diff --git a/docs-master/Config.md b/docs-master/Config.md
index 16b6e2b5a..32fbd0a4e 100644
--- a/docs-master/Config.md
+++ b/docs-master/Config.md
@@ -302,14 +302,16 @@ gui:
   showFileIcons: true
 
   # How the commit graph is drawn.
-  # One of: 'classic' (default) | 'detailed'
+  # One of: 'auto' (default) | 'classic' | 'detailed'
   # 'detailed' connects the lines to the commit circles, and shows exactly where
   # branches fork off and merge. It draws the graph with the git branch drawing
   # symbols (U+F5D0 to U+F60D), so it needs a terminal that draws these itself:
   # kitty, Ghostty, WezTerm (nightly builds), Contour, or VS Code's terminal with
   # GPU acceleration. Other terminals need a font that contains them, such as
   # https://github.com/rbong/flog-symbols.
-  commitGraphStyle: classic
+  # 'auto' uses 'detailed' if lazygit recognizes the terminal as one that draws
+  # these symbols (kitty and Ghostty), and 'classic' otherwise.
+  commitGraphStyle: auto
 
   # Length of author name in (non-expanded) commits view. 2 means show initials
   # only.
diff --git a/pkg/config/user_config.go b/pkg/config/user_config.go
index b0279d011..c5e05ed94 100644
--- a/pkg/config/user_config.go
+++ b/pkg/config/user_config.go
@@ -180,9 +180,10 @@ type GuiConfig struct {
 	// If true (default), file icons are shown in the file views. Only relevant if NerdFontsVersion is not empty.
 	ShowFileIcons bool `yaml:"showFileIcons"`
 	// How the commit graph is drawn.
-	// One of: 'classic' (default) | 'detailed'
+	// One of: 'auto' (default) | 'classic' | 'detailed'
 	// 'detailed' connects the lines to the commit circles, and shows exactly where branches fork off and merge. It draws the graph with the git branch drawing symbols (U+F5D0 to U+F60D), so it needs a terminal that draws these itself: kitty, Ghostty, WezTerm (nightly builds), Contour, or VS Code's terminal with GPU acceleration. Other terminals need a font that contains them, such as https://github.com/rbong/flog-symbols.
-	CommitGraphStyle string `yaml:"commitGraphStyle" jsonschema:"enum=classic,enum=detailed"`
+	// 'auto' uses 'detailed' if lazygit recognizes the terminal as one that draws these symbols (kitty and Ghostty), and 'classic' otherwise.
+	CommitGraphStyle string `yaml:"commitGraphStyle" jsonschema:"enum=auto,enum=classic,enum=detailed"`
 	// Length of author name in (non-expanded) commits view. 2 means show initials only.
 	CommitAuthorShortLength int `yaml:"commitAuthorShortLength"`
 	// Length of author name in expanded commits view. 2 means show initials only.
@@ -926,7 +927,7 @@ func GetDefaultConfigForPlatform(platform string) *UserConfig {
 			ShowIcons:                           false,
 			NerdFontsVersion:                    "",
 			ShowFileIcons:                       true,
-			CommitGraphStyle:                    "classic",
+			CommitGraphStyle:                    "auto",
 			CommitAuthorShortLength:             2,
 			CommitAuthorLongLength:              17,
 			CommitHashLength:                    8,
diff --git a/pkg/config/user_config_validation.go b/pkg/config/user_config_validation.go
index d733a9577..cf5c85966 100644
--- a/pkg/config/user_config_validation.go
+++ b/pkg/config/user_config_validation.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ func (config *UserConfig) Validate() error {
 		return err
 	}
 	if err := validateEnum("gui.commitGraphStyle", config.Gui.CommitGraphStyle,
-		[]string{"classic", "detailed"}); err != nil {
+		[]string{"auto", "classic", "detailed"}); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	if err := validateEnum("git.autoForwardBranches", config.Git.AutoForwardBranches,
diff --git a/pkg/gocui/gui.go b/pkg/gocui/gui.go
index 87e7fb031..12968fa95 100644
--- a/pkg/gocui/gui.go
+++ b/pkg/gocui/gui.go
@@ -733,6 +733,12 @@ func (g *Gui) DetectedColorScheme() DetectedColorScheme {
 	return g.colorScheme
 }
 
+// Terminal returns the name and version that the terminal reported at
+// startup. Both are empty if it didn't report them.
+func (g *Gui) Terminal() (string, string) {
+	return g.screen.Terminal()
+}
+
 // SetColorSchemeChangeHandler sets a function to call on the UI thread whenever
 // the terminal's colors change after startup.
 func (g *Gui) SetColorSchemeChangeHandler(handler func(DetectedColorScheme) error) {
diff --git a/pkg/gui/context/local_commits_context.go b/pkg/gui/context/local_commits_context.go
index 4259da43d..6f3049f24 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/context/local_commits_context.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/context/local_commits_context.go
@@ -352,8 +352,13 @@ func shouldShowGraph(c *ContextCommon) bool {
 }
 
 func commitGraphSymbolSet(c *ContextCommon) graph.SymbolSet {
-	if c.UserConfig().Gui.CommitGraphStyle == "detailed" {
+	switch c.UserConfig().Gui.CommitGraphStyle {
+	case "detailed":
 		return graph.BranchDrawingSymbols
+	case "auto":
+		if graph.TerminalDrawsBranchDrawingSymbols(c.GocuiGui().Terminal()) {
+			return graph.BranchDrawingSymbols
+		}
 	}
 	return graph.BoxDrawingSymbols
 }
diff --git a/pkg/gui/gui.go b/pkg/gui/gui.go
index 8d66e99b1..3f6233fa7 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/gui.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/gui.go
@@ -934,6 +934,8 @@ func (gui *Gui) Run(startArgs appTypes.StartArgs) error {
 
 	g.ErrorHandler = gui.PopupHandler.ErrorHandler
 
+	terminalName, terminalVersion := g.Terminal()
+	gui.c.Log.Infof("Terminal: %s %s", terminalName, terminalVersion)
 	gui.c.Log.Infof("Terminal color scheme: %s", g.DetectedColorScheme())
 	g.SetColorSchemeChangeHandler(func(colorScheme gocui.DetectedColorScheme) error {
 		gui.c.Log.Infof("Terminal color scheme changed: %s", colorScheme)
diff --git a/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing.go b/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing.go
index 2e3537498..60271ad76 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing.go
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 package graph
 
