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Terminal

aiTerm’s terminal is powered by alacritty_terminal for Rust-native VTE parsing and buffer management, with xterm.js as a thin WebGL renderer. Scrollback is stored in SQLite for crash-safe persistence — the state file stays tiny (~32KB) regardless of how much scrollback you have.

Core Features

  • alacritty_terminal + xterm.js — Rust-native VTE parsing with GPU-accelerated WebGL rendering
  • Split panes — horizontal and vertical splits, drag to resize, fully recursive binary tree layout
  • Multiple tabs — per-pane tabs with activity indicators and completion detection
  • Scrollback persistence — saves and restores terminal state across restarts
  • SSH session cloning — split an SSH session to get a second shell at the same remote CWD
  • Multi-window — open additional windows, duplicate windows with full tab context
  • Per-tab command history — each tab maintains its own shell history, cloned tabs inherit it
  • File drop — drag files onto a terminal to paste paths; over SSH, files are SCP’d to the remote CWD automatically
  • Image paste — paste clipboard images (Cmd+V) into Claude Code sessions as temp file paths

Shell Integration

aiTerm supports the FinalTerm protocol (OSC 133) for command start/finish detection:

  • Tab indicators — completed (checkmark/cross), at-prompt (›), and activity dot
  • OSC 7 — directory tracking, including remote CWD awareness through SSH
  • OSC 8 file hyperlinks — the l command wraps ls to emit clickable file links
  • Remote install — one-liner session setup or permanent ~/.bashrc/~/.zshrc installation

Tab Names

Tabs auto-update from terminal titles (OSC 0/2), but you can override with your own name — or combine both. Rename a tab “billing API debug” and it stays that way even as the terminal title changes underneath.

Deep Clone Everything

Duplicate a tab and get everything: scrollback history, CWD, SSH session, Claude resume command, tab name, notes, trigger variables. Or shallow clone for just the name and CWD. New tabs automatically inherit the workspace’s most common working directory.

Archive and Restore

Done with a session but not ready to lose it? Archive the tab. It disappears from your tab bar but preserves everything — scrollback, notes, trigger state. Restore it later and resume right where you left off.

Workspace Suspend & Resume

Suspend inactive workspaces to free resources — PTYs are killed and memory is released, but scrollback, CWD, SSH info, and all state are preserved. Click a suspended workspace to resume it instantly. Suspend individually, suspend all others, or configure auto-suspend after a timeout (15/30/60 min of inactivity).

State Backup & Import

Export your entire aiTerm state — workspaces, tabs, scrollback, notes, preferences, triggers — to a backup file. Import it on a new machine or restore after a reset.

  • Manual export/import from Preferences or the File menu
  • Scheduled backups — hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly with a directory of your choice
  • Gzip compression for scheduled backups
  • Auto-trim old backups by configurable age
  • Selective import — preview what’s in a backup, pick which workspaces to import, choose overwrite or merge mode
  • Exclude scrollback option to keep exports lightweight

Auto-Resume

Pin auto-resume settings so they survive across restarts. Configure SSH reconnection, remote CWD, and the resume command — aiTerm handles the rest. Edit settings anytime via context menu or replay with Cmd+Opt+R.