diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index e8ed65be7..8f000bd0c 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ Detailed list of changes
 
 - kitten icat: Fix image being displayed one cell to the right when using both ``--place`` and ``--unicode-placeholder`` (:iss:`6556`)
 
+- kitten run-shell: Make kitty terminfo database available if needed before starting the shell
+
 - macOS: Fix keyboard shortcuts in the Apple global menubar not being changed when reloading the config
 
 - Fix a crash when resizing an OS Window that is displaying more than one image and the new size is smaller than the image needs (:iss:`6555`)
diff --git a/docs/shell-integration.rst b/docs/shell-integration.rst
index a5750055a..1e4c2cc47 100644
--- a/docs/shell-integration.rst
+++ b/docs/shell-integration.rst
@@ -233,6 +233,8 @@ somewhere in the PATH, then you can log into the container with:
 
    docker exec -ti container-id kitten run-shell --shell=/path/to/your/shell/in/the/container
 
+The kitten will even take care of making the kitty terminfo database available
+in the container automatically.
 
 .. _clone_shell:
 
diff --git a/gen-go-code.py b/gen-go-code.py
index c8c33c244..25b902fa1 100755
--- a/gen-go-code.py
+++ b/gen-go-code.py
@@ -562,7 +562,6 @@ def load_ref_map() -> Dict[str, Dict[str, str]]:
 def generate_constants() -> str:
     from kittens.hints.main import DEFAULT_REGEX
     from kitty.fast_data_types import FILE_TRANSFER_CODE
-    from kitty.options.types import Options
     from kitty.options.utils import allowed_shell_integration_values
     del sys.modules['kittens.hints.main']
     ref_map = load_ref_map()
@@ -589,6 +588,7 @@ const IsFrozenBuild bool = false
 const IsStandaloneBuild bool = false
 const HandleTermiosSignals = {Mode.HANDLE_TERMIOS_SIGNALS.value[0]}
 const HintsDefaultRegex = `{DEFAULT_REGEX}`
+const DefaultTermName = `{Options.term}`
 var Version VersionType = VersionType{{Major: {kc.version.major}, Minor: {kc.version.minor}, Patch: {kc.version.patch},}}
 var DefaultPager []string = []string{{ {dp} }}
 var FunctionalKeyNameAliases = map[string]string{serialize_go_dict(functional_key_name_aliases)}
@@ -811,7 +811,7 @@ def generate_unicode_names(src: TextIO, dest: BinaryIO) -> None:
 
 def generate_ssh_kitten_data() -> None:
     files = {
-        'terminfo/kitty.terminfo', 'terminfo/x/xterm-kitty',
+        'terminfo/kitty.terminfo', 'terminfo/x/' + Options.term,
     }
     for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk('shell-integration'):
         for f in filenames:
diff --git a/kittens/ssh/main.go b/kittens/ssh/main.go
index 7fed0deed..e9f0d098f 100644
--- a/kittens/ssh/main.go
+++ b/kittens/ssh/main.go
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ func make_tarfile(cd *connection_data, get_local_env func(string) (string, bool)
 	}
 	err = add_entries(path.Join("home", ".terminfo"), shell_integration.Data()["terminfo/kitty.terminfo"])
 	if err == nil {
-		err = add_entries(path.Join("home", ".terminfo", "x"), shell_integration.Data()["terminfo/x/xterm-kitty"])
+		err = add_entries(path.Join("home", ".terminfo", "x"), shell_integration.Data()["terminfo/x/"+kitty.DefaultTermName])
 	}
 	if err == nil {
 		err = tw.Close()
diff --git a/kittens/ssh/main_test.go b/kittens/ssh/main_test.go
index 7656eeea9..da3fd1d83 100644
--- a/kittens/ssh/main_test.go
+++ b/kittens/ssh/main_test.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io/fs"
+	"kitty"
 	"kitty/tools/utils/shm"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ func TestSSHTarfile(t *testing.T) {
 	if !seen["data.sh"] {
 		t.Fatalf("data.sh missing")
 	}
-	for _, x := range []string{".terminfo/kitty.terminfo", ".terminfo/x/xterm-kitty"} {
+	for _, x := range []string{".terminfo/kitty.terminfo", ".terminfo/x/" + kitty.DefaultTermName} {
 		if !seen["home/"+x] {
 			t.Fatalf("%s missing", x)
 		}
diff --git a/kitty/terminfo.py b/kitty/terminfo.py
index d9523b7bf..56aa9cd4b 100644
--- a/kitty/terminfo.py
+++ b/kitty/terminfo.py
@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@
 
 import re
 from binascii import hexlify, unhexlify
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Dict, Generator, Optional, cast
+from typing import Dict, Generator, Optional, cast
 
-if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from .options.types import Options
+from kitty.options.types import Options
 
 
 def modify_key_bytes(keybytes: bytes, amt: int) -> bytes:
@@ -25,7 +24,7 @@ def encode_keystring(keybytes: bytes) -> str:
     return keybytes.decode('ascii').replace('\033', r'\E')
 
 
-names = 'xterm-kitty', 'KovIdTTY'
+names = Options.term, 'KovIdTTY'
 
 termcap_aliases = {
     'TN': 'name'
diff --git a/tools/cmd/run_shell/main.go b/tools/cmd/run_shell/main.go
index 1a3005f06..a3a60a545 100644
--- a/tools/cmd/run_shell/main.go
+++ b/tools/cmd/run_shell/main.go
@@ -4,11 +4,13 @@ package run_shell
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"kitty"
 	"os"
 	"strings"
 
