Your desktop, your terminal, one window.

Most terminal apps make you choose: either you stare at an opaque black rectangle that hides everything behind it, or you tile a dozen windows across your screen trying to keep context. HoloTerm doesn't ask you to choose.

HoloTerm is a native macOS terminal that sits on your desktop instead of over it. The glass effect isn't a gimmick — it's the point. You keep your reference material, your browser, your notes visible right through the terminal while you work. No alt-tabbing. No split-screen juggling. No losing your place.

One window. Full terminal. Full view.

Every time you switch windows, you lose a thought. Every time you tile your screen into four cramped quadrants, you lose space. HoloTerm gives you a terminal with real tabs, real keyboard shortcuts, and a real shell — but the window is transparent enough that the rest of your screen stays useful.

Need to reference a design while running a build? Leave HoloTerm over the mockup. Watching logs while reading docs? You can see both. The terminal becomes a layer in your workflow instead of a wall in front of it.

• Tabs — Cmd-T, Cmd-W, Cmd-1 through 9. Double-click to rename. Activity indicators when a background tab has new output.
• Glass that actually works — not a CSS approximation. Native macOS vibrancy with a multi-layer compositor. Four sliders: opacity, blur, tint strength, and depth. One color picker. That's it.
• Pick your text color and font — any font on your system, any color you want. No theme lock-in.
• 3.9 MB — not 200 MB. No Chromium. No Electron. No Node. Pure Swift.
• Login shell by default — Homebrew, nvm, claude, whatever you've got in your .zprofile just works.

git clone https://github.com/ajfonthemove/HoloTerm.git
cd HoloTerm
swift build -c release

The built binary is at .build/release/Terminal. To bundle it as a proper .app:

mkdir -p build/HoloTerm.app/Contents/{MacOS,Resources}
cp .build/release/Terminal build/HoloTerm.app/Contents/MacOS/HoloTerm

Add an Info.plist and an .icns icon to Contents/ and Contents/Resources/ respectively, then drop HoloTerm.app into /Applications.

• macOS 13+
• Swift 5.9+

MIT