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Cross-platform multi-terminal app with tiling layouts, floating panels, and a keyboard-driven workflow

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Get the max out of your terminal. A powerful cross-platform multi-terminal app with tiling layouts, floating panels, and a keyboard-driven workflow.

<a href="https://inbarr.github.io/tmax/overview/">📖 Interactive Overview</a> · 
 <a href="https://inbarr.github.io/tmax/">🌐 Landing Page</a> · 
 <a href="https://github.com/InbarR/tmax/releases/latest">⬇️ Download</a>

Built with Electron, React, TypeScript, xterm.js, and node-pty.

![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/Windows-0078D6?logo=windows&logoColor=white) ![macOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS-000000?logo=apple&logoColor=white) ![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/Linux-FCC624?logo=linux&logoColor=black) ![Electron](https://img.shields.io/badge/Electron-30-47848F) ![TypeScript](https://img.shields.io/badge/TypeScript-5-3178C6)

![tmax Screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/InbarR/tmax/main/assets/screenshot.png)

## Features

**Multiple Terminals in One View**
- Tiling layout with horizontal/vertical splits (binary tree, like tmux)
- Floating panels that can be dragged, resized, and maximized; floating panes show a `[FLOAT]` pill in the title bar
- Float / restore button in every pane title bar (or `Ctrl+Shift+U`)
- Equalize all panes to the same size with one shortcut
- Status indicators per pane (green = active, grey = idle, red = error)
- Focused pane highlighted with green-tinted title bar
- Status bar terminal count is clickable - opens a popover listing every terminal with its title, mode, and AI session status; click a row to focus it
- Floating "jump to bottom" button appears when you scroll up in any pane; click to snap back to the live tail

**Workspaces**
- A tab is a workspace - each one keeps its own panes, layout, and color tint
- Drag workspace tabs to reorder; the order persists across restarts
- Switch workspaces from the workspace tab bar; per-workspace state is saved across restarts
- Multi-select panes (Ctrl+click / Cmd+click on a pane title bar) to act on several at once - "Show Selected (N)" toolbar button plus Command Palette entries (Show Selected Panes / Show All Panes / Clear Pane Selection)
- Move a pane to another workspace from the pane ⋯ menu or the Command Palette - PTY, cwd, and scrollback survive the move
- Per-workspace color tint with a colorize toggle that paints the workspace tab and its pane title bars
- Focus-mode pane indicator: a row of dots at the bottom of the focused pane shows the pane count and lets you click to switch (Ctrl+Tab still works for power users)

**Grid View Mode**
- Toggle between Focus (single terminal) and Grid layout (`Ctrl+Shift+F`)
- Grid auto-arranges terminals: 2x2, 3x2, etc. based on terminal count
- Cycle grid column count with `Ctrl+Shift+L` (1-col stack, 2-col, 3-col, ...)
- Fully resizable dividers in grid mode

**Tab Groups**
- Group related tabs with shared colors and collapsible headers
- Right-click tab > Add to Group (supports multi-select with Ctrl+click)
- Group header right-click: Rename, Color picker, Ungroup All, Close All
- Drag tabs between groups to reorganize
- Group color tints both tabs and terminal pane backgrounds

**AI Sessions Panel**
- Monitor GitHub Copilot and Claude Code sessions in real-time (`Ctrl+Shift+C`)
- Shows session status, summary, branch, repo, message/tool counts, and relative time
- Click a session to resume it directly in a new terminal pane
- Jump to any previous prompt in the terminal (`Ctrl+Shift+K`)
- Read the full conversation in a docked, read-only **transcript panel** (`Ctrl+Alt+T`, or the 💬 button on an AI pane) - both sides of the chat (your prompts and the agent's replies) with timestamps, live-updating as the agent works. Search it with `Ctrl+F` and jump between matches, drag its edge to resize, or right-click any session in the panel to open that session's transcript
- Cross-session prompt search (`Ctrl+Shift+Y`) - search every prompt across every AI session, with `foo AND bar` syntax to require multiple terms. Results stream in progressively, with a jump glyph (↗ for live panes, ↑ for inactive sessions) on each row. Inactive sessions resume in a new pane on click
- Filter tabs: All / Copilot / Claude Code; sidebar search by name, branch, cwd, or summary (also supports the AND syntax)
- AI session shimmer: a soft border pulse on any pane whose AI session is waiting for your input, suppressed when you focus the pane. Useful peripheral cue on a multi-monitor setup. Toggle in Settings → Terminal
- Native AI session notifications when Claude Code or Copilot CLI finishes a turn or asks for approval, with a Settings → Notifications exclude list to silence specific titles or bodies
- Per-group `+` button on each repo group header spawns a fresh Copilot session in that group's folder - faster than typing the resume command yourself
- Wake / ping button per session row - writes a no-op so a dormant session refreshes its status
- **Prompt Editor** (`Ctrl+Alt+E`, or the 📝 button on a pane) - compose long, multi-line prompts in a dedicated editor, paste an image to insert its path, then send the whole thing to the focused terminal
- Per-pane agent buttons - ping the focused agent for a quick status update, or ask it to bring its Backlog tasks up to date, right from the pane
- SQLite-backed Copilot session loading - reads Copilot CLI's local store directly for ~150ms startup on busy machines
- Bulk Cleanup sessions - archive everything below a prompt-count threshold (pinned and already-archived sessions are skipped)
- WSL session discovery — sessions from WSL distros appear with a distro badge

