The Kitty terminal emulator has introduced version 0.46, featuring smooth pixel-based scrolling and improved tab management. Released on March 11, 2026, the update brings momentum scrolling for Linux touchpads and mouse-based resizing of terminal splits. These changes aim to enhance user experience across various platforms.
The Kitty GPU-accelerated terminal emulator reached version 0.46 on March 11, 2026, as announced by its developers. This release focuses on long-requested usability improvements, starting with pixel-based scrolling in the scrollback buffer. Unlike previous line-by-line jumps, this allows for smoother movement at the pixel level, creating a more fluid interaction.
For Linux users, the update adds momentum scrolling on touchpads and touchscreens, where the buffer continues to move naturally after a gesture. On X11 systems, it now supports high-resolution scroll events from modern touchpads. Tab management sees significant upgrades: users can drag tabs in the tab bar to reorder them, move tabs to another Kitty OS window, or detach them to form a new window.
Window handling has been refined, enabling mouse-based resizing of terminal splits by dragging borders. This works across different layout modes and includes a new configuration option, window_drag_tolerance, for customization. Additionally, a command palette has been introduced, allowing users to browse and activate both mapped and unmapped actions centrally, without relying on memorized keybindings.
Other enhancements include configurable titles for individual Kitty windows via a title bar. The kitty.conf file now supports OKLCH and LAB color spaces. On Wayland, background blur extension is added, while macOS gains Apple dictation input and various stability improvements.
The release also addresses several bugs from prior versions, such as tab bar rendering issues, ncurses compatibility problems, emoji alignment on Linux, session handling errors, and key repeat glitches under Wayland compositors. Full details are available in the official release notes.
