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Add animated cursor (cursor trail) #23033

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opened 2026-01-31 08:30:22 +00:00 by claunia · 5 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-31 08:30:22 +00:00
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Originally created by @tesffitree on GitHub (Mar 18, 2025).

Description of the new feature

The animated cursor (or cursor trail) is a feature of Neovide or Kitty. This feature adds animation to cursor movement, indicating the cursor's destination, which may be useful in scenario such as using the terminal editor.

The following image illustrates the feature (media taken from https://neovide.dev/features.html)

Neovide comes with Windows port. Although it is possible to run shell inside neovide, there are still issues such as keybindings. Kitty does not have a Windows port. Therefore, supporting animated cursor in a Windows terminal emulator would be helpful to some users in this platform.

FYI, the related commits of animated cursor of Kitty is listed as follows

https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/pull/7970

Proposed technical implementation details

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Originally created by @tesffitree on GitHub (Mar 18, 2025). ### Description of the new feature The animated cursor (or cursor trail) is a feature of [Neovide](https://github.com/neovide/neovide) or [Kitty](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/). This feature adds animation to cursor movement, indicating the cursor's destination, which may be useful in scenario such as using the terminal editor. The following image illustrates the feature (media taken from https://neovide.dev/features.html) ![](https://neovide.dev/assets/AnimatedCursor.gif) Neovide comes with Windows port. Although it is possible to run shell inside neovide, there are still issues such as keybindings. Kitty does not have a Windows port. Therefore, supporting animated cursor in a Windows terminal emulator would be helpful to some users in this platform. FYI, the related commits of animated cursor of Kitty is listed as follows https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/pull/7970 ### Proposed technical implementation details _No response_
claunia added the Issue-FeatureResolution-Duplicate labels 2026-01-31 08:30:22 +00:00
claunia commented 2026-01-31 08:30:24 +00:00
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@j4james commented on GitHub (Mar 18, 2025):

I think this is essentially a duplicate of #9221, although the warping cursor shape is a new addition.

@j4james commented on GitHub (Mar 18, 2025): I think this is essentially a duplicate of #9221, although the warping cursor shape is a new addition.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 08:30:24 +00:00
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@lhecker commented on GitHub (Mar 19, 2025):

Yeah, this looks amazing! If you ever want to contribute something like this, please let me know and I'll help you get started in our text renderer.

That said, I agree with @j4james: This is a duplicate of #9221. /dup #9221

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Mar 19, 2025): Yeah, this looks amazing! If you ever want to contribute something like this, please let me know and I'll help you get started in our text renderer. That said, I agree with @j4james: This is a duplicate of #9221. /dup #9221
claunia commented 2026-01-31 08:30:24 +00:00
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@microsoft-github-policy-service[bot] commented on GitHub (Mar 19, 2025):

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!

@microsoft-github-policy-service[bot] commented on GitHub (Mar 19, 2025): Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report! <!-- Policy app identification https://img.shields.io/static/v1?label=PullRequestIssueManagement. -->
claunia commented 2026-01-31 08:30:24 +00:00
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@colll78 commented on GitHub (Oct 2, 2025):

I don't see how this is a duplicate. the original issue tracked does not cover modification of the pixel shape in the animation lifecycle. A huge amount of the positive feedback around Kitty and other terminals with cursor trail animation support derives from how much users love the level of cursor customization, and how good it feels to traverse the terminal with snappy visually appealing animations. Smooth cursor animation/transition alone doesn't provide this. Specifically, we need the ability to configure it such that we can have warping of the cursor shape (which is what produces the snappy visually appealing animations and is especially useful for large jumps across text / panels as it makes it very easy to identify where the cursor is going).

@lhecker Please consider re-opening this under the frame of cursor warping and not cursor trail which was a poor title. While strictly speaking the smooth cursor transition is indeed an animated cursor, it's not really much more animated than the current cursor, when most users think of animated cursors, they are thinking about the ghost trailing effects which require cursor shape warping.

@colll78 commented on GitHub (Oct 2, 2025): I don't see how this is a duplicate. the original issue tracked does not cover modification of the pixel shape in the animation lifecycle. A huge amount of the positive feedback around Kitty and other terminals with cursor trail animation support derives from how much users love the level of cursor customization, and how good it feels to traverse the terminal with snappy visually appealing animations. Smooth cursor animation/transition alone doesn't provide this. Specifically, we need the ability to configure it such that we can have warping of the cursor shape (which is what produces the snappy visually appealing animations and is especially useful for large jumps across text / panels as it makes it very easy to identify where the cursor is going). @lhecker Please consider re-opening this under the frame of cursor warping and not cursor trail which was a poor title. While strictly speaking the smooth cursor transition is indeed an animated cursor, it's not really much more animated than the current cursor, when most users think of animated cursors, they are thinking about the ghost trailing effects which require cursor shape warping.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 08:30:25 +00:00
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@lhecker commented on GitHub (Oct 2, 2025):

I understand what you mean but IMO we don't need two issues to express almost identical ideas. If we implement the other issue it would likely end up looking like this one anyway.

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Oct 2, 2025): I understand what you mean but IMO we don't need two issues to express almost identical ideas. If we implement the other issue it would likely end up looking like this one anyway.
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Reference: starred/terminal#23033
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