# Terminals
Agent Desk's terminal system provides a full-featured terminal experience with native process management and a flexible grid layout, plus agent-aware enhancements.
## Creating Terminals
There are several ways to create a new terminal:
| Method | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| Ctrl+Shift+T | New terminal using default profile |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | New terminal using first agent profile |
| Command Palette | Ctrl+Shift+P then select a profile |
| Context Menu | Right-click a tab for options |
Each terminal is created from a **profile** that defines the shell command, arguments, working directory, and icon. See [Profiles](/guide/profiles) for details.
## Tab Management
Terminals appear as tabs in the terminal grid. Each tab shows:
- The terminal title (profile name or auto-detected agent name)
- A status indicator dot (running, idle, exited)
- A close button (hover to reveal, configurable in Settings)
### Tab Actions
- **Click** a tab to focus that terminal
- **Double-click** a tab to rename it
- **Drag** a tab to reorder or move it to a different grid position
- **Right-click** a tab for the context menu (rename, save output, restart, close)
## Grid Layout
The terminal area uses a flexible grid layout. You can create complex multi-pane arrangements:
### Splitting
- Ctrl+Shift+D or Ctrl+\\ -- Split the active terminal to the right
- Ctrl+Shift+E -- Split the active terminal downward
### Navigation
- Alt+Left/Right/Up/Down -- Focus the terminal in that direction
- Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab -- Cycle through all terminals
- Ctrl+P -- Quick Switcher for instant jump-to-terminal by name
### Resize and Maximize
- **Drag dividers** between panes to resize
- Ctrl+Shift+M -- Toggle maximize for the active terminal (hides all other panes temporarily)
### Pop-Out Windows
Terminals can be popped out into separate windows via the context menu. This is useful when you want an agent running on a secondary monitor while keeping the main grid for other work.
## Terminal Features
### In-Terminal Search
Press Ctrl+F to open the search bar within the active terminal. This uses the built-in search to find text in the scrollback buffer.
- Navigate matches with the arrow buttons or Enter/Shift+Enter
- Press Escape to close the search bar
### Save Output
Press Ctrl+Shift+S to save the entire terminal buffer to a file. A native save dialog opens where you can choose the output location and format.
### Select / Copy Last Output
The command palette includes actions to select or copy the output of the last command. These work with shell integration (see [Shell Integration](/guide/shell-integration)) to detect command boundaries.
### Scrollback Buffer
Terminals maintain a configurable scrollback buffer (default: 10,000 lines). You can adjust this in Settings under the Terminal section.
## Terminal Status
Each terminal tracks its process status:
- **Running** (green dot) -- the shell or agent process is active
- **Idle** -- the process is running but no recent activity
- **Exited** (red dot) -- the process has terminated
When a terminal contains a detected AI agent, additional status information is shown including the agent's current activity, tool calls, and cost metrics.
## Closing Terminals
- Ctrl+W -- Close the active terminal (with confirmation if the process is running)
- Click the close button on a tab
- Right-click the tab and select Close
::: tip
If you accidentally close a terminal, the session data is not recoverable. Consider using [Workspaces](/guide/workspaces) to save your layout for easy restoration.
:::
## Related
- [Profiles](/guide/profiles) -- Configure terminal profiles
- [Search](/guide/search) -- In-terminal and cross-terminal search
- [Shell Integration](/guide/shell-integration) -- Enhanced shell features with OSC sequences
- [Keybindings](/guide/keybindings) -- Customize keyboard shortcuts