Terminal and shell

Hornero separates the terminal window, the interactive shell inside it, and the command-line tools that manage the desktop. Kitty is the curated terminal in the Hornero Config package, but it is an optional package dependency. A host can use another terminal for normal launches; Super + E specifically opens Yazi in Kitty.

Open a terminal

• Press Super + T or Super + Enter to open the host’s XDG TerminalEmulator association through exo-open.
• Open the Launcher with Ctrl + Space and search for an installed terminal.
• Press Super + E for Yazi in a Kitty window. This workflow needs both Kitty and Yazi.

The host’s Xfce helper setting chooses the TerminalEmulator target. The default-application command changes MIME associations and does not change that terminal helper. See Default applications and keyboard shortcuts.

Kitty

Kitty is a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator. Hornero Config provides its system defaults under /etc/xdg/kitty; your user configuration at ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf can override them. The defaults include a Hornero Dark palette, font and window spacing, scrollback, and copy/paste bindings:

The screenshot shows Kitty running horneroctl appearance commands with the current host configuration. Theme IDs shown by a specific machine can differ from a later catalogue pin.

Theme packs provide Hornero Dark, Light, and Pampa palettes. Wallpaper-derived colors can also write a user overlay under ~/.cache/hornero/smart-colors/colors-kitty.conf. If Kitty reports that the optional overlay is absent, the packaged palette still works; generate colors from Appearance or remove only the stale include in a user override.

The public dotfiles repository adds a personal Kitty setup with an 80×24 initial window, 12-point font, and 80% background opacity. Those are workstation preferences, not a Hornero release requirement. Edit the active kitty.conf to customize Kitty. See the Kitty manual.

Shell and command workflow

Your account’s configured shell runs inside the terminal. Hornero Config does not make Zsh, a prompt, shell plugins, or aliases a system dependency. The public dotfiles configuration optionally installs Zsh and defines a personal profile in ~/.zshrc, ~/.zsh/config.d/, and related prompt files. It enables vi-style command-line editing, reverse history search with Ctrl + R, and prompt/alias loading. These personal choices do not affect Hornero’s CLI contract.

That profile also sets $EDITOR and $VISUAL to Neovim for command-line programs. Hornero itself has no universal graphical editor default; see Default applications. To run desktop tasks from a shell, use horneroctl and its installed --help output.

Optional tmux setup

The personal workstation configuration includes tmux and plugins; neither is required by Hornero. Its configuration uses Ctrl + A as the primary prefix, Ctrl + B as an alternate prefix, mouse support, vi-style copy-mode, and a large scrollback history. Plugin installation depends on the optional TPM checkout. See the tmux manual before copying those preferences to another machine.

When something does not open

• Run horneroctl apps launch --list to see which launch backends are available.
• Run horneroctl apps terminal-file --help to inspect the Yazi workflow.
• Check that the selected terminal .desktop file and TerminalEmulator helper exist.
• If Kitty’s palette is stale, apply the desired theme again in Settings → Appearance. For generated colors, check horneroctl appearance colors status.

Useful references: Kitty, Zsh manual, tmux wiki, Appearance, and shortcuts.