macOS 26 Terminal: Powerline fonts, UI, dynamic theme?

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Level 1

4 points

macOS 26 Terminal: Powerline fonts, UI, dynamic theme?

Hello,

I am trying to find information about the terminal improvements that were mentioned around the time of the last major macOS 26 release.

At the time, there was discussion about updates or enhancements coming to the terminal experience. However, I have not been able to find any official follow-up, release notes, or visible changes in my terminal app.

here is the picture from WWDC

Could someone clarify:

Whether the terminal update has already been released
They mention about Powerline font support built in but where is it which font should I use?
and why my terminal looks totally different from pic I shared like not about the theme but the menu bar round corner and padding
and how can make this new theme Clear Dark / Clear Light dynamic like how basic profile is changing bg color based on the device prefrence
If not released, whether there is an updated timeline or status

If there are developer notes, documentation links, or beta features I should be aware of, please point me to them.

Thank you.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Feb 8, 2026 7:03 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 8, 2026 8:53 AM in response to dg020

I don't know about the Terminal improvements, but what you see in the top left window, btop, is a utility that you can install free. I just installed it from source, following the instructions here:

https://www.tecmint.com/btop-system-monitoring-tool-for-linux/

While the site apparently is geared towards Linux, the build instructions worked precisely on my mac.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,852 points

Feb 8, 2026 10:45 AM in response to dg020

dg020 wrote:

Whether the terminal update has already been released

Yes.

They mention about Powerline font support built in but where is it which font should I use?

That seems to be something entirely different. It's talking about the Powerline plugin for VIM. This plugin requires special fonts. I believe these are the areas were you see Powerline being used:

why my terminal looks totally different from pic I shared like not about the theme but the menu bar round corner and padding

I don't know what your Terminal looks like so I can't comment on that. I don't know what you mean about "menu bar round corner and padding". My Terminal looks pretty much like the screenshot, except for not using dark mode or vim.

how can make this new theme Clear Dark / Clear Light dynamic like how basic profile is changing bg color based on the device prefrence

I don't understand what you're asking. Those are just two new profiles with minor changes from existing ones.

If not released, whether there is an updated timeline or status

It is already released, but Apple never provides timelines or status. You get what you get when you get it.

If there are developer notes, documentation links, or beta features I should be aware of, please point me to them.

None of that exists for Terminal. Terminal is an unimportant tool on an unimportant platform. Somebody at Apple got funding to add Liquid Glass support. It took them 5 minutes to add those "Liquid Glass inspired" themes, so they went ahead and improved colour support and made some other internal improvements that were required for Powerline support. I can understand the improved colour support. That's been lacking for a long, long time. I had never heard of Powerline until you mentioned it, so that must be one person's pet peeve.

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