ipython-icat 0.4.2

IPython magic command for displaying images in kitty terminal

ipython-icat

Installation

You can install ipython-icat using pip:

pip install ipython-icat

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• IPython
• matplotlib
• Pillow (PIL)
• terminal emulator with support for kitty graphics protocol (KGP) e.g., kitty, ghostty

Usage

Loading the Extension

In your IPython session, load the extension:

%load_ext icat

For startup files, Neovim terminals, or other launchers that should enable the backend immediately after loading the extension, set:

IPYTHON_ICAT_AUTO=1

Displaying Matplotlib Plots

To enable icat integration for both matplotlib plots and automatic PIL image rendering:

%icat

After running this command:

• Matplotlib plots will be displayed directly in your kitty-compatible terminal.
• Evaluating a PIL.Image.Image value (e.g. typing img at the prompt) will automatically render it.

You can also run:

• %icat status to see whether integration is enabled
• %icat off to disable auto-rendering and restore the previous matplotlib backend (best-effort)

Use as a Default Backend

To set the kitty backend for matplotlib as the default, add the following lines to your IPython configuration file:

1. c.InteractiveShellApp.extensions = ['icat']
2. c.InteractiveShellApp.exec_lines = ['%icat on']

Automatic Setup

You can quickly set up IPython to use the icat extension using the setup command:

python -m icat setup

This command will:

1. Create an IPython profile if it doesn't exist (or use an existing one)
2. Configure the profile to load the icat extension automatically
3. Set matplotlib to use the icat backend by default

Additional options:

• --profile NAME - Use a specific profile instead of the default
• --ipython-path PATH - Specify a custom path to the .ipython directory

Example with custom profile:

python -m icat setup --profile myprofile

Displaying Images

To display an image file, a PIL Image object, or a Python expression that evaluates to a PIL Image:

%icat path/to/your/image.jpg

or

from PIL import Image
img = Image.open('path/to/your/image.jpg')
%icat img

Expressions work too:

%icat ds[0].image

You can also resize the image when displaying:

%icat path/to/your/image.jpg -W 300 -H 200

Using Ghostty

If you'd like to use this plugin with Ghostty, make sure to install the static kitten binary which will allow you to run kitten icat.

Using Full-Screen Terminal Apps

ipython-icat can render through full-screen terminal programs, such as Neovim terminal buffers, by asking kitten icat to emit Kitty unicode placeholders. Enable that mode with:

IPYTHON_ICAT_PLACEHOLDER=1

The placeholder path is configured with environment variables:

• IPYTHON_ICAT_CELL_PIXELS=WIDTHxHEIGHT supplies the terminal cell size in pixels. This lets kitten icat compute the window size when IPython is running inside an embedded terminal.
• IPYTHON_ICAT_WINDOW_SIZE=COLS,ROWS,WIDTH_PX,HEIGHT_PX overrides the computed window size completely.
• IPYTHON_ICAT_TRANSFER_MODE=stream|file|memory|detect selects the Kitty graphics transfer mode. The default is stream, which works reliably through Neovim and Ghostty.
• IPYTHON_ICAT_PASSTHROUGH=none|tmux|detect controls whether kitten icat wraps graphics commands for tmux. The default is none; use this when a host program relays the graphics request itself.

pyrepl.nvim sets these variables automatically when starting IPython and relays Kitty graphics requests from the embedded terminal to the host terminal.

Features

• Display matplotlib plots directly in kitty terminal
• Show PIL Image objects or image files
• Resize images on display
• Seamless integration with IPython workflow
• Kitty unicode-placeholder support for embedded terminal workflows

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Acknowledgments

• matplotlib-backend-kitty for the original implementation
• matplotlib and Pillow for their excellent libraries
• kitty terminal for developing the graphics protocol

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.