cool retro terminalv1.0
CRT-83 · model 9
READY.·FREE·during beta·macOS 12+·Apple Silicon

Use coding agents like ahacker in 1983_

1983 phosphor. 2026 LLMs. One terminal.

[Download free]limited beta · $9 $0
// three flavors of nostalgia

Modes

three flavors of nostalgia. pick how warped you want it

Full CRT mode screenshot
01Full CRTthe full 1983 experience. curvature, bloom, chromatic ghost, the works. it looks like the monitor is warm.
Basic Retro mode screenshot
02Basic Retrophosphor and scanlines, no warp. the daily driver. fast, beautiful, won't make your coworkers seasick on a screen share.
DOS mode screenshot
03DOS80×25, blocky cursor, BBS energy. for when you want to ssh into a server and pretend it's 1994 and you have a 14.4 modem.
// what's under the glow

Real terminal
Just better looking

a real terminal underneath a real CRT. everything in your dotfiles still works

FEATURE / 01
~ · real-pty.sh
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/zsh
$ echo $SHELL
/opt/homebrew/bin/fish
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
$ echo"whatever you want."
whatever you want._
Real PTYyour shell, your dotfiles, your aliases. nothing is sandboxed, nothing is faked
FEATURE / 02
~ · tabs.sh
⬢ build  deploy  logs  db  +

~/projects/cooltrt
$ cargo watch -x run
   Compiling cooltrt v1.0.0
    Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo]
     Running `target/debug/cooltrt`
listening on :1983_
Tabs, splits, sessionscmd+t spawns a new shell. cmd+d splits. cmd+w closes. like every editor you already use
FEATURE / 03
~ · arch.sh
$ uname -m
arm64
$ file /Applications/CRT.app/Contents/MacOS/CRT
Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures:
  [x86_64]  Mach-O 64-bit executable
  [arm64]   Mach-O 64-bit executable
$ _
Apple Silicon nativeuniversal binary. m-series fast. intel still welcome until 2027 or so
// compatibility

What it speaks fluently, since v1

  • +24-bit colortruecolor through tmux and ssh
  • +Ligaturesfira code, jetbrains mono, iosevka
  • +Sixel graphicsinline previews, plots, gifs
  • +Tmux passthroughimages survive multiplexing
  • +Kitty image protocolfirst-class, not an afterthought
  • +Shell integrationzsh, fish, bash, nushell
  • +Coding agentsclaude, codex, aider, opencode
  • +Apple Siliconarm64 native, m-series tuned

What it doesn't by design

  • −Telemetrywe don't want your data
  • −Autoupdater pingsyou update when you want
  • −Subscriptionone purchase, all future updates
  • −Background daemonsone binary, nothing else running
// pick your poison

Seven phosphors
One click to re-tint the page

tap a swatch to repaint the whole page in that phosphor

currently glowing in amber phosphor

// every dial

Tune the glow

burn-in, bloom, curvature, jitter, ambient light, refresh rate. dial each one in or out

Display configuration panel · mode select
Display configuration panel · phosphor select
Display configuration panel · DOS mode locked themes
// out the back of a dive bar

“i bought it twice
by accident”

real-ish quotes from real-ish people who already get it

══════════════════════════
regular price$9
$0
FREE
free during betayours forever afterno card. no signupno telemetry. no electron lecture
[Download for free]macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon · ~100mb
  • beta access closes when v1.0 ships
  • early users keep the app at $0, forever
  • after beta: one-time $9, no subscription
══════════════════════════
// before you ask

FAQ

> is this just iTerm with a filter?

no. we wrote a native macOS terminal from scratch with full PTY support, ligatures, 24-bit color, tabs, splits, the whole standard. then we wrapped it in a CRT shader pipeline. the filter is the easy part. the terminal is the actual app.

> will it slow my mac down?

basic retro mode is ~0% extra. full crt mode runs the shader on the gpu and uses maybe 4w on an m-series chip. if your laptop fan spins up because of a terminal, please email us and we'll refund and apologize.

> does it work with tmux / nvim / lazygit / atuin / starship / oh-my-zsh?

yes. all of them. it's a real terminal. if it speaks vt100/xterm-256color, it works. the screenshot at the top of this page is claude code in a real shell. nothing is faked for marketing.

> apple silicon?

built for it first. intel comes along for the ride as a universal binary. 28mb on disk, single binary, no helper processes, no autoupdater that phones home at 3am.

> why is it free? what's the catch?

we're in limited beta. you download it, you use it, you tell us when something feels off. when v1.0 ships it'll go to $9 one-time. anyone who grabbed it during beta keeps it free forever. that's the deal, that's the catch.

> is it open source?

not yet. the rendering pipeline will be. the rest pays for the bandwidth of you yelling at us on mastodon.