Creating Terminal Sessions

How to create and manage terminal sessions across workspaces.

Terminal sessions in Treq are full PTY shells bound to a workspace's directory. Each workspace can have multiple sessions for running parallel processes like dev servers, tests, and builds. Sessions support copy/paste, clickable URLs, and your default shell.

Creating Sessions

When you create a workspace and click "Open," Treq automatically creates a session with the working directory set to the workspace path. To create additional sessions for an existing workspace, right-click the workspace and select New Session, or click the + icon in the session tabs.

Managing Sessions

Give sessions meaningful names by right-clicking the tab and selecting Rename Session. Names like "Dev Server," "Tests," or "Build" help you identify their purpose. Session tabs show status indicators: green for active, gray for backgrounded, yellow for unread output, and ✕ for exited processes.

Switch between sessions by clicking tabs, using Cmd+1 through Cmd+9 for quick access, or Cmd+[ / Cmd+] for previous and next. The command palette (Cmd+K) also lets you jump to any session by name.

Working with Multiple Sessions

Create separate sessions for long-running processes so you don't have to stop and restart them. A typical full-stack setup uses one session for the frontend dev server, another for the backend, a third for the database container, and a fourth for general commands and git operations.

The terminal supports all standard operations: Cmd+C to copy or interrupt, Cmd+V to paste, Cmd+F to search output, and Cmd+K or clear to clear the screen. URLs are clickable with Cmd+Click.

Session Settings

Configure terminal appearance in Settings → Terminal: font family (monospace fonts like Fira Code or JetBrains Mono), font size (12-16px recommended), default shell (bash, zsh, fish, or custom path), and scrollback buffer size.

For session-specific initialization, set environment variables with export or add logic to your shell's RC file.

Closing Sessions

Close sessions by clicking the ✕ on the tab or right-clicking and selecting Close Session. If processes are running, Treq asks you to confirm. Close unused sessions periodically to keep the UI clean. Terminal buffers consume minimal resources, but clutter adds up.

Troubleshooting

If a session won't open, verify the shell path in Settings → Terminal → Default Shell (which zsh or which bash). For garbled output, type reset or reopen the session. If commands fail, check your working directory with pwd and verify you're in the correct workspace.