Terminal

Open your own shell on the agent's Machine to run commands, check its work or fix a problem.

A terminal is your own command line on the agent’s Machine, in a tab beside the Session. It works in the same files and checkout as the agent, so you can run the tests yourself, look at a running process, install a dependency, edit a file or dig into a failed setup without asking the agent to do it for you.

Open a terminal

Select + in the right sidebar’s tab row, then New terminal, or press Ctrl+Shift+` from anywhere on the page. The terminal opens as a tab named Terminal 1. If the Machine is asleep, it wakes first.

Press Ctrl+` to jump into the terminal you used last, and again to go back to where you were. Both shortcuts use Ctrl on a Mac too.

Work alongside the agent

• Same files. What you change shows up in Changes, and the agent sees it the next time it reads the file.
• Your own space. The agent doesn’t see what you type or what the terminal prints, and none of it goes into the Session. If it matters, tell the agent what you did.
• It doesn’t steer the agent. Typing in a terminal never stops or redirects the agent. Use the composer for that; see Talk to the agent.

Ctrl+C stops the running command, or copies when you have text selected. Links in the output open in a new browser tab.

Open several

Each New terminal opens another tab: Terminal 2, Terminal 3 and so on. Run a dev server in one and your commands in another. Tabs that don’t fit move under Open tabs in the + menu on a computer, and into the +N menu at the end of the row on a phone.

Terminals keep running on the Machine when you reload the page or switch devices. Open the Session again and each one comes back with its screen and its commands still running. Only one device types into a terminal at a time; typing on another device takes over.

To close a terminal, select its close button and confirm Close terminal. Anything still running in it stops.

On a phone, a row of keys under the terminal adds the ones a phone keyboard lacks, such as Esc, Tab, Ctrl and the arrows. Tap Ctrl, then a key, to press them together.

Who can use it

Terminals are for the Machine’s current owner. Teammates you share the Session with don’t see them.

A command you leave running can stop when the Machine goes to sleep. For long jobs, ask the agent to run them instead; see Keep a long job running.

If it doesn’t work

• Machine is asleep: select Wake machine. A terminal you already had open shows its last screen until the Machine is awake again.
• Couldn’t start a terminal: select Try again.
• Terminal isn’t available yet: the Machine updates once the agent is idle. Try again after the agent finishes.
• These terminals were on the previous Machine: select Dismiss, then open a new terminal.