+import (
+	"slices"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+)
+
 // The branch drawing symbols are characters in the Unicode Private Use Area
 // (U+F5D0 to U+F60D) for drawing git graphs, introduced by kitty in
 // https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/pull/7681. Unlike the box drawing
@@ -95,3 +101,32 @@ func (cell *Cell) branchDrawingChars() (string, string) {
 		return first, second
 	}
 }
+
+// The terminals that draw the branch drawing symbols themselves, with the
+// first version that draws all of them
+var terminalsWithBranchDrawingSymbols = map[string][]int{
+	"kitty":   {0, 36, 2},
+	"ghostty": {1, 0, 0},
+}
+
+// TerminalDrawsBranchDrawingSymbols says whether a terminal is known to draw
+// the branch drawing symbols itself, given the name and version it reports
+func TerminalDrawsBranchDrawingSymbols(name, version string) bool {
+	minVersion, ok := terminalsWithBranchDrawingSymbols[strings.ToLower(name)]
+	return ok && slices.Compare(versionNumbers(version), minVersion) >= 0
+}
+
+// The numbers at the start of the dot-separated parts of a version, e.g.
+// [1 3 0] for "1.3.0-dev+abc"
+func versionNumbers(version string) []int {
+	var numbers []int
+	for part := range strings.SplitSeq(version, ".") {
+		digits := part[:len(part)-len(strings.TrimLeft(part, "0123456789"))]
+		number, err := strconv.Atoi(digits)
+		if err != nil {
+			break
+		}
+		numbers = append(numbers, number)
+	}
+	return numbers
+}
diff --git a/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing_test.go b/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..651b31d23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/gui/presentation/graph/branch_drawing_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package graph
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestTerminalDrawsBranchDrawingSymbols(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name     string
+		version  string
+		expected bool
+	}{
+		{name: "kitty", version: "0.36.1", expected: false},
+		{name: "kitty", version: "0.36.2", expected: true},
+		{name: "kitty", version: "0.44.0", expected: true},
+		{name: "ghostty", version: "0.9.0", expected: false},
+		{name: "ghostty", version: "1.0.0", expected: true},
+		{name: "ghostty", version: "1.3.0-main+0123abcd", expected: true},
+		{name: "WezTerm", version: "20250601-102030-89abcdef", expected: false},
+		{name: "tmux", version: "3.5a", expected: false},
+		{name: "iTerm2", version: "3.6.4", expected: false},
+		{name: "kitty", version: "", expected: false},
+		{name: "", version: "", expected: false},
+	}
+
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		t.Run(test.name+" "+test.version, func(t *testing.T) {
+			assert.Equal(t, test.expected, TerminalDrawsBranchDrawingSymbols(test.name, test.version))
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/schema-master/config.json b/schema-master/config.json
index d93f1450a..88fb11f79 100644
--- a/schema-master/config.json
+++ b/schema-master/config.json
@@ -1224,11 +1224,12 @@
         "commitGraphStyle": {
           "type": "string",
           "enum": [
+            "auto",
             "classic",
             "detailed"
           ],
-          "description": "How the commit graph is drawn.\nOne of: 'classic' (default) | 'detailed'\n'detailed' connects the lines to the commit circles, and shows exactly where branches fork off and merge. It draws the graph with the git branch drawing symbols (U+F5D0 to U+F60D), so it needs a terminal that draws these itself: kitty, Ghostty, WezTerm (nightly builds), Contour, or VS Code's terminal with GPU acceleration. Other terminals need a font that contains them, such as https://github.com/rbong/flog-symbols.",
-          "default": "classic"
+          "description": "How the commit graph is drawn.\nOne of: 'auto' (default) | 'classic' | 'detailed'\n'detailed' connects the lines to the commit circles, and shows exactly where branches fork off and merge. It draws the graph with the git branch drawing symbols (U+F5D0 to U+F60D), so it needs a terminal that draws these itself: kitty, Ghostty, WezTerm (nightly builds), Contour, or VS Code's terminal with GPU acceleration. Other terminals need a font that contains them, such as https://github.com/rbong/flog-symbols.\n'auto' uses 'detailed' if lazygit recognizes the terminal as one that draws these symbols (kitty and Ghostty), and 'classic' otherwise.",
+          "default": "auto"
         },
         "commitAuthorShortLength": {
           "type": "integer",
diff --git a/test/default_test_config/config.yml b/test/default_test_config/config.yml
index 198fcbdd1..e5a893a13 100644
--- a/test/default_test_config/config.yml
+++ b/test/default_test_config/config.yml
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ gui:
     - black
   # Not important in tests but it creates clutter in demos
   showRandomTip: false
+  # The expected output of the tests draws the commit graph with box drawing
+  # characters, whichever terminal a test runs in
+  commitGraphStyle: classic
   animateExplosion: false # takes too long
 git:
   # We don't want to run any periodic background git commands because it'll introduce race conditions and flakiness.