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Kangentic

Command Terminal

The Command Terminal gives you instant access to your default agent without creating a task on the board. Use it for one-off actions like creating releases, running queries, or any ad-hoc interaction that doesn’t need to be tracked as a task.

Opening the Command Terminal

Section titled “Opening the Command Terminal”

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+P (macOS), or click the terminal icon in the title bar (next to the settings gear). The icon’s border reflects activity across your open terminals: it marches green while an agent is working, holds a steady amber when one needs your input, and stays plain when everything is idle.

A window opens over a slight backdrop blur, with an agent session running at your project root using whichever CLI is set as the project’s default agent (any of the eleven supported agents - Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Qwen Code, Kimi Code, OpenCode, Factory Droid, Cursor, Copilot, Aider, or Warp).

How It Works

Section titled “How It Works”

The Command Terminal spawns a transient session - a lightweight agent process that is fully independent of your board tasks:

  • Runs at the project root on the configured default base branch
  • Before spawning, Kangentic runs git fetch and fast-forwards the base branch so the session starts against the latest remote state
  • Does not appear in the bottom panel’s terminal tabs
  • Does not count toward the concurrent session limit
  • Produces no toast notifications on exit
  • Preserved across project switches - switch to another project and back, and the terminal is still running. Each project keeps its own terminals, so you can leave ad-hoc work going as you move between projects
  • Non-resumable by design - stopping a terminal ends its session permanently

A shimmer overlay shows while the agent CLI initializes, then lifts to reveal the clean TUI. An idle indicator appears when the session is waiting for input. The Command Terminal session is included in the focused-session set for live PTY data, and idle notifications clearly label it as a Command Terminal session.

If you submit a prompt without an explicit task title, Kangentic auto-names the session from the prompt summary. See Auto-Naming.

You can also open the Changes panel from the Command Terminal window to review the diff against the base branch while working.

Window Behaviors

Section titled “Window Behaviors”

The Command Terminal is a real window, not a fixed overlay. You can:

  • Drag it by the header and resize it from any edge or corner
  • Maximize / restore it - double-click the header, click the maximize button, or press Ctrl+Shift+M (Cmd+Shift+M on macOS). Maximized, it fills the area between the title bar and status bar so controls and live stats stay reachable
  • Snap it to a screen half or full screen, Windows-style

The layout (size, position, and maximized state) persists globally across every project and app restart, so the terminal always reopens where you left it.

Multiple Terminals

Section titled “Multiple Terminals”

Run up to four Command Terminals at once. While the layer is open, the title-bar terminal icon shows a + in its center - click it to open another terminal.

  • New terminals tile into the current window’s footprint, side by side, so you can keep two or more ad-hoc tasks cooking and glance between them
  • Drag the seam between tiled terminals to rebalance them
  • The header’s tile-layout button offers one-click snap (left, right, top, bottom) and tilings (columns, grid)
  • When a terminal is tiled, a pop-out button floats it back out of the tile group
  • As a window narrows, the quick-action pills (Commands, Project, Changes, shortcuts) fold into a ... menu so the title always keeps its space

Context Bar

Section titled “Context Bar”

The Command Terminal carries the same context bar as a board session - shell, agent version, elapsed time, model, session cost, tool-call count (click for a per-tool breakdown), token usage, and context window fraction. The model and effort pills are interactive here too: click either to switch the running session’s model or reasoning level on the fly. See Context Bar.

Branch Picker

Section titled “Branch Picker”

The header includes a branch picker that lets you switch branches without leaving the window:

  1. Select a different branch from the dropdown
  2. The current session is killed
  3. A new session spawns on the selected branch

Hiding vs Stopping

Section titled “Hiding vs Stopping”

Hiding keeps your terminals alive in the background. Press Ctrl+Shift+P again, press Ctrl+Shift+W, or click the blurred backdrop to hide the layer. Every PTY keeps running, and reopening reattaches - the layout and running sessions are exactly where you left them.

Stopping destroys a single terminal. There is no per-window close button; instead, a window’s Stop control (red, also in the kebab menu as “Stop terminal”) kills that PTY, cleans up its session directory, and closes the window. The other terminals stay open. Stopping the last terminal hides the layer. Because transient sessions are non-resumable by design, a stopped terminal cannot be brought back.

When to Use It

Section titled “When to Use It”
  • Quick questions - ask Claude about the codebase without creating a task
  • Releases - run release scripts or tag management
  • One-off fixes - small changes that don’t warrant a tracked task
  • Exploration - investigate code or debug issues interactively

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”

See also: