Feature: Allow terminal/tab/window overrides to be set via AppleScript/JXA (a11y) #12048

^{Originally posted by mikeschinkel April 1, 2026}
There is currently no reliable way to programmatically set a tab name in Ghostty from AppleScript/JXA.

My use-case

I am trying to use h2+shell scripts to orchestrate Ghostty, and find I really need to set tab names programmatically. (Note h2 is directly integrated with and coupled to Ghostty via AppleScript automation.)

Example workflow:

• h2 attach code-auditor creates or attaches to a tab
• Ghostty tab title might become: h2 attach code-aud
• What I would like instead instead: CODE-AUDITOR

This is an accessibility concern for people whose eye sight is not perfect (like mine):

• Ghostty tab fonts are small
• Long command-based titles are harder to read
• Short semantic names would improve legibility

What I tried

1. OSC escape sequences — Does NOT change tab title

   printf '\033]0;code-auditor\007'

2. AppleScript / JXA

   const ghostty = Application("Ghostty")
   const tab = ghostty.windows[0].tabs[1]
   tab.name = "My Tab"

   Got:

   Error: Can't set that. Access not allowed. (-10003)
   

3. Keybind commands — Ghostty provides set_tab_title:<value> but:

• only accessible via keybind / command palette
• no external API
• too easy to conflict with existing global key bindings
• requires an app update a users Ghostty config
• is timing-sensitive
• requires accessibility permissions
• brittle
• not suitable OSS code that wants to integrate with Ghostty

Would it be possible to allow AppleScript/JXA to set the tab name?

AppleScript

set name of tab 1 to "CODE-AUDITOR"

JavaScript

tab.name = "CODE-AUDITOR"

My environment

• macOS Tahoe
• Ghostty 1.3.1