macos: forward key events to the app when no windows exist

macos/Sources/App/macOS/AppDelegate.swift

@@ -149,6 +149,12 @@ class AppDelegate: NSObject,
         // This registers the Ghostty => Services menu to exist.
         NSApp.servicesMenu = menuServices
 
+        // Setup a local event monitor for app-level keyboard shortcuts. See
+        // localEventHandler for more info why.
+        _ = NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(
+            matching: [.keyDown],
+            handler: localEventHandler)
+
         // Configure user notifications
         let actions = [
             UNNotificationAction(identifier: Ghostty.userNotificationActionShow, title: "Show")
@@ -361,6 +367,53 @@ class AppDelegate: NSObject,
         return terminalManager.focusedSurface?.surface
     }
 
+    // MARK: Notifications and Events
+
+    /// This handles events from the NSEvent.addLocalEventMonitor. We use this so we can get
+    /// events without any terminal windows open.
+    private func localEventHandler(_ event: NSEvent) -> NSEvent? {
+        return switch event.type {
+        case .keyDown:
+            localEventKeyDown(event)
+
+        default:
+            event
+        }
+    }
+
+    private func localEventKeyDown(_ event: NSEvent) -> NSEvent? {
+        // If we have a main window then we don't process any of the keys
+        // because we let it capture and propagate.
+        guard NSApp.mainWindow == nil else { return event }
+
+        // If this event would be handled by our menu then we do nothing.
+        if let mainMenu = NSApp.mainMenu,
+           mainMenu.performKeyEquivalent(with: event) {
+            return nil
+        }
+
+        // If we reach this point then we try to process the key event
+        // through the Ghostty key mechanism.
+
+        // Ghostty must be loaded
+        guard let ghostty = self.ghostty.app else { return event }
+
+        // Build our event input and call ghostty
+        var key_ev = ghostty_input_key_s()
+        key_ev.action = GHOSTTY_ACTION_PRESS
+        key_ev.mods = Ghostty.ghosttyMods(event.modifierFlags)
+        key_ev.keycode = UInt32(event.keyCode)
+        key_ev.text = nil
+        key_ev.composing = false
+        if (ghostty_app_key(ghostty, key_ev)) {
+            // The key was used so we want to stop it from going to our Mac app
+            Ghostty.logger.debug("local key event handled event=\(event)")
+            return nil
+        }
+
+        return event
+    }
+
     //MARK: - Restorable State
 
     /// We support NSSecureCoding for restorable state. Required as of macOS Sonoma (14) but a good idea anyways.

macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.App.swift

@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ extension Ghostty {
             // Subscribe to notifications for keyboard layout change so that we can update Ghostty.
             NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
                 self,
-                selector: #selector(self.keyboardSelectionDidChange(notification:)),
+                selector: #selector(keyboardSelectionDidChange(notification:)),
                 name: NSTextInputContext.keyboardSelectionDidChangeNotification,
                 object: nil)
             #endif

src/App.zig

@@ -294,9 +294,6 @@ pub fn keyEvent(
         .leaf => |leaf| leaf,
     };
 
-    // We only care about global keybinds
-    if (!leaf.flags.global) return false;
-
     // Perform the action
     self.performAllAction(rt_app, leaf.action) catch |err| {
         log.warn("error performing global keybind action action={s} err={}", .{