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Kaku

A fast, out-of-the-box terminal built for AI coding on macOS.

terminal emulatorMITmacOS only.
Official productSourceMarkdown

Overview

Kaku (書く) is a deeply customized WezTerm fork for macOS. It keeps full Lua and WezTerm config compatibility, adds practical zero-config defaults, and includes an AI assistant for failed-command recovery, natural-language command generation, and AI coding tool setup.

5,819 GitHub stars · 297 forks · latest release V0.19.0

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Key features

Compared with

iTerm2, Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm, Hyper.

Kaku combines Alacritty's speed (GPU rendering), Kitty's feature set, and WezTerm's hackability (Lua config). Its binary is ~40% smaller than WezTerm. macOS-only, so it can optimize deeply for Metal and AppKit.

Practical details

Requirements
macOS only.
Install
brew install tw93/tap/kakuku

Frequently asked questions

What makes Kaku different from other terminal emulators?

Kaku starts from WezTerm's Rust and GPU-rendered core, then adds macOS-focused defaults, a curated shell suite, and an AI assistant for command recovery and generation while keeping full Lua configuration compatibility.

How do I configure Kaku?

Kaku uses a Lua config file at ~/.config/kaku/kaku.lua. You can set fonts, colors, keybindings, and shell options. Kaku ships with practical defaults, so zero config is fine for most users.

Does Kaku support multiple tabs and split panes?

Yes. Kaku supports tabbed windows and split panes with keyboard shortcuts. The tab bar is minimal and only appears when you have more than one tab.

What is Kaku's dark theme like?

Kaku's built-in dark theme uses a deep background (#15141B) with purple accents (#A277FF), cyan-green (#61FFCA), and warm yellow (#FFCA85). It auto-switches with macOS system appearance.

How does Kaku compare to Alacritty, Kitty, or WezTerm?

Kaku combines Alacritty's speed (GPU rendering), Kitty's feature set, and WezTerm's hackability (Lua config). Its binary is ~40% smaller than WezTerm. macOS-only, so it can optimize deeply for Metal and AppKit.