iterm2

iTerm2

Purpose: (personal env) iTerm2 setup notes — sync prefs to a folder. Copy to: n/a (machine setup) · Use when: setting up your terminal. · Related: worktrees

Notes for reproducing the terminal setup. iTerm2's settings live in a binary plist, so rather than committing that, the reliable approach is point iTerm2 at a synced folder and let it export/import there.

Sync preferences to a folder

Settings → General → Settings:

1. Check Load settings from a custom folder or URL.
2. Point it at a folder you control (e.g. ~/dev/dev-toolkit/config/iterm2/prefs or a Dropbox/iCloud path).
3. Set Save changes to Automatically.

iTerm2 writes com.googlecode.iterm2.plist there and reloads it on launch, so the config follows you to a new machine.

This folder intentionally doesn't commit the plist — it's machine/UI state. Keep the exported plist in personal sync storage, not in this snippet repo.

Things worth setting

• Profiles — a default profile with your font (e.g. a Nerd Font for glyphs), colors, and a generous scrollback.

• Natural text editing — Profiles → Keys → Key Mappings → Presets… → Natural Text Editing (word-wise option-arrow, etc.).

• Shell integration — iterm2_shell_integration for marks, command status, and the imgcat/it2* utilities. Install from the iTerm2 menu or:

  curl -L https://iterm2.com/shell_integration/zsh -o ~/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh
  echo 'source ~/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh' >> ~/.zshrc

• wt integration — the wt helper opens new worktrees in fresh iTerm2 tabs (wt new <branch> -c), which relies on iTerm2 being the default terminal and osascript automation being allowed.