Choosing a Terminal
Series: first-crossing · Part 1
The archipelago has no launcher, no installer, no client app to download. What you need is a terminal — the same kind of program developers use to talk to remote machines. Your operating system already has one, but the built-in terminals are rarely the ones you want to live in.
A good terminal is sharp, fast, renders Unicode glyphs correctly, and stays out of your way. It should draw box characters without gaps. It should handle colour without smearing. It should not lag when you type.
Recommended: Ghostty
Ghostty is a modern GPU-accelerated terminal built by Mitchell Hashimoto. It is free, open source, and native on macOS and Linux. It ships with sensible defaults, fast rendering, and good font handling — all the things that matter when your entire world is text.
Install it:
- macOS: Download from ghostty.org, or
brew install --cask ghostty - Linux: Build from source or use a distro package — see ghostty.org/docs/install
- Windows: Not yet supported. Use an alternative below.
Alternatives
Any of these will serve you well. Pick the one that fits your machine.
| Terminal | Platform | Why |
|---|---|---|
| WezTerm | macOS, Linux, Windows | Cross-platform, GPU-accelerated, scriptable in Lua |
| Kitty | macOS, Linux | Fast, minimal, excellent image and Unicode support |
| Alacritty | macOS, Linux, Windows | Minimal, fast, no tabs (by design) |
| iTerm2 | macOS | Mature, feature-rich, the default for many Mac users |
| Windows Terminal | Windows | The modern default on Windows — use this over cmd.exe |
Avoid: the Windows built-in cmd.exe, the macOS Terminal.app (fine but dated), and anything that bundles ads or telemetry.
Font
Pick a monospace font with good Unicode coverage. The archipelago renders box-drawing characters (┌┐└┘├┤), weather glyphs (◈ ○ ⌂), and the occasional dingbat. A font that draws these cleanly makes the difference between a map and a mess.
Good choices:
- JetBrains Mono — excellent coverage, free
- Fira Code — ligatures if you want them
- Berkeley Mono — paid, worth it
- IBM Plex Mono — clean, free
Configure your terminal to use it at 13–15 points. Your eyes will thank you after a long session.
What to expect
Open your new terminal. You will see a prompt — a dollar sign ($), a percent sign (%), or something similar, followed by a blinking cursor. This is where you type commands. You are not lost. You are at the threshold.
The next guide walks through generating the SSH key that will be your identity in the archipelago. Keep the terminal open.