Configuration
Boring Terminal has one configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/boringterminal/config
Press ⌘, (Boring Terminal › Open Configuration) to open it. If it doesn't exist yet, the app writes a commented starter file first.
Format
Plain key = value lines. # starts a comment; blank lines are ignored;
values may be quoted.
# ~/Library/Application Support/boringterminal/config
font-family = "SF Mono"
font-size = 14
Keys
| Key | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
font-family |
string | system monospace (SF Mono) | must be a monospaced family |
font-size |
number | 13 | 6–72 |
That is the whole surface, on purpose. Bold, italic, and bold-italic faces are picked from the family where they exist and synthesized where they don't; per-character fallback (emoji, CJK, symbols) is automatic and never changes the cell size. There are no theme, opacity, padding, or cursor keys today.
Hot reload
The file is watched. Save it and every open session re-renders with the new font immediately. No restart, no reload command.
Strictness
The file is validated as a whole:
- An unknown key or invalid value rejects the entire file.
- At launch, a rejected file is logged and ignored; the app starts with defaults rather than refusing to start.
- On reload, a rejected file keeps the current settings.
- A
font-familythat isn't installed or isn't monospaced falls back to the system monospace font.
Not in the file
Sidebar visibility (⌘B) and sidebar width (drag the edge) are remembered automatically as app state. They are direct manipulations, not configuration.
Text size works the same way: ⌘+, ⌘−, and ⌘0
scale the terminal font temporarily, within the same 6–72 point bounds, and
never rewrite the file. Changing font-size in the file resets the temporary
scale to the new value.