Accessing dictionary keys using defaults How do I use defaults to access a specific field in a dictionary? I've tried doing this

$ defaults read -app Terminal "Window Settings.Pro"


but it doesn't work. Accessing "Window Settings" on its own does work though, and Pro is a key in that dictionary.
defaults isn't capable of doing this. 

One of the options you have is plistbuddy :

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "print 'Window Settings':Pro" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist