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Terminal

Every session in Omniscribe runs in a full terminal emulator built on xterm.js with WebGL rendering for GPU-accelerated performance. The terminal supports standard shell features, clickable links, search, and extensive customization.

Press Cmd+F (macOS) or Ctrl+F (Windows/Linux) to open the terminal search bar. Search supports two modes:

  • Case-sensitive — Toggle to match exact letter casing
  • Regex — Toggle to use regular expressions for pattern matching

The search highlights all matches in the terminal scrollback and lets you navigate between them with the arrow buttons.

Copy and Paste

  • CopyCmd+C (macOS) or Ctrl+C (Windows/Linux) copies the selected text. If nothing is selected, the shortcut sends ^C (interrupt signal) to the running process instead.
  • PasteCmd+V (macOS) or Ctrl+V (Windows/Linux) pastes from the clipboard.

The terminal automatically detects two types of clickable content:

Paths like src/main.ts:42 are clickable and open the file at that line number in your configured editor. Supported editors:

  • VS Code (vscode://)
  • VS Code Insiders (vscode-insiders://)
  • Cursor (cursor://)

Configure your preferred editor in Settings > Terminal > Editor Protocol.

URLs (starting with http:// or https://) are clickable and open in your default browser.

Output Preservation

Terminal output is preserved when you switch between tabs. If you navigate away from a tab and come back, the full terminal history is still there — no lost output.

Session Management

Rename Sessions

Double-click the terminal title in the header to rename the session. This is useful for labeling sessions by their purpose (e.g., "Backend Refactor" or "Test Suite").

Open in Editor

The terminal dropdown menu includes an Open in Editor option that opens the session's working directory in your configured editor. This is a quick way to jump into the code that the AI is working on.

Terminal Settings

Configure the terminal in Settings > Terminal:

SettingDescription
Font FamilyMonospace font used in the terminal
Font SizeText size in pixels
Cursor StyleBlock, underline, or bar
Cursor BlinkWhether the cursor blinks
Scrollback LinesNumber of lines kept in the scroll buffer
Terminal ThemeColor scheme for the terminal
Editor ProtocolWhich editor opens file path links

Terminal Themes

Omniscribe includes 12 built-in terminal color themes:

  • midnight
  • tokyonight
  • dark
  • light
  • dracula
  • nord
  • monokai
  • gruvbox
  • catppuccin
  • onedark
  • solarized
  • github-light

Change the terminal theme in Settings > Terminal > Terminal Theme. The theme applies to all terminals across the app.

Backpressure Handling

When a process produces output faster than the terminal can render it (common during large builds or verbose logging), a "Buffering output..." overlay appears temporarily. The terminal continues to capture all output and renders it once the burst subsides. No output is lost.

Error Recovery

If a terminal encounters a rendering error, a per-terminal error boundary catches it and displays a restart option. Click Restart to reinitialize the terminal without affecting other sessions in the grid.