back to the last layout you used. See: kitten-@-last-used-layout(1)
  • launch — runs whatever arbitrary process you want in a new window/tab. See: kitten-@-launch(1)
  • load-config — (re)loads a config file. See: kitten-@-load-config(1)
  • ls — lists tabs/windows. See: kitten-@-ls(1)
  • new-window — opens a new window. See: kitten-@-new-window(1)
  • remove-marker — removes the currently set marker, if any.. See: kitten-@-remove-marker(1)
  • resize-os-window — resizes/shows/hides/etc. the OS window you specify. See: kitten-@-resize-os-window(1)
  • resize-window — resizes the windows you specify. See: kitten-@-resize-window(1)
  • run — runs a program on the computer that kitty is running on and gives you the output. See: kitten-@-run(1)
  • screenshot — takes a screenshot of a kitty OS window, tab, or window. See: kitten-@-screenshot(1)
  • scroll-window — scrolls the windows you specify. See: kitten-@-scroll-window(1)
  • select-window — visually selects a window in the tab you specify. See: kitten-@-select-window(1)
  • send-key — sends arbitrary key presses to the windows you specify. See: kitten-@-send-key(1)
  • send-text — sends arbitrary text to the windows you specify. See: kitten-@-send-text(1)
  • set-background-image — sets the background image. See: kitten-@-set-background-image(1)
  • set-background-opacity — sets the background opacity. See: kitten-@-set-background-opacity(1)
  • set-colors — sets the terminal colors. See: kitten-@-set-colors(1)
  • set-enabled-layouts — sets the enabled layouts in tabs. See: kitten-@-set-enabled-layouts(1)
  • set-font-size — sets the font size in the active top-level OS window. See: kitten-@-set-font-size(1)
  • set-os-window-title — sets the OS window title. See: kitten-@-set-os-window-title(1)
  • set-spacing — sets window paddings and margins. See: kitten-@-set-spacing(1)
  • set-tab-color — changes the color of the tabs you specify in the tab bar. See: kitten-@-set-tab-color(1)
  • set-tab-title — sets the tab title. See: kitten-@-set-tab-title(1)
  • set-user-vars — sets user variables on a window. See: kitten-@-set-user-vars(1)
  • set-window-logo — sets the window logo. See: kitten-@-set-window-logo(1)
  • set-window-title — sets the window title. See: kitten-@-set-window-title(1)
  • signal-child — sends a signal to the foreground process in the windows you specify. See: kitten-@-signal-child(1)

💡 Wanna get the help for just one of these bad boys? Run:

kitten command -h

🔥 GLOBAL OPTIONS 🔥

  • --to — an address for the kitty instance you want to control. It matches the address that kitty instance got via the --listen-on option or the listen_on setting in kitty.conf. If you don't specify it, she checks the KITTY_LISTEN_ON environment variable. And if that's missing too? Messages get sent to the controlling terminal of this process — meaning it only works if this process is running inside a kitty window. 😭
  • --password — a password to use when contacting kitty. This makes kitty ask the user for permission before performing the action you specified — unless the password was already accepted before, or it's pre-configured in kitty.conf. Wanna use a blank password? Set --use-password to always. 🎀
  • --password-file [=rc-pass] — a file to read the password from. Trailing whitespace gets ignored. Relative paths are resolved from the kitty configuration directory. Use - to read from STDIN. Use fd:num to read from the file descriptor num. This one's used if no --password was supplied. Defaults to checking for the rc-pass file in the kitty configuration directory. 📁
  • --password-env [=KITTY_RC_PASSWORD] — the name of an environment variable to read the password from. Used if no --password-file was supplied. Defaults to checking the environment variable KITTY_RC_PASSWORD. 🌸
  • --use-password [=if-available] — so if no password is available, kitty will usually just send the remote control command with no password at all. This option forces it to always or never use the supplied password. If you set it to always and no password is provided, the blank password gets used.

Choices: if-available, always, never

⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

  • --help, -h [=no] — shows the help for this command 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie — go forth and remote-control your terminal 💜

🫶 cute little sign-off: this was kitten-@ from kitten 0.49.2, dated Oct 01, 2026. byeee 🎀

📦 where this page comes from