Kitty Language Server

LSP server for kitty.conf with diagnostics, completions, and hover documentation for any editor

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Kitty is a fast, feature-rich, GPU-based terminal emulator. This language server brings IntelliSense, validation, and documentation for kitty.conf to any editor that supports the Language Server Protocol (Neovim, Helix, Emacs, Zed, Sublime Text, and more).

Features

IntelliSense Completions

Context-aware autocompletion for all 300+ kitty options, directives, and actions.

• Option names with descriptions, types, defaults, and snippet insertion
• Enum values for options like cursor_shape, tab_bar_style, placement_strategy
• Color values with hex presets from popular themes (Gruvbox, Catppuccin, Dracula, Solarized)
• Map actions for map and mouse_map directives (80+ actions)
• Directive snippets for map, mouse_map, include, globinclude, env

Hover Documentation

Hover over any option to see its description, type, default value, allowed values, and a link to the kitty docs.

Diagnostics and Validation

Real-time validation catches configuration errors as you type:

• Unknown option names
• Invalid boolean values (only yes/no are valid in kitty)
• Invalid number values
• Invalid enum values with the list of accepted alternatives
• Invalid color formats

Installation

npm install -g @atoolz/kitty-lsp-toolkit

This installs the kitty-lsp binary globally.

Editor Setup

Neovim

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("FileType", {
  pattern = "kitty",
  callback = function()
    vim.lsp.start({
      name = "kitty-lsp",
      cmd = { "kitty-lsp" },
    })
  end,
})

To detect kitty.conf as filetype kitty, add to your init.lua:

vim.filetype.add({
  filename = {
    ["kitty.conf"] = "kitty",
  },
  pattern = {
    [".*/kitty/.*%.conf"] = "kitty",
  },
})

Helix

Add to ~/.config/helix/languages.toml:

[language-server.kitty-lsp]
command = "kitty-lsp"

[[language]]
name = "kitty"
scope = "source.kitty"
file-types = [{ glob = "kitty.conf" }, { glob = "*/kitty/*.conf" }]
language-servers = ["kitty-lsp"]

Emacs (lsp-mode)

(with-eval-after-load 'lsp-mode
  (add-to-list 'lsp-language-id-configuration '(".*kitty.*\\.conf$" . "kitty"))
  (lsp-register-client
   (make-lsp-client
    :new-connection (lsp-stdio-connection '("kitty-lsp"))
    :activation-fn (lsp-activate-on "kitty")
    :server-id 'kitty-lsp)))

Sublime Text (LSP package)

Add to LSP settings:

{
  "clients": {
    "kitty-lsp": {
      "command": ["kitty-lsp"],
      "selector": "source.kitty"
    }
  }
}

Zed

Add to your Zed settings:

{
  "lsp": {
    "kitty-lsp": {
      "binary": {
        "path": "kitty-lsp"
      }
    }
  }
}

Supported Categories

All major kitty configuration categories are covered:

Fonts Cursor Scrollback Mouse Performance Terminal Bell Window Layout Tab Bar Colors Advanced

VS Code

For VS Code, use the companion extension Kitty Toolkit which includes syntax highlighting, snippets, and all features from this LSP built-in.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or pull request on GitHub.

License

MIT