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Terminal

Run local and SSH shells, organize work in tabs and panes, search output, and tune terminal rendering in Zync.

Zync gives every workspace a full terminal for local shells and SSH sessions. Open several shells, arrange them beside one another, search their scrollback, and adjust rendering and typography without leaving the workspace.

Open a terminal

Section titled “Open a terminal”

Start a local shell

Section titled “Start a local shell”

Choose Local in the sidebar, then open a terminal if one is not already present. On Linux and macOS, Zync uses the system shell. On Windows, choose a default shell in Settings > Terminal > Local shell. PowerShell, Command Prompt, Git Bash, WSL, and detected WSL distributions can be selected for new tabs.

Start an SSH shell

Section titled “Start an SSH shell”

Open a saved host from the sidebar and select its Terminal view. Connect when prompted. Zync starts a remote shell over SSH after the connection is ready. To add a host first, see the connection guide.

Work with tabs

Section titled “Work with tabs”

Each local shell or host can have multiple terminal tabs. Use + in the terminal tab bar to open another shell in the same scope, then select a tab to switch between sessions.

Switching tabs keeps the terminal session and its scrollback available. Running processes continue when the tab remains connected. Close a terminal tab from its close button or its tab context menu.

Right-click a terminal tab for actions such as closing it, opening it in a split, or removing a split from the focused pane.

Split and dock panes

Section titled “Split and dock panes”

Splits can combine shells with Files, Port Forwarding, Dashboard, and Snippets. They support nested side-by-side and stacked layouts, drag-to-edge docking, directional focus, resizing, balancing, and up to four visible panes.

Read Split panes for the complete workspace layout guide.

Search terminal output

Section titled “Search terminal output”

Select Find in the terminal toolbar to search the focused terminal’s scrollback. You can also use its configured binding when the shortcut focus policy allows Zync to handle it; Ctrl+F or Cmd+F may belong to the running shell in terminal-first mode.

  • Press Enter to move to the next match.
  • Press Shift+Enter to move to the previous match.
  • Press Escape or the close button to dismiss the search bar and return focus to the terminal.

Search is scoped to the focused terminal. Switch tabs when you need to search another session.

Right-click actions

Section titled “Right-click actions”

In Zync 2.36.0 and later, choose Right-click action under Settings > Terminal > Mouse & clipboard, or use the same controls in the terminal settings sidebar. The preference is global and applies to local and SSH terminals.

Choice Behavior
Context menu Open Zync’s menu. This remains the default.
Pass to terminal / Paste Send the click to a terminal app that has enabled mouse reporting; otherwise paste the clipboard.

Shift + right-click, Shift + F10 and the keyboard context-menu key open Zync’s menu regardless of the selected option. Mouse pass-through depends on the running app enabling mouse reporting; merely running inside tmux does not guarantee that it is active.

The menu includes common actions:

  • Copy the current selection.
  • Paste text from the clipboard.
  • Select All terminal content.
  • Open File Manager Here at the shell’s last known directory.
  • Clear Terminal without closing the shell.

Copy on selection

Section titled “Copy on selection”

Enable Copy on selection in the same settings to copy text after completing a mouse selection. It is off by default. A brief Copied indicator appears near the selection after a successful automatic copy. Turning it off leaves text selection available without automatically changing the clipboard.

An app using mouse reporting normally owns selection gestures too. Use the terminal’s force-selection modifier, such as Shift on Windows or Linux, to select terminal text instead of sending the gesture to the app. Copy-on-selection does not read an application’s private selection buffer.

Open Files from a terminal

Section titled “Open Files from a terminal”

When a Files pane is available, Open File Manager Here can open Files beside the shell. See the file manager guide for navigation workflows.

Files and Terminal work in both directions:

  • Use Open Terminal Here from Files to start or focus a shell at the selected directory.
  • Use Open File Manager Here from a terminal to browse its last known directory.
  • Drag a file or folder from Files onto any visible shell pane to paste its safely quoted path. Zync does not press Enter, so you can review or extend the command first.

Rendering and terminal output

Section titled “Rendering and terminal output”

Zync uses a GPU-backed WebGL renderer for the active terminal when WebGL2 is available. If GPU acceleration is disabled, unavailable, or loses its context, Zync switches to the built-in DOM renderer and keeps the terminal usable.

Open Settings > Terminal > Rendering to turn GPU Acceleration (WebGL) on or off. The renderer status shown in the same section explains whether the active terminal is using GPU or DOM rendering.

Terminal output uses bounded queues while the renderer catches up. This is flow control, not a configurable output-speed limit or a promise that total app memory has a fixed cap.

The terminal also supports linked URLs and inline terminal images such as Sixel and iTerm image output when the shell and connection provide them. Kitty graphics are not currently supported.

Appearance and shell settings

Section titled “Appearance and shell settings”

Use Settings > Terminal for the terminal’s look:

  • Font family, size, regular and bold weight.
  • Cursor style, cursor blink, line height, and padding.
  • Font ligatures, opacity, and desktop transparency.

Use Settings > Terminal for behavior:

  • GPU rendering and renderer status.
  • Right-click behavior and optional copy-on-selection.
  • The default Windows shell for new local tabs and split panes.
  • Optional suspension of quiet background SSH host shells.

When Suspend idle host shells is enabled, background remote PTYs can pause after the configured idle period while scrollback is preserved. Press Enter when you return to resume the shell. Local terminals are not suspended by this setting.

Section titled “Related guides”