/jump to repo

Repos Recent Bookmarks Watched Notes Tags Discover Compare Stats GitHub

Repository brief

kovidgoyal/kitty

Read the upstream summary on the left, browse the cached forks below it, and load each fork comparison into the right-hand panel.

Cached analysis

cached 2026-03-30T15:54:52.520Z

1mo ago

kovidgoyal/kitty

kitty is a cross-platform, GPU-based terminal emulator focused on speed and features. It is highly active, widely adopted, and has a large fork ecosystem, which makes it a strong candidate if you are interested in upstream-adjacent experimentation or feature-specific forks.

Loading tags...

Stars32,098

Forks1,326

Default branchmaster

Last pushed2026-03-30T11:40:13Z

Recommended shortcuts

Jump straight into Discofork's strongest cached fork picks, or open a compare view in one click.

Forks

Choose a fork to inspect

10 of 10 fork briefs

Maintenance:

Magnitude:

Sort:

Selected

Choose this fork only if you specifically want its experimental terminal internals or performance work. If you want a stable, current kitty, upstream is the better choice.

Choose this fork only if you need its specialized terminal-data and low-level behavior changes. For most users, upstream kitty is the safer default because this fork is stale and materially behind current fixes.

Choose this fork only if you want an essentially unmodified kitty snapshot. If you want a fork that adds capabilities or tracks upstream improvements, this is not a strong adoption candidate.

Choose this fork only if its custom terminal/window behavior is exactly what you need; otherwise upstream kitty is the safer choice because this fork is stale and substantially behind.

Prefer this fork only if its added launch/overlay behavior is exactly what you need and you are comfortable owning a stale, heavily diverged codebase. If you want current kitty fixes, platform polish, and lower maintenance risk, upstream is the better default.

Choose this fork only if its specific 2021-era behavior and added remote-control/text-handling options are the goal. For most adopters, upstream kitty is the safer choice because this fork is heavily behind and likely missing many newer fixes and improvements.

Choose this fork only if its macOS-specific UI behavior is exactly what you want and you are comfortable living with a very stale, heavily diverged codebase. For most users, upstream kitty is the safer default because it is much more current and actively maintained.

Choose this fork only if one of its local workflow changes is specifically valuable to you. For most users, upstream kitty is the safer choice because this fork is materially stale and likely missing a large amount of later bug fixing and polish.

Prefer this fork only if its selection, mouse, or Unicode/text-layout changes solve a concrete problem you have. For most users, upstream kitty is the safer choice because this fork is substantially behind and likely to diverge in behavior and maintenance quality.

Prefer this fork only if its Unicode and terminal-text changes are exactly what you need. For most users, upstream kitty is the better choice because this fork is old, far behind, and likely missing many recent fixes and maintenance updates.

Fork comparison

mamkin-skuf/kitty

38/100

stale

significant_divergence

Choose this fork only if you specifically want its experimental terminal internals or performance work. If you want a stable, current kitty, upstream is the better choice.

Likely purpose

A fork for experimenting with terminal internals and UI behavior, especially Unicode width/grapheme handling, performance tuning, and window/event behavior.

Best for

Developers researching terminal internals or Unicode width handling.; Users who need a fork to prototype performance or VT-engine changes.; Adopters willing to trade upstream freshness for experimental behavior changes.

Additional features

Reworked Unicode and text-width data and tooling, including grapheme break and `wcswidth`-related assets.
Early work on a VT line buffer and VT implementation in Go, suggesting a deeper engine refactor.
Launch/window behavior changes, including decoupling source and destination windows from the active window.
Event and input handling tweaks such as storing event positions and cleaning up bar click handling.
Platform-specific window code changes on X11 and macOS.
Performance micro-optimizations and regression fixes around rendering and input behavior.

Missing features

Much older than upstream, so many recent kitty fixes and features are likely absent.
A large amount of upstream work is missing or lagging, making it a poor choice if you want current kitty behavior and compatibility.
Potentially reduced stability around Unicode handling because the fork replaces core width and grapheme-related data and tests.
Upstream packaging, documentation, and maintenance cadence are not reflected here; this fork appears much less actively maintained.
It trails upstream by 659 commits, so some recent upstream features and fixes are likely not present yet.

Strengths

Interesting if you want to explore terminal internals or custom Unicode/text-layout behavior.
Contains concrete performance and input/window behavior work beyond a simple rebasing fork.
May be useful as a codebase for experimentation with Go-based VT work.

Risks

High divergence from upstream makes merges and upgrades expensive.
Staleness suggests bugs fixed upstream may still exist here.
Core text rendering and Unicode behavior are high-risk areas for regressions.
Hard to trust for production use without reviewing the fork's exact changes and test coverage.