console-cowboy

Hop terminals like you hop Linux distributions.

Console Cowboy is a CLI tool for making terminal configurations portable across different terminal emulators. Export your settings from one terminal and import them into another.

Features

• Portable Configuration Format: Uses CTEC (Common Terminal Emulator Configuration) as an intermediate representation
• Multiple Terminal Support: Import and export configurations for:
  • iTerm2
  • Ghostty
  • Alacritty
  • Kitty
  • Wezterm
  • Terminal.app (macOS)
  • VS Code (integrated terminal)
• Automatic Format Detection: Detects terminal config formats automatically from file contents
• Smart Path Resolution: Use terminal names to read/write to default config locations
• iTerm2-Color-Schemes Compatible: Color schemes use the same YAML format as the popular iTerm2-Color-Schemes project
• Quick Terminal Support: Migrate quake-style dropdown terminal settings between iTerm2, Ghostty, and Kitty
• Stdin/Stdout Support: Pipe configs through shell pipelines
• Incompatibility Reporting: Clearly reports which settings cannot be converted between terminals
• Terminal-Specific Settings: Preserves terminal-specific settings that don't have equivalents in other terminals

Installation

Install using uv (recommended):

uv tool install console-cowboy

Or with pip:

pip install console-cowboy

Or with pipx for isolated installation:

pipx install console-cowboy

Quick Start

Convert between terminals

# Convert iTerm2 settings directly to Ghostty config
console-cowboy --from iterm2 --to ghostty

# Convert from a specific file to a terminal's default location
console-cowboy --from ~/path/to/config --to ghostty

# Convert between specific files
console-cowboy --from config.lua --from-type wezterm --to config.toml --to-type alacritty

Export to portable CTEC format

# Export iTerm2 config to CTEC (outputs to stdout)
console-cowboy --from iterm2

# Export to a file
console-cowboy export --from kitty --to my-config.yaml

# Export a specific iTerm2 profile
console-cowboy export --from iterm2 --profile "Development"

Import from CTEC format

# Import CTEC to a terminal's default location
console-cowboy import --from my-config.yaml --to ghostty

# Import to a specific file
console-cowboy import --from my-config.yaml --to ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml --to-type alacritty

# Preview import without saving (output to stdout)
console-cowboy import --from my-config.yaml --to-type wezterm

Use with pipes

# Pipe between commands
console-cowboy --from iterm2 | console-cowboy import --from - --to ghostty

# Read from stdin
cat my-config.yaml | console-cowboy --from - --from-type ctec --to-type kitty

CLI Reference

Console Cowboy uses --from and --to flags for all operations. The implicit command is conversion; explicit export, import, and convert commands are also available.

Default Command (Convert)

console-cowboy [--from SOURCE] [--from-type TYPE] [--to DEST] [--to-type TYPE] [--profile NAME] [--quiet]

The --from and --to arguments accept:

• Terminal name: iterm2, ghostty, alacritty, kitty, wezterm, vscode, terminal_app - reads from/writes to the terminal's default config location
• File path: Path to a config file
• -: Read from stdin / write to stdout

Type detection:

• If a terminal name is given, that format is used
• If a file path is given, the format is auto-detected from content
• Use --from-type or --to-type to override: ctec or a terminal name

Behavior:

• --from without --to: Outputs CTEC to stdout
• --from with --to: Converts and writes to destination
• --to-type without --to: Outputs that format to stdout

Options:

• --from: Source (terminal name, file path, or - for stdin)
• --from-type: Explicit source type (ctec or terminal name)
• --to: Destination (terminal name, file path, or - for stdout)
• --to-type: Explicit destination type (ctec or terminal name)
• --profile: Profile name (iTerm2/Terminal.app only)
• --quiet: Suppress warnings and informational output

export

Export a terminal's configuration to CTEC format (always YAML).

console-cowboy export --from SOURCE [--from-type TYPE] [--to OUTPUT] [--profile NAME] [--quiet]

Options:

• --from: Source terminal or config file (required)
• --from-type: Explicit source type (terminal name)
• --to: Output file (defaults to stdout)
• --profile: Profile name (iTerm2/Terminal.app only)
• --quiet: Suppress warnings

import

Import a CTEC configuration into a terminal's native format.

console-cowboy import --from CTEC_FILE [--to DEST] [--to-type TYPE] [--quiet]

Options:

• --from: CTEC file path or - for stdin (required)
• --to: Destination terminal or file
• --to-type: Explicit destination type (terminal name, required if --to is a file)
• --quiet: Suppress warnings

convert

Convert directly between terminal configuration formats.

console-cowboy convert --from SOURCE --to DEST [--from-type TYPE] [--to-type TYPE] [--profile NAME] [--quiet]

Options:

• --from: Source terminal or config file (required)
• --to: Destination terminal or file (required)
• --from-type: Explicit source type
• --to-type: Explicit destination type
• --profile: Profile name (iTerm2/Terminal.app source only)
• --quiet: Suppress warnings

list

List all supported terminal emulators.

console-cowboy list

info

Display information about a configuration file.

console-cowboy info --from SOURCE [--from-type TYPE]

