quick terminal not properly resizing between monitors

[SC-CTS]

Issue Description

When activating the quick terminal while having te MBP connected to an external screen it uses the correct hight of the external screen. When I disconnect the display and activate the quick terminal, it will overflow the screen at the top and bottom as it uses the hight it had before. Even restarting Ghostty does not fix this state.

Regression from: #8713

Expected Behavior

The quick terminal has the correct size for the monitor on which it is shown.

Actual Behavior

The quick terminal overflows the screen. Even restarting ghostty will not fix it.

Reproduction Steps

1. Connect an external, taller monitor to the MBP
2. Open the quick terminal, Close/hide it again
3. Disconnect the external screen
4. Open the quick terminal
5. Notice it overflows the screen

Ghostty Logs

Filtering the log data using "subsystem == "com.mitchellh.ghostty""
Timestamp                       Thread     Type        Activity             PID    TTL  
2026-03-17 08:31:36.723270+0100 0x2f3448   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:generic_renderer] generic_renderer: updating display link display id=2
2026-03-17 08:31:36.727517+0100 0x2f3137   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:GlobalEventTap] global key event handled event=<private>
2026-03-17 08:31:37.559905+0100 0x2f3448   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:generic_renderer] generic_renderer: updating display link display id=1
2026-03-17 08:31:48.795015+0100 0x2f3448   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:generic_renderer] generic_renderer: updating display link display id=1
2026-03-17 08:31:48.799558+0100 0x2f3137   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:GlobalEventTap] global key event handled event=<private>
2026-03-17 08:31:51.230385+0100 0x2f3448   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:generic_renderer] generic_renderer: updating display link display id=1
2026-03-17 08:31:51.234385+0100 0x2f3137   Info        0x0                  52476  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:GlobalEventTap] global key event handled event=<private>

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.3.1
(also happens with tip 15908)

Version
  - version: 1.3.1
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.15.2
  - build mode    : .ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : .none
  - font engine   : .coretext
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
  - libxev        : kqueue

OS Version Information

macOS Tahoe 26.3.1

(Linux only) Display Server

None

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

No response

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

# I don't think this setting is really necessary but without it I can't toggle the quick terminal
keybind = global:ctrl+grave_accent=toggle_quick_terminal

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[bo2themax]

Did you resize the quick terminal before disconnection the monitor? I tried with the default config, and the steps you described, but I couldn’t reproduce.

[SC-CTS]

I have kind of the opposite issue, I can't get it to work normally on my internal screen even with the display disconnected anymore. Restarting Ghostty does not help.

[SC-CTS]

I now also deleted all caches/support folders/plists I could find related ghostty and tried again. No change.

[bo2themax]

I now also deleted all caches/support folders/plists I could find related ghostty and tried again. No change.

Maybe try commenting these line out restart, and add them back?

quick-terminal-position = left
quick-terminal-screen = macos-menu-bar

[SC-CTS]

I will try when I can sometime but when I check the description of #8796 it sounds to me that maybe either there is an issue with the screen pointers or with the clearing of the memory.

[SC-CTS]

I tried everything, I can't get it to work right. No matter what I do, my quick window is always too tall on my MacBook screen no no matter what I do I can't fix it.

[quinnypig]

I think I found the cause. It's the per-display frame cache from the #8713 fix (QuickTerminalScreenStateCache). DisplayEntry.isValid keeps a saved window frame valid as long as the current screen is the same size or larger than when it was cached:

return screenSize.width <= screen.frame.size.width && screenSize.height <= screen.frame.size.height

So once a display's resolution changes, via disconnecting or reconnecting at a different mode after travel, the stale frame is still considered valid and gets restored instead of recomputing from quick-terminal-size. That lines up with the "uses the height it had before" symptom, and because the cache is persisted it survives a restart. (I ran into the opposite direction: on reconnecting an external monitor the quick terminal comes back at a partial width.)

On the "did you resize first?" question: a manual resize isn't strictly required, but it makes it visible, since that's what makes the cached frame diverge from the default size for that screen.

I have a fix that only reuses a cached frame when the screen geometry matches exactly (scale + size), otherwise it falls back to the configured size. New unit tests plus the full macOS suite pass: https://github.com/quinnypig/ghostty/tree/fix/quick-terminal-stale-frame-on-display-change

Happy to open a PR if this gets promoted to an issue.

[SC-CTS]

@bo2themax What is necessary to convert this into an issue so an PR can be submitted?

[quinnypig]

For what it's worth my PR was already merged in; I'm just waiting on upstream to release its next version.

[SC-CTS]

Oh thanks! Sorry for not noticing, I guess discussions don't show back-links from PRs #13250