Project Terminal
Open plain shell terminals in a project's root folder from the project view. They keep running in the background, so a dev server or file watcher stays up.
The project view's Terminal tab gives you plain shell terminals in the project's root directory — the folder you registered as the project, its primary checkout — and keeps them running in the background, so a dev server, watcher, or build you start here keeps going wherever you navigate. Throughout this page ⌘ is Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux.
Open the Terminal tab
Click a project row in the left sidebar to open the project view, then pick the Terminal tab — or press ⌘3 from anywhere in the project view. It's the third tab, alongside Dashboard (⌘1) and Git (⌘2):
| ⌘1 | Switch to the Dashboard tab |
| ⌘2 | Switch to the Git tab |
| ⌘3 | Switch to the Terminal tab |
The first shell spawns automatically the moment you open the tab. These bindings share their default combos with the session tab shortcuts — a session and a project are never in view at the same time, so they don't conflict, and each is rebindable on its own. Plexus remembers which tab you left open per project.
Run multiple terminals
The tab is a tab strip, so you can keep several shells open at once — each an independent login shell with its own scrollback, started in the project root:
- Click
+to add a new terminal. - Double-click a tab to rename it inline.
- Click the
×on a tab to close that shell.
Use them for whatever runs at the repository root: start the dev server, run a file watcher, kick off a build, or tail logs while your sessions work in their own worktrees. Which shell Plexus spawns follows the global Terminal shell setting (Settings → General) — see Choose which shell to run.
Keep-warm behavior
These terminals belong to the project, not to any one tab or session. Switching tabs, opening a session, or moving to another project leaves them running in the background — nothing in flight is interrupted, and returning to the Terminal tab re-attaches you to the full scrollback. That makes the project Terminal the right home for a long-running root process like a dev server, watcher, or build.
They're only torn down when the project itself is deleted or archived — closing the project view or navigating away never kills them.
Give a terminal its own window
Right-click a terminal's tab and choose Open in new window to move that one shell into a separate window, so a dev server's output can sit on a second screen. It keeps running and keeps its scrollback while it moves, and closing the window puts it back in the tab strip. To move the whole project view instead, use Open in new window in the project's ⋯ menu. See Multiple windows.
Related
- Session Terminal — the per-session bottom shells, rooted in a session's worktree.
- Project Git client — the project view's Git tab.
- Dashboard — the project view's session table.
- Multiple windows — moving a terminal, a session or a project into its own window.
- Keyboard shortcuts — the project tab bindings.