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Devin for Terminal works across a wide range of terminal emulators, but some terminals offer a better experience than others. This page covers compatibility levels, recommendations, and configuration tips.

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Compatibility Overview

Terminals are grouped into three tiers based on their feature support:

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Fully Supported (all features work)

These terminals support the Kitty keyboard protocol, which enables reliable detection of key combinations like Shift+Enter for multi-line input.
TerminalPlatformNotes
KittymacOS†, LinuxRecommended for power users. Used by the developers of Devin for Terminal.
GhosttymacOS†, LinuxRecommended for power users.
WezTermmacOS†, Linux, WindowsRecommended for power users.
iTerm2macOS†Recommended for general Mac use. Version 3.5+ required for full keyboard protocol support.
Windows TerminalWindows1.25 or higher recommended.

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Supported (some features limited)

These terminals work with Devin for Terminal but do not support the Kitty keyboard protocol. Shift+Enter will not insert a newline — use Alt+Enter or Ctrl+J instead.
TerminalPlatformNotes
Terminal.appmacOS†Built-in macOS terminal. Requires Option-as-Meta configuration for Alt shortcuts.
AlacrittymacOS†, Linux, WindowsRequires Option-as-Meta configuration on macOS.
Git BashWindowsIncluded with Git for Windows.
Generic ANSI terminalsVariousAny terminal with basic ANSI escape code support.
† On macOS, we recommend configuring Option as Meta for the best experience with Alt-based shortcuts.
On macOS terminals that have not been configured for Option-as-Meta, Alt (Option) shortcuts like Alt+Enter for multi-line input won’t work. See Configuring Option-as-Meta on macOS below.

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Unsupported

These terminals are not supported and may exhibit significant issues. We highly recommend switching to a supported terminal.
TerminalPlatformNotes
cmd.exe (conhost)WindowsLegacy Windows command prompt. Use Windows Terminal instead.

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Recommendations

PlatformRecommendation
WindowsWindows Terminal 1.25 or higher
macOS (general)iTerm2
macOS / Linux (power users)Kitty, Ghostty, or WezTerm

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Configuring Option-as-Meta on macOS

On macOS, the Option key is used as a compose key by default in most terminals, which means Alt-based shortcuts (like Alt+Enter for multi-line input or Alt+T for cycling thinking level) won’t work until you configure the terminal to treat Option as Meta/Alt.
  1. Open iTerm2 > Settings (or press Cmd+,)
  2. Go to Profiles > Keys > General
  3. Set Left Option Key to Esc+
  4. Optionally set Right Option Key to Esc+ as well
iTerm2 documentation
  1. Open Terminal > Settings (or press Cmd+,)
  2. Go to Profiles and select your active profile
  3. Click the Keyboard tab
  4. Check Use Option as Meta Key
Apple documentation
Add the following to your alacritty.toml configuration file:
[keyboard]
option_as_alt = "Both"
Alacritty configuration reference
Add the following to your kitty.conf configuration file:
macos_option_as_alt yes
Restart Kitty after making this change.Kitty documentation
Add the following to your Ghostty configuration file:
macos-option-as-alt = true
Restart Ghostty after making this change.Ghostty documentation
Add the following to your ~/.wezterm.lua configuration file:
config.send_composed_key_when_left_alt_is_pressed = false
config.send_composed_key_when_right_alt_is_pressed = false
WezTerm documentation