Windows Basics

Windows in kitty are like terminal splits inside a single tab. Each window runs an independent shell process, and you can arrange them side by side or in a grid.

Learning Focus

Use this lesson to get comfortable creating, navigating, and resizing windows for efficient multi-tool workflows.

Creating Windows

# from inside kitty
Ctrl+Shift+Enter        → New window (vertical split — side by side)
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Enter    → New window (horizontal split — top/bottom)

# from the command line
kitty @ new-window
kitty @ new-window --cwd /var/log
kitty @ new-window --cwd /etc --title "config"

Window Splits Visual

Vertical split (Ctrl+Shift+Enter):

  ┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
  │                     │                     │
  │    Window 0         │    Window 1         │
  │    (shell)          │    (vim)            │
  │                     │                     │
  └─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

Horizontal split (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Enter):

  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │              Window 0                     │
  │              (shell)                      │
  ├───────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │              Window 1                     │
  │              (htop)                       │
  └───────────────────────────────────────────┘

Navigating Between Windows

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Shift+left`	Focus window to the left
`Ctrl+Shift+right`	Focus window to the right
`Ctrl+Shift+up`	Focus window above
`Ctrl+Shift+down`	Focus window below
`Ctrl+Shift+o`	Focus next window (cycle)

Resizing Windows

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Shift+Alt+left`	Widen focused window
`Ctrl+Shift+Alt+right`	Narrow focused window
`Ctrl+Shift+Alt+up`	Shorten focused window
`Ctrl+Shift+Alt+down`	Taller focused window
`Ctrl+Shift+Alt+=`	Reset window sizes (equal)

From the command line:

# resize by percentage
kitty @ resize-window --increment 5

# reset to equal sizes
kitty @ resize-window --reset

Maximizing Windows

Ctrl+Shift+z    → Toggle maximize on current window

One window fills the entire tab area. Press Ctrl+Shift+z again to return to the split layout.

tip

Use maximize when you need to focus on one task (e.g., reading logs), then unmaximize to return to your multi-window layout.

Closing Windows

# inside the window
exit

# force close current window
Ctrl+Shift+q

# close from command line
kitty @ close-window

note

Closing the last window in a tab closes the tab. Closing the last tab closes the kitty window (but not the server — it stays running for remote control).

Moving and Swapping Windows

# from the command line
kitty @ neighboring_window left
kitty @ neighboring_window right

You can also use mouse drag to reorder windows (if enabled in config).

Window Layouts

Kitty offers several layouts that control how windows are arranged (see Layouts and Tiling):

Layout	Behavior
`fat`	Equal sized vertical splits
`grid`	Balanced grid arrangement
`horizontal`	Side by side (default for new windows)
`splits`	Manual split-based layout
`stack`	Only one window visible at a time
`tall`	One main window on left, rest stack on right
`vertical`	Windows stacked top to bottom

Common Window Workflow: Monitoring

# start kitty, then inside a tab:
# Ctrl+Shift+Enter     → split vertically (left: shell, right: empty)
# Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Enter → split right side horizontally (right-top, right-bottom)
# Ctrl+Shift+arrows    → navigate between all three

# Result:
# ┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
# │                     │    htop             │
# │    tail -f app.log  ├─────────────────────┤
# │                     │    watch df -h      │
# └─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall	Symptom	Fix
Too many windows in one tab	Cramped, unreadable splits	Use multiple tabs instead
Window resize not working	Modifier conflict with window manager	Remap resize keys, or use `Ctrl+Shift+Alt+arrows`
`Ctrl+Shift+q` closes whole tab	Only one window left	Create more windows first, or add a second tab
Mouse drag not reordering	Feature disabled	Enable `mouse_map` in kitty.conf

Hands-On Practice

Try this inside kitty:

# Step 1: Create a vertical split
#   Ctrl+Shift+Enter

# Step 2: Create a horizontal split on the right
#   Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Enter (with focus on right window)

# Step 3: Navigate between windows
#   Ctrl+Shift+arrows

# Step 4: Run different commands
# Window 0: watch -n 1 'date'
# Window 1: ping -c 10 localhost
# Window 2: echo "hello from window 3"

# Step 5: Maximize one window
#   Ctrl+Shift+z

# Step 6: Return to split view
#   Ctrl+Shift+z

# Step 7: Resize windows
#   Ctrl+Shift+Alt+left (widen current window)

# Step 8: Close windows
#   Ctrl+Shift+q on each, or exit

Creating Windows​

Window Splits Visual​

Navigating Between Windows​

Resizing Windows​

Maximizing Windows​

Closing Windows​

Moving and Swapping Windows​

Window Layouts​

Common Window Workflow: Monitoring​

Common Pitfalls​

Hands-On Practice​

What's Next​