Claude Code and Kitty Terminal

Getting multi-line input to work properly when using Claude Code in Kitty terminal requires a simple configuration change.

When using Claude Code in Visual Studio Code integrated terminal, it offers the /terminal-setup command which enables pressing shift+enter for a newline character. This happens because VS Code's integrated terminal has built-in handling for multi-line input, while Kitty terminal requires explicit configuration.

Kitty Keypress Mapping

We can add keypress mappings with kitty and use a condition to ensure the mapping only activates when desired, preventing conflicts with other terminal applications.

map --when-focus-on title:claude shift+enter send_text normal,application \\\n

To understand the mapping:

• --when-focus-on title:claude - Only activate when window title contains "claude"
• shift+enter - The key combination to map
• send_text normal,application - Send text to both normal and application modes
• \\\n - Send a backslash followed by newline (line continuation defined by Claude Code)

Steps

• Open your kitty.conf (e.g. ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf)
• Add the following command anywhere in the file (I chose the top since the default config is massive)

map --when-focus-on title:claude shift+enter send_text normal,application \\\n

• Restart kitty or reload your settings (ctrl+shift+f5)
• Open Claude Code and press shift+enter 🎉

Troubleshooting

If the mapping doesn't work, you can try these alternatives:

• Use title:*claude* for broader matching:

map --when-focus-on title:*claude* shift+enter send_text normal,application \\\n

• Use cmdline:claude for matching the command

map --when-focus-on cmdline:claude shift+enter send_text normal,application \\\n

For more advanced matching criteria, see the Kitty configuration documentation.