Uninstall Ghostty on Mac
Back up ~/.config/ghostty/config before removing Ghostty if you have customized it; a fresh install starts from Ghostty's defaults. Ghostty has no account and nothing to sign out of, so removal is just the app and its local files. These steps cover the official download and the Homebrew cask ghostty, which installs the same app.
Quit Ghostty and remove the app
Ghostty runs no background helper or login item; quitting the window quits the app. From the app menu choose Quit Ghostty, then move Ghostty from Applications to the Trash. If Ghostty still shows in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions after removal, that is a leftover record of an app that once ran, not a sign it is still running; turn it off there if you want it gone.
Where Ghostty keeps its files
Ghostty reads its config from two places on macOS and loads both if they exist: the XDG path and a macOS Application Support path. Ghostty's configuration docs cover the full syntax.
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
~/.config/ghostty/config (or config.ghostty) |
Your config file, if you created one here | Back it up before removing the app |
~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config |
The same config, if you created one here instead | Back it up before removing the app |
~/Library/Caches/com.mitchellh.ghostty |
Regenerable cache | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Preferences/com.mitchellh.ghostty.plist |
App preferences | Safe to remove |
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.mitchellh.ghostty.savedState |
Saved window state | Safe to remove |
~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.mitchellh.ghostty, ~/Library/WebKit/com.mitchellh.ghostty |
Embedded web data (used by in-app help/UI panels) | Safe to remove |
~/.cache/ghostty |
An alternate XDG cache path some builds use | Safe to remove if present |
Ghostty's man pages, shell completions (bash, fish, zsh) and CLI (ghostty) ship inside Ghostty.app/Contents/Resources, so removing the app removes them too; there is nothing to uninstall separately in /usr/local or /opt/homebrew.
Shell integration
Ghostty's shell integration for zsh, fish, and Nushell is automatic and does not write files into your home directory: it works by pointing environment variables at scripts inside the app bundle for the duration of the Ghostty session, so quitting or removing the app leaves nothing behind in your shell startup files. Bash is the exception on macOS, because Apple ships an old Bash that cannot load Ghostty's integration automatically; if you added the documented manual source line to your own .bashrc for Bash support, remove that line yourself after uninstalling. Shell integration reference
Check the result
Run these read-only commands in another terminal app:
pgrep -il ghostty
launchctl list | grep -i mitchellh
ls -d ~/.config/ghostty ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty
No output from pgrep means Ghostty has quit. No output from launchctl list means Ghostty has no background job loaded, which is expected: it never registers one. The ls command shows which of the two config locations still exist; No such file or directory for both means you never created a config, or already removed it.
If you installed it with Homebrew
The next Mole update will skip --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked. Mole will still clean the leftovers you selected. Preview 290 does not include this protection.
The ghostty cask has no uninstall quit: stanza, so brew uninstall --cask does not quit Ghostty for you; quit it first. Mole Preview 290 removes a Homebrew-installed Ghostty with brew uninstall --cask --zap ghostty, and the zap list covers every path in the table above (~/.cache/ghostty, ~/.config/ghostty, and the com.mitchellh.ghostty Application Support, Caches, Preferences, Saved Application State, HTTPStorages and WebKit entries), so it removes your config along with the app whatever you tick in Mole. Back up ~/.config/ghostty/config first, or run without zap to keep everything but the app itself:
brew uninstall --cask ghostty
In the recorded test, the zap step found only a 42-byte, already-empty preferences file; the test Mac had never created ~/.config/ghostty, so nothing else was lost. Ghostty Homebrew cask
What Mole lists
This describes Mole 1.15 (currently in Preview) for a Ghostty installed from the official download:
~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty,~/Library/Caches/com.mitchellh.ghostty, thecom.mitchellh.ghosttypreferences file, saved window state, HTTPStorages and WebKit data are all listed and selected by default (Mole treats them the same as any other app's owned data).~/.config/ghosttyis a plain dotfile path outside~/Library; Mole's uninstall list does not reach into~/.config, so back it up yourself before removing the app if you used this location.
For a Homebrew install, Mole Preview 290 runs brew uninstall --cask --zap ghostty, and the zap step removes ~/.config/ghostty regardless of what you select.
What this test covered
Ghostty was installed from Homebrew (installed since March 2026 on the test Mac) and uninstalled with a development build of Mole on September 18, 2026, at the maintainer's request. The completion screen reported no remnants for Ghostty: the app had almost no data on disk, ~/.config/ghostty had never been created, and the Homebrew cask receipt was cleared. A login item ghost for com.mitchellh.ghostty remained in System Settings after removal, the same harmless BTM record other removed apps leave behind; Mole does not delete that record. The official direct download was not uninstalled in this test.