diff --git a/include/ghostty.h b/include/ghostty.h
index 1bdb4fc31..42e83db5f 100644
--- a/include/ghostty.h
+++ b/include/ghostty.h
@@ -351,6 +351,7 @@ typedef struct {
 // Published API
 
 int ghostty_init(void);
+void ghostty_cli_main(uintptr_t, char **);
 ghostty_info_s ghostty_info(void);
 
 ghostty_config_t ghostty_config_new();
diff --git a/macos/Sources/main.swift b/macos/Sources/main.swift
index ee38c8d55..9a462b440 100644
--- a/macos/Sources/main.swift
+++ b/macos/Sources/main.swift
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 import AppKit
 import Cocoa
+import GhosttyKit
 
 // We put the GHOSTTY_MAC_APP env var into the Info.plist to detect
 // whether we launch from the app or not. A user can fake this if
 // they want but they're doing so at their own detriment...
 let process = ProcessInfo.processInfo
 if (process.environment["GHOSTTY_MAC_APP"] == "") {
-    AppDelegate.logger.warning("NOT IN THE MAC APP")
+    ghostty_cli_main(UInt(CommandLine.argc), CommandLine.unsafeArgv)
+    exit(1)
 }
 
 _ = NSApplicationMain(CommandLine.argc, CommandLine.unsafeArgv)
diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
index c61f94c5e..37e35e490 100644
--- a/src/main.zig
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -23,7 +23,13 @@ const Ghostty = @import("main_c.zig").Ghostty;
 /// rely on allocators being passed in as parameters.
 pub var state: GlobalState = undefined;
 
-pub fn main() !void {
+/// The return type for main() depends on the build artifact.
+const MainReturn = switch (build_config.artifact) {
+    .lib => noreturn,
+    else => void,
+};
+
+pub fn main() !MainReturn {
     // We first start by initializing our global state. This will setup
     // process-level state we need to run the terminal. The reason we use
     // a global is because the C API needs to be able to access this state;
@@ -67,6 +73,24 @@ pub fn main() !void {
         return;
     }
 
+    if (comptime build_config.app_runtime == .none) {
+        const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();
+        try stdout.print("Usage: ghostty +<action> [flags]\n\n", .{});
+        try stdout.print(
+            \\This is the Ghostty helper CLI that accompanies the graphical Ghostty app.
+            \\To launch the terminal directly, please launch the graphical app
+            \\(i.e. Ghostty.app on macOS). This CLI can be used to perform various
+            \\actions such as inspecting the version, listing fonts, etc.
+            \\
+            \\We don't have proper help output yet, sorry! Please refer to the
+            \\source code or Discord community for help for now. We'll fix this in time.
+        ,
+            .{},
+        );
+
+        std.os.exit(0);
+    }
+
     // Create our app state
     var app = try App.create(alloc);
     defer app.destroy();
@@ -156,6 +180,7 @@ pub const GlobalState = struct {
         stderr: void,
     };
 
+    /// Initialize the global state.
     pub fn init(self: *GlobalState) !void {
         // Initialize ourself to nothing so we don't have any extra state.
         // IMPORTANT: this MUST be initialized before any log output because
@@ -201,15 +226,12 @@ pub const GlobalState = struct {
         };
 
         // We first try to parse any action that we may be executing.
-        // We do not execute this in the lib because os.argv is not set.
-        if (comptime build_config.artifact != .lib) {
-            self.action = try cli_action.Action.detectCLI(self.alloc);
+        self.action = try cli_action.Action.detectCLI(self.alloc);
 
-            // If we have an action executing, we disable logging by default
-            // since we write to stderr we don't want logs messing up our
-            // output.
-            if (self.action != null) self.logging = .{ .disabled = {} };
-        }
+        // If we have an action executing, we disable logging by default
+        // since we write to stderr we don't want logs messing up our
+        // output.
+        if (self.action != null) self.logging = .{ .disabled = {} };
 
         // I don't love the env var name but I don't have it in my heart
         // to parse CLI args 3 times (once for actions, once for config,
diff --git a/src/main_c.zig b/src/main_c.zig
index ec3441582..992c20d19 100644
--- a/src/main_c.zig
+++ b/src/main_c.zig
@@ -42,13 +42,33 @@ const Info = extern struct {
 /// one global state but it has zero practical benefit.
 export fn ghostty_init() c_int {
     assert(builtin.link_libc);
+
+    // Since in the lib we don't go through start.zig, we need
+    // to populate argv so that inspecting std.os.argv doesn't
+    // touch uninitialized memory.
+    var argv: [0][*:0]u8 = .{};
+    std.os.argv = &argv;
+
     main.state.init() catch |err| {
         std.log.err("failed to initialize ghostty error={}", .{err});
         return 1;
     };
+
     return 0;
 }
 
+/// This is the entrypoint for the CLI version of Ghostty. This
+/// is mutually exclusive to ghostty_init. Do NOT run ghostty_init
+/// if you are going to run this. This will not return.
+export fn ghostty_cli_main(argc: usize, argv: [*][*:0]u8) noreturn {
+    std.os.argv = argv[0..argc];
+    main.main() catch |err| {
+        std.log.err("failed to run ghostty error={}", .{err});
+        std.os.exit(1);
+    };
+}
+
+/// Return metadata about Ghostty, such as version, build mode, etc.
 export fn ghostty_info() Info {
     return .{
         .mode = switch (builtin.mode) {