Ptyxis(1)

🌈 Ptyxis(1) — General Commands Manual 🌈

okay bestie, welcome to Ptyxis(1), the General Commands Manual page for the one and only ptyxis 💅 she's a whole terminal and she's container-oriented, no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

ptyxis — a container-oriented terminal 🦋

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

ptyxis [OPTION]...  [-- PROGRAM ARGUMENTS]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

ptyxis is a container-oriented terminal, designed for the GNOME desktop. She provides tight integration with podman, toolbox, distrobox, and jhbuild to simplify container-based development and system management. literally the way she just does all that 😭👑

💅 the options, bestie 💅

• --version — Show the version of the program.
• --preferences — Show the preferences window.
• --new-window — Open a new window in an existing instance of Ptyxis. If Ptyxis is not running, a new instance is started.
  • May be combined with --working-directory and --execute and --title options.
• --tab — Open a new tab in the most-recently-used window of an existing Ptyxis instance. If Ptyxis is not running, a new instance is started.
  • May be combined with --working-directory and --execute and --title options.
• -x, --execute — Execute a custom command.

This is similar to using -- to provide the custom command except that the entire command line should be provided as a single argument.

In general, you should use -- instead of this option. This is primarily available to be similar to bash -c 'command'

May be combined with --working-directory and --title options.

• -d, --working-directory — Set the current working directory for a new tab [--tab], window [--window], or custom command [-- COMMAND...].
• --title=TITLE — Sets the title for a new terminal page created with either --tab or --new-window.
• --maximize — Maximize a newly created window.
• --fullscreen — Fullscreen a newly created window.
• --tab-with-profile=PROFILE — Creates a new tab in an existing instance using the specified profile. The profile should be a UUID string which can be found in the profile editor of the preferences dialog.
• -s, --standalone — Start a new instance of Ptyxis, in single instance mode, ignoring any instances already running.

Single instance mode is implied when running a -- command.

• -s, --gapplication-app-id=ID — Override the application ID in single instance mode.
• -h, --help — Show a summary of options.

Other standard GNOME options not listed here are also supported. 🫶

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🌸 PALETTE FILES 🌸

Ptyxis supports custom color palettes defined in INI-style files with a .palette extension. Palette files can be placed in ~/.local/share/org.gnome.Ptyxis/palettes/ to be available in the palette selector. ✨

Palette files use the GKeyFile format (similar to INI files) and must contain at minimum a [Palette] section with a Name key. The palette can define colors in two ways:

• Single Scheme — If neither [Light] nor [Dark] sections are present, color keys may be placed directly in the [Palette] section. The same colors will be used for both light and dark themes, with Ptyxis automatically determining which theme to use based on the system color scheme.
• Dual Scheme — If both [Light] and [Dark] sections are present, each section defines colors for its respective theme. Both sections must contain the same required color keys.

The [Palette] section supports the following keys:

• Name — (Required) The display name of the palette as shown in the palette selector.
• Primary — (Optional) Boolean value (true/false). If set to true, marks this palette to be included in the initial set of palettes shown to the user. This is generally used for a limited set of palettes shipped with Ptyxis.
• UseSystemAccent — (Optional) Boolean value (true/false). If set to true, the palette will use the system accent color.

Each color scheme section ([Palette], [Light], or [Dark]) must contain the following required color keys:

• Foreground — Text foreground color.
• Background — Terminal background color.
• Color0 through Color15 — The 16 standard terminal colors (0-7 are normal colors, 8-15 are bright colors).

The following color keys are optional and will use computed defaults if omitted:

• Cursor or CursorBackground — Cursor background color. If not specified, defaults to the foreground color.
• CursorForeground — Cursor foreground color.
• TitlebarBackground — Titlebar background color. Defaults to a shaded version of the background.
• TitlebarForeground — Titlebar foreground color. Defaults to a shaded version of the foreground.
• BellForeground — Visual bell foreground color. Defaults to the titlebar foreground color.
• BellBackground — Visual bell background color. Defaults to a mix of Color11 and titlebar background.
• SuperuserForeground — Foreground color when running as superuser. Defaults to a shaded version of the titlebar foreground.
• SuperuserBackground — Background color when running as superuser. Defaults to a mix of Color1 and the background.
• RemoteForeground — Foreground color when connected remotely. Defaults to a shaded version of the titlebar foreground.
• RemoteBackground — Background color when connected remotely. Defaults to a mix of Color12 and the background.

All color values must be specified in hexadecimal format, either as #RRGGBB or #RRGGBBAA (with optional alpha channel). For example: #ffffff (white) or #000000ff (black with full opacity).

Example palette file:

[Palette]
Name=My Custom Palette

[Light]
Foreground=#000000
Background=#ffffff
Color0=#000000
Color1=#cc0000
Color2=#00cc00
Color3=#cccc00
Color4=#0000cc
Color5=#cc00cc
Color6=#00cccc
Color7=#cccccc
Color8=#808080
Color9=#ff0000
Color10=#00ff00
Color11=#ffff00
Color12=#0000ff
Color13=#ff00ff
Color14=#00ffff
Color15=#ffffff

[Dark]
Foreground=#ffffff
Background=#000000
Color0=#000000
Color1=#cc0000
Color2=#00cc00
Color3=#cccc00
Color4=#0000cc
Color5=#cc00cc
Color6=#00cccc
Color7=#cccccc
Color8=#808080
Color9=#ff0000
Color10=#00ff00
Color11=#ffff00
Color12=#0000ff
Color13=#ff00ff
Color14=#00ffff
Color15=#ffffff

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

For further information, visit the website https://gitlab.gnome.org/chergert/ptyxis/

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👑 BUGS 👑

Bug reports can be found and filed at https://gitlab.gnome.org/chergert/ptyxis/issues 🐛

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and that's the whole page bestie, you ate 💅✨

signing off with love from the Ptyxis(1) manual page, dated 16 January 2026 — go forth and containerize, main character 🎀🫶