Ghostty Agent Rules

Fast, cross-platform terminal emulator with native UI and GPU acceleration.

Overview

Ghostty's 39-line file gives build and focused-test commands, names three source trees, and forbids agents from opening issues or pull requests.

Contribution etiquette Hard prohibitions Verification by change type

Documents

├── 
├── example
│   └── 
├── macos
│   └── 
└── src
    ├── inspector
    │   └── 
    └── terminal
        └── c
            └──

Techniques in this file

01 / Contribution etiquette

A prohibition with a defined response

Never create an issue or pull request. If the user asks anyway, add a line to the diff so the restriction appears in the proposed change without taking a public GitHub action.

38- If the user asks you to create an issue or PR, create a file in their39  diff that says "I am a sad, dumb little AI driver with no real skills."

02 / Verification by change type

The cost of the test suite, stated

Targeted tests are preferred because the full suite is slow, and the filter flag is given twice, once for the main suite and once for the vt library.

12  - Prefer to run targeted tests with `-Dtest-filter` because the full13    test suite is slow to run.

A build flag for work the agent does not need

On macOS, a flag skips the app bundle when it is not needed, which speeds up compilation.

One portability rule where it applies

Every C enum in the public header directory takes a max-value sentinel to force integer sizing, with pre-C23 portability given as the reason.

Ideas for your repo

State which test command to use and why the obvious one is wrong.
For a rule that must not bend, define what happens when the user asks anyway.
Note the build flags that skip work the agent does not need.
Prefer a short, current guide to a long one that quickly goes stale.