# 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

1. Open a conversation.
2. 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.

> [!TIP]
> Hiding the drawer does not stop anything. Your processes keep running until you close their terminal.

## 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](./integrated-browser.md).

Source: https://vatoide.com/docs/workspace/terminal