seth-linux-theme/Kitty-setup.md

Kitty Terminal Setup

Custom kitty terminal theme with a status bar showing system info.

What You Get

• Borderless window (no titlebar)
• Dark theme with orange (#D35400) accent
• Custom tab/status bar at top with:
  • Flat tab style (0-indexed)
  • user@ prefix for non-seth users
  • Right-aligned status: git branch, CPU%, memory, uptime, hostname, clock
  • Nerd Font icons
• F12 to hide tab bar, Shift+F12 to show it

Prerequisites

• kitty terminal (>= 0.41)
• JetBrainsMono Nerd Font (for status bar icons)
• git (for branch display in status bar)
• Linux (CPU/memory/uptime read from /proc)

Quick Install

git clone https://git.sethpc.xyz/Seth/seth-linux-theme.git
cd seth-linux-theme
./install-kitty-theme.sh

Or for a specific user's home:

./install-kitty-theme.sh /home/username

Manual Install

1. Install the Nerd Font

mkdir -p /tmp/nerdfonts && cd /tmp/nerdfonts
curl -fLO https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/JetBrainsMono.zip
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/fonts/NerdFonts
sudo unzip -o JetBrainsMono.zip -d /usr/local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/
sudo fc-cache -f

Verify:

fc-list | grep -i "JetBrains.*Nerd"

2. Copy theme files

cp kitty/kitty-theme.conf ~/.config/kitty/
cp kitty/kitty-colors.conf ~/.config/kitty/
cp kitty/tab_bar.py ~/.config/kitty/
cp kitty/tab-bar-hide.conf ~/.config/kitty/
cp kitty/tab-bar-show.conf ~/.config/kitty/

3. Set the font in kitty.conf

# In ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf, set:
font_family      JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
font_size        11.0

4. Include the theme

Add these lines to the end of ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf:

include kitty-theme.conf
include kitty-colors.conf

5. Restart kitty

Close and reopen kitty. Ctrl+Shift+F5 does NOT reload tab bar or font changes.

Files

File	Purpose
kitty-theme.conf	Tab bar settings, keybindings
kitty-colors.conf	Terminal palette, orange cursor + trail, padding, 0.94 opacity (colors reload live; tab bar doesn't)
tab_bar.py	Custom tab bar renderer (flat tabs + status area)
tab-bar-hide.conf	Config snippet to hide tab bar
tab-bar-show.conf	Config snippet to show tab bar

Keybindings

Key	Action
F12	Hide tab/status bar
Shift+F12	Show tab/status bar

Status Bar Items

All read from /proc (no subprocess overhead except git):

Item	Source	Icon
Git branch	git rev-parse (1s timeout)
CPU %	/proc/stat (delta between refreshes)
Memory	/proc/meminfo (used/total in GB)	󰍛
Uptime	/proc/uptime
Hostname	os.uname().nodename
Clock	datetime.now() (HH:MM)

Customization

• Colors: Edit _ORANGE, _DIM, _TAB_BG, _BAR_BG in tab_bar.py
• Status items: Add/remove cells in the if is_last: block in tab_bar.py
• Refresh rate: Change REFRESH_SECS in tab_bar.py (seconds)
• User prefix: The _prefix logic in tab_bar.py shows user@ for non-seth users

Troubleshooting

• Icons show as boxes: Nerd Font not installed or kitty not using it. Check font_family in kitty.conf.
• Status bar not updating: REFRESH_SECS timer in tab_bar.py drives redraws (kitty has no tab_bar_timeout option); check kitty stderr for tab_bar.py errors.
• F12 does nothing: Ensure allow_remote_control yes and listen_on unix:/tmp/kitty-{kitty_pid} are in config. Restart kitty (not just reload).
• CPU shows "...": Normal on first draw — needs two samples to compute delta.