# microsoft/terminal

The new Windows Terminal and the original Windows console host, all in the same place!

Repository: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/terminal
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: console, terminal, cmd, wsl, windows-console, command-line, windows-terminal, contributions-welcome, good-first-issue, windows, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T23:56:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 93/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 81, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3309, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 48, "gap_med": 37, "n_releases_24m": 18}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 104696, forks 9552 (observed 2026-08-28T04:12:23.746877+00:00)

## What it is
Microsoft's open-source Windows Terminal application, a modern tabbed terminal emulator with GPU-accelerated text rendering, plus the original Windows console host (conhost.exe) and shared console components. It hosts shells like cmd, PowerShell, and WSL distributions.

## Use cases
- run multiple shell tabs and panes in one terminal on Windows
- use WSL Linux shells inside a native Windows terminal
- customize terminal themes, fonts, and keybindings
- replace the legacy Windows console with a modern terminal emulator
- develop and test command-line tools on Windows

## When to choose
- you need a modern, fast terminal on Windows 10 2004 or later
- you want tabs, panes, Unicode, and theming for cmd/PowerShell/WSL
- you want to contribute to or build the Windows console host itself

## When to avoid
- you need a terminal for Linux or macOS
- you are on an old Windows version before build 19041
- you need a cross-platform terminal written in a portable stack

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: terminal-ui, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, windows
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: windows-terminal, console-host, wsl, shell, tabs, gpu-accelerated, command-line

## Member repositories
- microsoft/terminal (main) score 93

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:23.746877+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:12:12.650467+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal (fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:23.746877+00:00, sha 9545fdaae841)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.