Add a Terminal

Terminals are the heart of 1DevTool. Every AI agent you run, every shell command you type, every build process you watch — it all happens inside a terminal panel. Adding a new terminal takes two seconds, and you can have as many open as your screen allows.

Two Ways to Add a Terminal

Method 1: The + Button

Look at the header bar of any existing terminal panel. On the right side of the header, you'll see a + button. Click it to open the terminal picker. This is the most direct way to add a terminal when you're already working inside one.

Method 2: Keyboard Shortcut

Press Cmd+T on Mac or Ctrl+T on Windows/Linux. The terminal picker opens immediately, no matter which panel is currently focused. This is the fastest method once it becomes muscle memory.

The Terminal Picker

When you open the terminal picker, you'll see a list of terminal types to choose from:

• Claude Code — Anthropic's AI coding agent. It reads your codebase, writes and edits files, runs commands, and iterates on your instructions.
• Codex — OpenAI's coding agent. Similar capabilities with a different model underneath.
• Gemini CLI — Google's AI coding agent, useful when you want a different perspective on a problem.
• Bash / Zsh / Fish — A plain terminal running your default shell. No AI, just a regular command line.
• Custom command — Type any command you want to run in the terminal. Useful for starting a dev server, running a test watcher, or launching any other long-running process.

Select the type you want and the terminal opens immediately in your project's root folder.

Naming Your Terminal

After selecting the terminal type, you can give it a name before it opens. Naming terminals becomes important when you have several running at the same time — it's much easier to glance at "UI agent" and "API agent" than two panels both labeled "Claude Code."

You can also rename a terminal later by double-clicking its tab in the panel header.

Rearranging Terminals in the Grid

If you're using the 2×2 grid layout, you can drag terminal panels to different positions in the grid. Click and hold the panel's header bar, then drag it to the slot where you want it. The panels will swap positions.

This is useful when you want a specific agent in the top-left corner where your eye naturally goes first, or when you want related panels (like a terminal and a browser) next to each other.

Hiding a Terminal

Sometimes you want a terminal to keep running without taking up space on screen. Maybe a build process is churning away, and you don't need to watch it — you just need it to run.

Click the eye icon in the terminal's header to hide it. The panel disappears from the main area, but the process inside it keeps running. You'll see the agent badge in the sidebar update to show it's still active.

To bring a hidden terminal back into view, open the session manager (click the session icon in the status bar) and click the terminal you want to restore. It reappears in the main area exactly where it was.