Terminal
Open interactive terminals under a conversation, arrange them, and follow the servers your agents start.
Each conversation can have its own interactive terminals. They open in a drawer under the conversation, in the project folder, so you can run a command without leaving your work.
Open the terminal
- Open a conversation.
- In the Environment panel on the right, click Interactive terminal. The number next to it shows how many terminals are open.
The terminal drawer opens under the conversation. Click Interactive terminal again to hide it.
If the window is narrow, the Environment panel is folded away. Click the arrow on the right edge (Show activity sidebar) to show it.
Which shell opens
| System | Shell |
|---|---|
| macOS | Your login shell, usually zsh. |
| Windows | PowerShell. If it isn't available, Vato uses the Command Prompt. |
On Windows, a project stored inside WSL opens a WSL shell.
Work in the terminal
- Links printed in the terminal are clickable and open in your web browser.
- Drag the top edge of the drawer to make it taller or shorter.
- A green dot in the terminal header means a command is running. When a server listens on a port, the header also shows that port, such as
:5173.
Arrange several terminals
Each terminal has a header with its name or last command, and these buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Add terminal below | Opens a new terminal under this one. |
| Add terminal beside | Opens a new terminal on the side. Choose Add on the left or Add on the right. |
| Minimize terminal panel | Hides the drawer and brings you back to the conversation. |
| Close this terminal | Closes this terminal and stops its process. |
To move a terminal, drag its header onto another terminal and drop it Above, Below, Left or Right. Drag the lines between terminals to resize them.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| New terminal beside | ⌘⇧→ | Ctrl+Shift+→ |
| New terminal below | ⌘⇧↓ | Ctrl+Shift+↓ |
You can change them in Settings → Shortcuts.
Close a terminal
Click Close this terminal. If a command is still running, Vato asks Close this terminal? because closing stops the process immediately. Click Close terminal to confirm.
Servers started by agents
Agents can start servers and long commands in their own terminals, without showing them. When they do, the Environment panel lists them under Servers and terminals. For each one you can:
- Watch live (keeps the process running) to show its output in the terminal drawer. Close the view, keep the process running hides it again.
- Open its address, such as
http://localhost:5173, in your web browser. - Stop the server or Stop this terminal.
Use Refresh local servers if the list looks out of date.
To see your app inside Vato instead, use the Integrated browser.