Options - kitty
Description: Launch an arbitrary program in a new kitty window/tab. Note that if you specify a program-to-run you can use the special placeholder@selection which will be replaced by the current selection.

Hide navigation sidebar
Hide table of contents sidebar
Back to top
Toggle table of contents sidebar

    launch [options] [program-to-run ...]

Launch an arbitrary program in a new kitty window/tab. Note that if you specify a program-to-run you can use the special placeholder `@selection` which will be replaced by the current selection.

# Options

--title <WINDOW_TITLE>, --window-title <WINDOW_TITLE>

  The title to set for the new window. By default, title is controlled by the child process.

--tab-title <TAB_TITLE>

  The title for the new tab if launching in a new tab. By default, the title of the active window in the tab is used as the tab title.

--type <TYPE>

  Where to launch the child process, in a new kitty window in the current tab, a new tab, or a new OS window or an overlay over the current window. Note that if the current window already has an overlay, then it will open a new window. The value of background means the process will be run in the background. The values clipboard and primary are meant to work with `launch --stdin-source` to copy data to the system clipboard or primary selection. Default: `window` Choices: `background`, `clipboard`, `os-window`, `overlay`, `primary`, `tab`, `window`

--dont-take-focus, --keep-focus

  Keep the focus on the currently active window instead of switching to the newly opened window.

--cwd <CWD>

  The working directory for the newly launched child. Use the special value `current` to use the working directory of the currently active window.

--env <ENV>

  Environment variables to set in the child process. Can be specified multiple times to set different environment variables. Syntax: `name=value`. Using `name=` will set to empty string and just `name` will remove the environment variable.

--hold

  Keep the window open even after the command being executed exits.

--copy-colors

  Set the colors of the newly created window to be the same as the colors in the currently active window.

--copy-cmdline

  Ignore any specified command line and instead use the command line from the currently active window.

--copy-env

  Copy the environment variables from the currently active window into the newly launched child process. Note that most shells only set environment variables for child processes, so this will only copy the environment variables that the shell process itself has not the environment variables child processes inside the shell see. To copy that enviroment, use the kitty remote control feature with `kitty @launch --copy-env`.

--location <LOCATION>

  Where to place the newly created window when it is added to a tab which already has existing windows in it. `after` and `before` place the new window before or after the active window. `neighbor` is a synonym for `after`. Also applies to creating a new tab, where the value of `after` will cause the new tab to be placed next to the current tab instead of at the end. The values of `vsplit`, `hsplit` and `split` are only used by the `splits` layout and control if the new window is placed in a vertical, horizontal or automatic split with the currently active window. The default is to place the window in a layout dependent manner, typically, after the currently active window. Default: `default` Choices: `after`, `before`, `default`, `first`, `hsplit`, `last`, `neighbor`, `split`, `vsplit`

--allow-remote-control

  Programs running in this window can control kitty (if remote control is enabled). Note that any program with the right level of permissions can still write to the pipes of any other program on the same computer and therefore can control kitty. It can, however, be useful to block programs running on other computers (for example, over ssh) or as other users.

--stdin-source <STDIN_SOURCE>

  Pass the screen contents as `STDIN` to the child process. `@selection` is the currently selected text. `@screen` is the contents of the currently active window. `@screen_scrollback` is the same as `@screen`, but includes the scrollback buffer as well. `@alternate` is the secondary screen of the current active window. For example if you run a full screen terminal application, the secondary screen will be the screen you return to when quitting the application. `@first_cmd_output_on_screen` is the output from the first command run in the shell on screen, `@last_cmd_output` is the output from the last command run in the shell, `@last_visited_cmd_output` is the first output below the last scrolled position via scroll_to_prompt, this three needs Shell integration to work. Default: `none` Choices: `@alternate`, `@alternate_scrollback`, `@first_cmd_output_on_screen`, `@last_cmd_output`, `@last_visited_cmd_output`, `@screen`, `@screen_scrollback`, `@selection`, `none`

--stdin-add-formatting

  When using `launch --stdin-source` add formatting escape codes, without this only plain text will be sent.

--stdin-add-line-wrap-markers

  When using `launch --stdin-source` add a carriage return at every line wrap location (where long lines are wrapped at screen edges). This is useful if you want to pipe to program that wants to duplicate the screen layout of the screen.

--marker <MARKER>

  Create a marker that highlights text in the newly created window. The syntax is the same as for the `toggle_marker` map action (see Mark text on screen).

--os-window-class <OS_WINDOW_CLASS>

  Set the WM_CLASS property on X11 and the application id property on Wayland for the newly created OS Window when using `launch --type``=os-window`. Defaults to whatever is used by the parent kitty process, which in turn defaults to `kitty`.

--os-window-name <OS_WINDOW_NAME>

  Set the WM_NAME property on X11 for the newly created OS Window when using `launch --type``=os-window`. Defaults to `launch --os-window-class`.

--os-window-title <OS_WINDOW_TITLE>

  Set the title for the newly created OS window. This title will override any titles set by programs running in kitty.

--logo <LOGO>

  Path to a PNG image to use as the logo for the newly created window. See `window_logo_path`.

--logo-position <LOGO_POSITION>

  The position for the window logo. Only takes effect if `--logo` is specified. See `window_logo_position`.

--logo-alpha <LOGO_ALPHA>

  The amount the window logo should be faded into the background. Only takes effect if `--logo` is specified. See `window_logo_position`. Default: `-1`

--color <COLOR>

  Change colors in the newly launched window. You can either specify a path to a .conf file with the same syntax as kitty.conf to read the colors from, or specify them individually, for example: `--color background=white` `--color foreground=red`

--watcher <WATCHER>, -w <WATCHER>

  Path to a python file. Appropriately named functions in this file will be called for various events, such as when the window is resized, focused or closed. See the section on watchers in the launch command documentation: Watching launched windows. Relative paths are resolved relative to the kitty config directory. Global watchers for all windows can be specified with `watcher`.