diff --git a/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/TerminalRestorable.swift b/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/TerminalRestorable.swift
index 6894bcb92..7e3dcb6e5 100644
--- a/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/TerminalRestorable.swift
+++ b/macos/Sources/Features/Terminal/TerminalRestorable.swift
@@ -48,12 +48,6 @@ class TerminalWindowRestoration: NSObject, NSWindowRestoration {
             return
         }
         
-        // Decode the state. If we can't decode the state, then we can't restore.
-        guard let state = TerminalRestorableState(coder: state) else {
-            completionHandler(nil, RestoreError.stateDecodeFailed)
-            return
-        }
-        
         // The app delegate is definitely setup by now. If it isn't our AppDelegate
         // then something is royally fucked up but protect against it anyhow.
         guard let appDelegate = NSApplication.shared.delegate as? AppDelegate else {
@@ -61,6 +55,19 @@ class TerminalWindowRestoration: NSObject, NSWindowRestoration {
             return
         }
         
+        // If our configuration is "never" then we never restore the state
+        // no matter what.
+        if (appDelegate.terminalManager.ghostty.windowSaveState == "never") {
+            completionHandler(nil, nil)
+            return
+        }
+        
+        // Decode the state. If we can't decode the state, then we can't restore.
+        guard let state = TerminalRestorableState(coder: state) else {
+            completionHandler(nil, RestoreError.stateDecodeFailed)
+            return
+        }
+        
         // The window creation has to go through our terminalManager so that it
         // can be found for events from libghostty. This uses the low-level
         // createWindow so that AppKit can place the window wherever it should
diff --git a/src/config/Config.zig b/src/config/Config.zig
index c74fbc990..c7ca27744 100644
--- a/src/config/Config.zig
+++ b/src/config/Config.zig
@@ -575,9 +575,14 @@ keybind: Keybinds = .{},
 ///   - "never" will never save window state.
 ///   - "always" will always save window state whenever Ghostty is exited.
 ///
-/// If you change this value so that window state is NOT saved while
-/// window state is already saved, the next Ghostty launch will NOT restore
-/// the window state.
+/// If you change this value to "never" while Ghostty is not running,
+/// the next Ghostty launch will NOT restore the window state.
+///
+/// If you change this value to "default" while Ghostty is not running
+/// and the previous exit saved state, the next Ghostty launch will
+/// still restore the window state. This is because Ghostty cannot know
+/// if the previous exit was due to a forced save or not (macOS doesn't
+/// provide this information).
 ///
 /// If you change this value so that window state is saved while Ghostty
 /// is not running, the previous window state will not be restored because