iTerm 2

iTerm2 replaces Terminal on macOS with an emulator that knows what your shell is doing. Deep shell integration tracks commands, directories, hostnames and usernames, which turns the terminal from a dumb text window into something that can act on its own contents.

tmux integration is the clearest example: running tmux with the control mode flag turns tmux windows into real macOS windows and tabs, sessions survive crashes, SSH disconnects and application upgrades, and two people can attach to the same session. Sessions themselves run in long-lived server processes, so a restart reconnects you exactly where you left off.

Years of accumulated features cover the rest of the working day.

• Shell integration: click-to-download files over SCP, drag-and-drop uploads, per-host command history and recent directories ranked by frecency.
• Triggers and smart selection: regular expressions that highlight, notify or run scripts on a match, and quad-click selection of URLs, file paths and quoted strings.
• Automatic profile switching: appearance follows hostname, username, directory or running command, so a production host can turn the background red.
• Instant replay: scrub backwards through history with timestamps to catch an error that scrolled past.
• Python scripting API: automation for custom status bar components, triggers, menu items and entirely new features.

Inline images, a hotkey window that slides in over fullscreen apps, vim-like copy mode, a built-in browser and an optional AI chat round out the list. Official downloads and nightly builds exist, and make setup prepares a source build, prompting before each privileged step.