Download · Website · Features · Arabic · العربية · Configure
Najm (Arabic for star, نجم) is a free, open-source, native Windows terminal emulator built on Ghostty's terminal core. It draws on the GPU, opens in tabs and splits, and restores your session. It runs PowerShell, Command Prompt, Git Bash and WSL with no setup.
Looking for Ghostty on Windows or a Windows Terminal alternative? Najm reads Ghostty's config syntax and installs beside Windows Terminal. If it works for you, a star helps other people find it.
Najm is a fork of Noctty, which brought Ghostty to Windows. We follow Noctty closely and ship our own fixes on top, without waiting for them to be merged.
- It is fast. Ghostty's VT core draws through OpenGL, capped to your refresh rate so it does not burn battery. Where OpenGL is missing, such as Remote Desktop or a VM without 3D acceleration, a Direct3D 11 renderer (beta) takes over.
- It is a native Win32 app, with real tabs, splits, context menus, per-monitor DPI, IME input, jump lists and toasts.
- One line in your config makes
Ctrl+Vpaste the way Windows Terminal does: text, the paths of files copied in Explorer, and images, so tools like Claude Code and opencode can attach screenshots. - It sends no telemetry. Its only network call is the update check against this repo's releases, and you can turn that off.
| Tabs and splits | Ctrl+Shift+T for a new tab, Ctrl+Shift+\ and Ctrl+Shift+E to split, Alt+Arrow to move between panes |
| Session restore | Windows, tabs, splits and working directories come back after a restart |
| Command palette | Ctrl+Shift+P reaches every action by name |
| Shell picker | Finds PowerShell 7, Windows PowerShell, cmd, Git Bash and every WSL distro |
| Explorer menu | "Open Najm here" on any folder, or the empty space inside one |
| Themes | Hundreds built in: najm +list-themes |
| Graphics | Kitty graphics protocol and inline images |
| Keyboard | Kitty keyboard protocol, with left/right modifiers and key release events |
| Shell integration | Prompt marks, jump to the previous or next command, and a toast when a command finishes |
| Clipboard | Bracketed paste, OSC 52, copied files paste as paths, and an empty paste for image-aware apps |
| Updates | Built-in, signed and checksum-verified, from this repository's releases |
Requirements: Windows 10 version 1809 or later, or Windows 11, on x64. The default renderer needs a GPU driver with OpenGL 4.3. Najm switches to its Direct3D 11 renderer when OpenGL is not available.
- Download
najm-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exefrom the latest release. - Run it. Najm signs its builds with its own certificate, which Windows does not know yet, so SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC" the first time. Click More info, then Run anyway.
- Open Najm from the Start menu.
Prefer no installer? The same release has a portable ZIP: unzip it anywhere and run najm.exe.
Check the download first
Hash the file and compare the result with its line in SHA256SUMS-windows-x64.txt from the same
release:
Get-FileHash .\najm-1.0.0-windows-x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256The installer and every program file in it are signed by CN=Najm Code Signing (thumbprint
26D9DB30682A45008C05E08729B7CC9016D492FB). The in-app updater refuses anything signed by
another key.
Najm reads %LOCALAPPDATA%\najm\config.ghostty. It uses the same syntax as Ghostty, so most
Ghostty options and themes work as they are. Open it with:
notepad "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\najm\config.ghostty"A good start:
font-family = JetBrains Mono
font-size = 12
theme = Dracula
command = pwsh
# Ctrl+V pastes text, copied files and images, as in Windows Terminal
keybind = performable:ctrl+v=paste_from_clipboardPress Ctrl+Shift+, to reload. najm +show-config --default --docs lists every option.
Arabic and Hebrew read right to left in command output and at the prompt, with joined letters, and
the cursor, selection, search and links follow what you see. A line that starts with Arabic or
Hebrew aligns right; one that starts with Latin stays left, and any Arabic inside it still reads
correctly. Set bidi = false to turn this off.
Limits: full-screen apps keep every column where they put it, because they place every cell themselves. Claude Code on Windows reverses its own Arabic for this, so it reads correctly with joined letters; an app that writes Arabic in typing order, such as vim, reads backwards. The line you are composing with an IME stays in typing order until you commit it. Lam-alef is one form in two cells, so a blank cell sits on its left.
The default terminal fonts have no Arabic, so Windows draws it in Segoe UI, a proportional font that sits unevenly in the cell grid. Map the Arabic blocks to a monospace font that has them:
font-codepoint-map = U+0600-U+06FF,U+0750-U+077F,U+08A0-U+08FF,U+FB50-U+FDFF,U+FE70-U+FEFF=Cascadia Code NFThe copy of Cascadia Code that ships with Windows has no Arabic. Install the current release from
microsoft/cascadia-code, which has.
najm +show-face --string="مرحبا" shows which font each letter comes from. The
Arabic text guide has more.
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| Copy / paste | Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+V (or Ctrl+V with the line above) |
| New tab / close tab | Ctrl+Shift+T / Ctrl+Shift+W |
| Split right / down | Ctrl+Shift+\ / Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Move between panes | Alt+Arrow |
| Go to tab 1 to 8 / last tab | Alt+1 to Alt+8 / Alt+9 |
| Command palette | Ctrl+Shift+P |
| Find | Ctrl+Shift+F |
| Font size | Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- |
| Reload config | Ctrl+Shift+, |
najm +list-keybinds prints the full set.
You need Zig 0.15.2, Visual Studio 2022 (or Build Tools) with the MSVC toolchain, and Git for Windows.
scripts\dev-windows.cmd zig build -Demit-exe=true -Doptimize=ReleaseFastThe binary lands in zig-out\bin\najm.exe. Run the tests with
zig build test -Demit-test-exe=true --summary all.
Ghostty (terminal core, macOS and Linux)
└── Noctty (Ghostty's core in a native Windows app)
└── Najm (Noctty plus our fixes, our name, our releases)
Najm merges Noctty regularly with scripts/najm-sync.ps1 and keeps its own changes small: the
name, the icon, the update feed, and fixes we ship before they land upstream. Fixes that help
everyone go back to Noctty as pull requests too. SYNCING.md has the details.
Najm is not affiliated with the Ghostty or Noctty projects.
MIT, as Ghostty and Noctty are. Copyright © 2024 Mitchell Hashimoto, Ghostty contributors; Noctty's Windows work © Aman Thanvi and contributors; Najm's changes © Mohamed Gado. See LICENSE.