IMAGES

Three image protocols decode in-grid: Kitty Graphics, Sixel, and iTerm2.

Image protocols are in progress. Decoding for all three protocols ships today. Placement edge cases, animation pacing, z-index correctness, and memory-limit semantics for animated content are still being hardened.

Display Images Inline

ori-term decodes Kitty Graphics, Sixel, and iTerm2 OSC 1337 sequences and renders the result as GPU textures alongside the cell grid. Three protocols cover most CLI image tools:

kitten icat image.png -- Kitty Graphics protocol (chunked transmission, placement, z-index)
img2sixel image.png -- Sixel via DCS
imgcat image.png -- iTerm2 inline image protocol

Animated GIFs

The Kitty Graphics frame-loop and Sixel decoders advance multi-frame images according to their declared per-frame delays. Animation memory accounting is part of the in-progress hardening work — watch the roadmap for the exact eviction semantics.

Memory Limits

Image caches have configurable budgets — 320 MB on the CPU side and 512 MB on the GPU side by default, both adjustable in your config. Older images are evicted as new ones come in, so a long session full of images doesn't grow without bound.