Alacritty
Alacritty is a cross-platform terminal emulator for macOS and other systems, built to run shell and command-line workflows with fast rendering.
What is Alacritty?
Alacritty is a terminal emulator for people who work in the command line on macOS, Linux, BSD, and Windows. It helps developers, system administrators, and technical users open local shells, run scripts, manage servers, and use text-based tools in a dedicated desktop terminal window. The app focuses on fast rendering, straightforward behavior, and configuration through a text file rather than a large built-in settings interface. On macOS, it supports standard window and tab workflows, text search in scrollback, copy and paste, and keyboard-driven navigation features such as Vi Mode. It is commonly used as an alternative to Terminal or iTerm2 by users who want a lightweight, configurable terminal for programming and shell-based work.
Key features
- Open terminal windows and tabs for local shell sessions
- Run command-line tools, scripts, and development workflows
- Search text in the scrollback buffer
- Navigate and select terminal output with Vi Mode
- Use keyboard shortcuts for tab, window, and font controls
- Configure behavior, appearance, and key bindings with a text-based config file
Review app leftovers with diCleaner
Inspect caches, support files, containers, and login items before cleaning.
Safety overview
Status: Safe
Alacritty is legitimate terminal software. It can access any files, commands, and remote systems that you choose to use from inside the terminal, so its impact depends largely on what you run there. That level of access is normal for a terminal emulator. Use the same caution you would with any shell app: review commands before pasting or running them, especially ones from websites or chats.
Recommendation: Keep Alacritty if you use Terminal-style command-line tools, development environments, or remote shell workflows. Remove it if you no longer use it, but expect to lose its saved preferences and any setup built around it until you reinstall.
Common paths
/Applications/Alacritty.app
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/org.alacritty.plist
Share your experience
Be the first to share your experience.