zinczinc

A precise, native terminal for Windows

Every cell, exactly right.

Box lines, blocks and Powerline shapes meet without seams in any font. Every setting says what it does and applies the moment you change it.

Request accessPrivate alpha · 0.1.0-dev.393 · free
Access is through Zinc's Discord server
>winget # coming soon
Zinc with panes as cards: a focused card with a Powerline prompt, a file tree and a box-drawn test summary, beside two smaller cards with a git log and a dev server. Three workspaces run along the top, and one has a green mark because its command finished.Zinc with panes as cards: a focused card with a Powerline prompt, a file tree and a box-drawn test summary, beside two smaller cards with a git log and a dev server. Three workspaces run along the top, and one has a green mark because its command finished.

Precision, in what it draws

Box drawing meets without seams in any font

Zinc draws box lines, blocks and Powerline shapes itself, cell by cell, instead of trusting the font to line up. Raise the line height and they still join.

Drawn from the font. With 20% more line height, each glyph stops short of its cell and the rows come apart.
Drawn by Zinc. Every line reaches the edge of its cell, so it meets its neighbor exactly, and quadrants like ▚ share exactly one corner. font.builtin-glyphs

Precision, in how you tune it

Every setting says what it does

Plain words for each one, a live preview as you go, applied the moment you change it, one click from undo.

  • Explained in plain wordsThe config key sits underneath, for when you'd rather edit the file.
  • Saved to config.toml and appliedNo Save button. Undo puts the file back as it was when Settings opened.
  • Inheritance you can seeA profile shows where a value comes from until it has its own.
  • A way back on every changeThe reset arrow appears only when a setting differs, and says where it goes back to.

Hundreds of settings, each one explained like these.

The Zinc Settings window on the Git Bash profile, with a live preview of the terminal above its font settings. Font is inherited from Appearance, Size and Weight are the profile's own with reset arrows, and a bar says the changes were saved to config.toml, with a button to undo 2 changes.The Zinc Settings window on the Git Bash profile, with a live preview of the terminal above its font settings. Font is inherited from Appearance, Size and Weight are the profile's own with reset arrows, and a bar says the changes were saved to config.toml, with a button to undo 2 changes.

Workflow

A terminal that knows what your commands are doing

Workspaces reopen where you left them. Shell integration sets itself up. When a command finishes, fails or needs you out of view, Zinc says which, and where.

Zinc with four workspaces in a sidebar, as cards. The api workspace has a red mark because a command failed, docs a green mark because one finished, and prod an amber mark because it needs you. The focused card has three tabs and shows a build, then a test run that failed with exit code 8, with a red bar beside it in the gutter. A second card beside it shows a git log.Zinc with four workspaces in a sidebar, as cards. The api workspace has a red mark because a command failed, docs a green mark because one finished, and prod an amber mark because it needs you. The focused card has three tabs and shows a build, then a test run that failed with exit code 8, with a red bar beside it in the gutter. A second card beside it shows a git log.
  • Workspaces, tabs and splitsGroup a project's tabs into a workspace, split them as you like, and find them where you left them next time.
  • Shell integration, set up for youZinc marks each command in the gutter, so a failure stands out before you read a line. Works with PowerShell, bash, zsh, fish, nushell, elvish and osh, and with cmd (fullest through Clink).
  • Attention, in wordsA dot on the tab or workspace, and a notification that says what happened.
  • Build finished in workspace 3
  • ssh needs you in "prod"
  • Tests failed (exit 8) in workspace 2

The same words appear in Windows notifications.

Native Windows

Made for Windows, not ported to it

A WinUI 3 app that looks and behaves like the rest of your desktop.

Mica

On Windows 11, the window takes on your wallpaper's tint, as Windows' own apps do.

Tray

Zinc keeps running in the notification area, so the quick terminal is always ready. Click to bring your windows back; right-click for settings, a new window or quit.

Quick terminal

A terminal on a global hotkey. It scales and fades in at the middle of the screen, or comes in from any edge you choose.

Shell discovery

PowerShell, Command Prompt, WSL, Git Bash, MSYS2, Visual Studio developer shells and SSH show up as profiles on their own.

Make it yours

Tuned setups

Zinc ships with two schemes of its own, Lit Cell and Lit Cell Light, and reads the rest from Ghostty's theme format.

Zinc in the Lit Cell scheme, with a tab along the top, a colored git diff and a selected word
Lit Cell · Cascadia Mono NF 11 pt · the default dark scheme
Zinc in the Lit Cell Light scheme, with a tab along the top, a colored git diff and a selected word
Lit Cell Light · Cascadia Mono NF 11 pt · the default light scheme
Zinc in the Nightfall scheme, with workspaces in the sidebar and a PowerShell git log
Nightfall · Consolas 12 pt · workspaces in the sidebar, extra padding, block cursor
Zinc in the Overnight Slumber scheme, with two tabs along the top and a Powerline prompt
Overnight Slumber · JetBrains Mono NF 11 pt · tabs, bar cursor
Zinc in the Peppermint scheme, with workspaces in the sidebar, two tabs inside the workspace and a git log and status in cmd
Peppermint · Lucida Console 13 pt · workspaces in the sidebar with tabs inside, outlined block cursor
Zinc in the Pyrokai Light scheme, with no tabs or title bar, only the terminal
Pyrokai Light · Departure Mono 12 pt · no tabs, underline cursor

Built on libghostty

Zinc: what makes ghosts glow in the dark. Its terminal core is libghostty, the same core that powers Ghostty. The window around it, and everything you click, is Zinc's own, written for Windows. Thanks to the Ghostty project and its contributors.

About libghostty

Private alpha

Try the alpha

Request access

Zinc is in private alpha and free. Request access through Zinc's Discord server; once you have it, the installer sets Zinc up for your account only and keeps it up to date. Current build: 0.1.0-dev.393 · Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11

>winget # coming soon
zn --help 
# zn controls the running Zinc from a script or a shellzn <thing> <verb> [options] [-- command] zn window      list | new | focus | closezn workspace   list | new | focus | close | rename | color | icon | movezn pane        list | split | focus | closezn terminal    list | new | send | read | title | focus | move | close zn list         # everything openzn action       # runs any action by its name, as a key wouldzn version      # zn's version and the running Zinc's

Inside a Zinc terminal, zn acts on that terminal and its pane, workspace and window. Outside, it acts on the window you used last.

Not there yet

What Zinc doesn't do today, so you know before you install.

  • Sixel imagesNot supported; kitty graphics show their current frame
  • Importing settings from other terminalsNo migration yet
  • Very large colorful output from Git Bash and MSYS2Slow in any Windows terminal; native programs and WSL are fine