Example Workflows

Migrate from iTerm2 to Ghostty

# Direct conversion to Ghostty's default config location
console-cowboy --from iterm2 --to ghostty

Backup your terminal config

# Export to a portable format
console-cowboy export --from ghostty --to ~/backups/terminal-config.yaml

Test a config on another terminal

# Preview how your config would look in Kitty
console-cowboy --from ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml --to-type kitty

# Or pipe it for processing
console-cowboy --from wezterm | less

Use in scripts

# Convert multiple terminals in a script
for terminal in ghostty alacritty kitty; do
  console-cowboy --from iterm2 --to-type $terminal > ~/configs/$terminal-config
done

CTEC Format

The Common Terminal Emulator Configuration (CTEC) format is a portable YAML representation of terminal settings. It captures:

Color Scheme

• Foreground and background colors
• Cursor and selection colors
• Full 16-color ANSI palette (normal and bright variants)

Font Configuration

• Font family, size, and line height
• Bold and italic font variants
• Ligature support

Cursor Configuration

• Style (block, beam, underline)
• Blink behavior and interval

Window Configuration

• Initial dimensions (columns/rows)
• Opacity and blur effects
• Padding and decorations
• Startup mode

Behavior Configuration

• Default shell
• Scrollback buffer size
• Bell mode (audible, visual, none)
• Copy-on-select behavior

Key Bindings

• Keyboard shortcuts with modifiers

Terminal-Specific Settings

Settings that cannot be mapped to common CTEC fields are preserved in a terminal_specific section, allowing them to be restored when converting back to the same terminal.

Example CTEC File

version: "1.0"
source_terminal: ghostty

color_scheme:
  name: Tomorrow Night
  foreground: "#c5c8c6"
  background: "#1d1f21"
  cursor: "#c5c8c6"
  black: "#1d1f21"
  red: "#cc6666"
  green: "#b5bd68"
  yellow: "#f0c674"
  blue: "#81a2be"
  magenta: "#b294bb"
  cyan: "#8abeb7"
  white: "#c5c8c6"

font:
  family: JetBrains Mono
  size: 14.0
  ligatures: true

cursor:
  style: block
  blink: true
  blink_interval: 500

window:
  columns: 120
  rows: 40
  opacity: 0.95

behavior:
  shell: /bin/zsh
  bell_mode: visual

scroll:
  lines: 10000

key_bindings:
  - action: Copy
    key: c
    mods:
      - ctrl
      - shift

Supported Terminals

Terminal	Config Format	Import	Export	Quick Terminal
iTerm2	plist XML	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ghostty	key=value	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alacritty	TOML/YAML	Yes	Yes	No
Kitty	key value	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wezterm	Lua	Yes	Yes	No
VS Code	JSON	Yes	Yes	No
Terminal.app	plist XML	Yes	Yes	No

Default Config Locations

• iTerm2: ~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist
• Ghostty: ~/.config/ghostty/config
• Alacritty: ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml or .yml
• Kitty: ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf
• Wezterm: ~/.wezterm.lua or ~/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua
• VS Code: ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json (macOS) or ~/.config/Code/User/settings.json (Linux)
• Terminal.app: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist

Compatibility Notes

Not all settings can be perfectly converted between terminals:

1. Color Formats: All terminals use slightly different color representations. Console Cowboy normalizes to hex colors (e.g., #c5c8c6) compatible with the iTerm2-Color-Schemes format.

2. Font Handling: Font names may need adjustment depending on how each terminal resolves fonts.

3. Key Bindings: Different terminals have different action names and modifier key representations. Key bindings are converted on a best-effort basis.

4. Wezterm Lua: Wezterm uses Lua for configuration. Console Cowboy can parse common patterns but complex Lua configurations may not be fully captured.

5. Terminal-Specific Features: Features unique to one terminal (like iTerm2's "Unlimited Scrollback" or Kitty's remote control) are preserved but only work when converting back to the same terminal.

6. Terminal.app NSKeyedArchiver: Terminal.app uses Apple's NSKeyedArchiver format for colors and fonts. Console Cowboy can parse this format, but for best accuracy on macOS, installing PyObjC (uv pip install pyobjc-framework-Cocoa) is recommended.

7. Quick Terminal / Hotkey Window: Quake-style dropdown terminal settings can be migrated between iTerm2, Ghostty, and Kitty. Alacritty, Wezterm, and VS Code don't have native quick terminal support.

8. VS Code: VS Code's integrated terminal has limited customization compared to dedicated terminal emulators. Only colors, fonts, cursor, and basic behavior settings are supported.

Console Cowboy will report any incompatibilities or settings that couldn't be converted.

Development

To contribute to this tool, first checkout the code:

git clone https://github.com/zetlen/console-cowboy
cd console-cowboy

Install dependencies with uv (recommended):

uv sync --all-extras

Run the tests:

uv run pytest

Run tests with coverage:

uv run pytest --cov=console_cowboy

Run the CLI during development:

uv run console-cowboy --help

License

Apache 2.0

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Repo's open.

Adding Support for New Terminals

1. Create a new adapter in console_cowboy/terminals/
2. Inherit from TerminalAdapter
3. Implement parse() and export() methods
4. Register the adapter in console_cowboy/terminals/__init__.py
5. Add test fixtures and tests