How to uninstall kitty on Mac

kitty is a terminal emulator whose settings live in plain text files: kitty.conf, themes and key bindings, usually in ~/.config/kitty. If you customized any of them, copy that folder somewhere safe first; nothing else kitty keeps is worth saving. This guide covers the Homebrew cask kitty, the channel this test used. kitty also ships a .dmg on its GitHub releases page, which was not tested here.

Quit kitty and remove the app

  1. Quit kitty with Command + Q. That ends every shell running inside it, so finish or save that work first. Then check Activity Monitor and confirm no kitty process is left.
  2. If you installed it with Homebrew, run brew uninstall --cask kitty. That removes the app and the kitty and kitten commands the cask put in Homebrew's bin folder. If you installed the .dmg, drag kitty from Applications to the Trash.

Where kitty keeps its files

kitty's documentation says it looks for its config file in the OS config directory, usually ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf. kitty.conf

Location What it holds What to do
~/.config/kitty kitty.conf, themes and key bindings; on the test Mac, kitty created this folder empty on first launch Back it up if you customized it; delete it only when you're done with kitty
~/Library/Preferences/kitty A second kitty config location named in Homebrew's zap list Open it before removing; back up any kitty.conf you find
~/Library/Caches/kitty Cache Remove with the app
~/Library/Preferences/net.kovidgoyal.kitty.plist App preferences Remove for a clean reinstall
~/Library/Saved Application State/net.kovidgoyal.kitty.savedState Saved window state Remove with the app

Check the result

pgrep -il "kitty|kitten"
ls -d ~/.config/kitty ~/Library/Preferences/kitty ~/Library/Caches/kitty
command -v kitty kitten
  • No output from pgrep means kitty has quit. A listed process means a matching kitty or kitten process is still running; inspect its executable in Activity Monitor before quitting it.
  • ls -d prints each path that still exists and reports "No such file or directory" for the rest. A surviving ~/.config/kitty proves only that the directory exists; inspect its actual configuration files or a usable backup. A permission or other read error leaves its state unknown.
  • command -v printing nothing means neither command is left on your PATH. A printed path may come from Homebrew, another installation or a manual link. Inspect its source first, and use brew uninstall --cask kitty only if Homebrew still lists that cask as installed.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The kitty cask's zap list reaches ~/.config/kitty, ~/Library/Caches/kitty, ~/Library/Preferences/kitty, the net.kovidgoyal.kitty preferences file and saved window state. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap kitty yourself moves all of them to the Trash, your configuration included, whatever you ticked in Mole. Homebrew kitty cask

When Mole removes a Homebrew install, it checks the zap list first. ~/.config/kitty sits outside ~/Library, so Mole always leaves --zap out for kitty: Homebrew removes the app, its commands and its receipt, and only the rows you ticked in Mole go to the Trash.

To remove the app and its commands and keep everything else:

brew uninstall --cask kitty

What Mole lists

For kitty installed from the Homebrew cask or the .dmg:

  • ~/Library/Caches/kitty, the net.kovidgoyal.kitty preferences file and saved window state are selected by default.
  • ~/Library/Preferences/kitty, if it exists, is also selected by default, because it carries the app's name. If your kitty.conf lives there, untick it or back it up first.
  • ~/.config/kitty is listed but unselected while Remove data and settings with apps is off, the default. Enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned configuration; untick this row to keep settings.

What this test covered

kitty was installed with the Homebrew cask kitty and uninstalled on September 17, 2026, with Mole Preview 272, alongside other apps in the same batch. That build still ran Homebrew's zap step, which removed ~/Library/Caches/kitty. The empty ~/.config/kitty created on first launch was still on disk afterwards, even though the zap list names it, and that build did not list it. A customized kitty.conf, themes, key bindings and the .dmg install were not tested.