 	"kitty/tools/cli"
 	"kitty/tools/tui"
+	"kitty/tools/tui/shell_integration"
 )
 
 var _ = fmt.Print
@@ -38,6 +40,19 @@ func main(args []string, opts *Options) (rc int, err error) {
 		}
 		changed = true
 	}
+	if os.Getenv("TERM") == "" {
+		os.Setenv("TERM", kitty.DefaultTermName)
+	}
+	if term := os.Getenv("TERM"); term == kitty.DefaultTermName && shell_integration.PathToTerminfoDb(term) == "" {
+		if terminfo_dir, err := shell_integration.EnsureTerminfoFiles(); err == nil {
+			os.Unsetenv("TERMINFO")
+			existing := os.Getenv("TERMINFO_DIRS")
+			if existing != "" {
+				existing = string(os.PathListSeparator) + existing
+			}
+			os.Setenv("TERMINFO_DIRS", terminfo_dir+existing)
+		}
+	}
 	err = tui.RunShell(tui.ResolveShell(opts.Shell), tui.ResolveShellIntegration(opts.ShellIntegration))
 	if changed {
 		os.Clearenv()
diff --git a/tools/tui/shell_integration/api.go b/tools/tui/shell_integration/api.go
index 3dd133c16..f3903a21c 100644
--- a/tools/tui/shell_integration/api.go
+++ b/tools/tui/shell_integration/api.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"archive/tar"
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
+	"kitty"
 	"kitty/tools/utils"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
@@ -55,6 +56,12 @@ func extract_shell_integration_for(shell_name string, dest_dir string) (err erro
 }
 
 func extract_terminfo(dest_dir string) (err error) {
+	var s os.FileInfo
+	if s, err = os.Stat(filepath.Join(dest_dir, "terminfo", "x", kitty.DefaultTermName)); err == nil && s.Mode().IsRegular() {
+		if s, err = os.Stat(filepath.Join(dest_dir, "terminfo", "78", kitty.DefaultTermName)); err == nil && s.Mode().IsRegular() {
+			return
+		}
+	}
 	if err = extract_files("terminfo/", dest_dir); err == nil {
 		dest := filepath.Join(dest_dir, "terminfo", "78")
 		err = os.Symlink("x", dest)
@@ -62,6 +69,76 @@ func extract_terminfo(dest_dir string) (err error) {
 	return
 }
 
+func PathToTerminfoDb(term string) (ans string) {
+	// see man terminfo for the algorithm ncurses uses for this
+
+	seen := utils.NewSet[string]()
+	check_dir := func(path string) string {
+		if seen.Has(path) {
+			return ``
+		}
+		seen.Add(path)
+		q := filepath.Join(path, term[:1], term)
+		if s, err := os.Stat(q); err == nil && s.Mode().IsRegular() {
+			return q
+		}
+		if entries, err := os.ReadDir(filepath.Join(path)); err == nil {
+			for _, x := range entries {
+				q := filepath.Join(path, x.Name(), term)
+				if s, err := os.Stat(q); err == nil && s.Mode().IsRegular() {
+					return q
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		return ``
+	}
+
+	if td := os.Getenv("TERMINFO"); td != "" {
+		if ans = check_dir(td); ans != "" {
+			return ans
+		}
+	}
+
+	if ans = check_dir(utils.Expanduser("~/.terminfo")); ans != "" {
+		return ans
+	}
+	if td := os.Getenv("TERMINFO_DIRS"); td != "" {
+		for _, q := range strings.Split(td, string(os.PathListSeparator)) {
+			if q == "" {
+				q = "/usr/share/terminfo"
+			}
+			if ans = check_dir(q); ans != "" {
+				return ans
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	for _, q := range []string{"/usr/share/terminfo", "/usr/lib/terminfo", "/usr/share/lib/terminfo"} {
+		if ans = check_dir(q); ans != "" {
+			return ans
+		}
+	}
+	return
+}
+
+func EnsureTerminfoFiles() (terminfo_dir string, err error) {
+	if kid := os.Getenv("KITTY_INSTALLATION_DIR"); kid != "" {
+		if s, e := os.Stat(kid); e == nil && s.IsDir() {
+			q := filepath.Join(kid, "terminfo")
+			if s, e := os.Stat(q); e == nil && s.IsDir() {
+				return q, nil
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	base := filepath.Join(utils.CacheDir(), "extracted-kti")
+	if err = os.MkdirAll(base, 0o755); err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	if err = extract_terminfo(base); err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("Failed to extract terminfo files with error: %w", err)
+	}
+	return filepath.Join(base, "terminfo"), nil
+}
+
 func EnsureShellIntegrationFilesFor(shell_name string) (shell_integration_dir_for_shell string, err error) {
 	if kid := os.Getenv("KITTY_INSTALLATION_DIR"); kid != "" {
 		if s, e := os.Stat(kid); e == nil && s.IsDir() {
diff --git a/tools/tui/shell_integration/api_test.go b/tools/tui/shell_integration/api_test.go
index 23c472e3f..868bdaf04 100644
--- a/tools/tui/shell_integration/api_test.go
+++ b/tools/tui/shell_integration/api_test.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package shell_integration
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
+	"kitty"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"testing"
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ func TestExtractShellIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 	if err = extract_terminfo(tdir); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(tdir, "terminfo", "78", "xterm-kitty")); err != nil {
+	if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(tdir, "terminfo", "78", kitty.DefaultTermName)); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 }