**Backlog Board**
- A built-in, multi-project task board (`Ctrl+Alt+B`, or the ✅ Backlog button) - manage your tasks across every project without any external CLI installed
- Dock it as a side panel (resizable, collapsible to either edge) or expand it to the full window
- Add multiple projects with per-project colors; create and edit tasks, drag them between columns, and multi-select for bulk actions
- Archive or delete tasks (delete goes to the Recycle Bin), with a toggle to show archived tasks
- Rich task details - edit descriptions in Markdown and paste images straight into a task
- Attach a running AI session to a task and watch its live output stream inside the task

**File Explorer**
- Sidebar file tree for the focused terminal's CWD (`Ctrl+Shift+X`)
- Breadcrumb path navigation — click any segment to jump, or type a path directly
- Navigate up, home (terminal CWD), or double-click folders to enter
- File type icons (TS, JS, JSON, CSS, HTML, MD, PY, and more)
- Single click to preview file content in a resizable side panel
- Double click to open in default editor
- Right-click menu: Preview, Open in Editor, Browse Here, CD Here, Copy Path
- Filter input (supports `foo AND bar` for multi-token matches), show/hide dotfiles toggle, collapse all button
- WSL filesystem support

**Directories & Worktrees**
- **Dirs panel** - a live list of the working directories across your open terminals; click one to focus that pane, so you can navigate a busy session by folder. Tracks each pane's CWD as you `cd` around (WSL paths are translated for display)
- **Worktrees panel** (🌳 Worktrees) - lists the Git worktrees for the repos in your open terminals, grouped by repo. See each worktree's branch and path at a glance, refresh on demand, and open one in a terminal - handy when you run parallel agents across worktrees
- Non-git and worktree-less repos are hidden automatically, so the panel only shows repos that actually have worktrees

**Diff Review**
- Built-in diff review overlay for code changes
- File tree with filter search
- Inline code review with annotations

**Click-to-Preview**
- Click any `.md` path in terminal output to open an in-app markdown preview - rendered headings, mermaid diagrams, zoom, drag-to-resize, and a Friendly/Raw toggle
- Click any image path (`.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.gif`, `.bmp`, `.webp`) to open an in-app image viewer with zoom and drag-to-resize. Works for absolute, relative, and bare-basename paths (Copilot CLI's `[basename.png]` shape resolves too)
- Both previews have an "Open externally" button if you'd rather route to the OS default viewer

**Keyboard-Driven Workflow**
- Command palette (`Ctrl+Shift+P`) — universal search across Commands, Panes, Sessions, and Prompts with section headers and category icons. Right-click results for context actions (Show prompts, Show transcript)
- Jump to any terminal by name (`Ctrl+Shift+G`) - also supports the AND syntax
- Pane hints for quick terminal switching (`Ctrl+Shift+J`)
- Rename the focused pane in place with `Ctrl+Shift+R`
- Refresh / restart the focused pane in place with `Ctrl+Alt+R` - tears down and respawns the PTY, preserving title and cwd
- `Reset Mouse Mode` Command Palette action - escape hatch when an Ink-based TUI (Copilot CLI / Claude Code / `fzf`) leaves mouse tracking on and the pane stops scrolling
- `Ctrl+Insert` copies the current selection - third alias alongside `Ctrl+Shift+C` and the right-click menu
- Undo close pane / workspace (`Ctrl+Shift+T`) - 10-deep stack that restores cwd, title, color, and resumes the AI session if it's still in the live list. Confirms before restoring so an accidental keypress doesn't spawn PTYs unexpectedly
- Split, move, resize, and navigate — all from the keyboard
- Every shortcut is fully configurable
- macOS support: all Ctrl shortcuts work with Cmd, UI shows native symbols (⌘/⌥)

**Modern Tab Bar**
- Rounded pill-style tabs with subtle borders
- Hide/show tab bar (`Ctrl+Shift+B`) for maximum screen space
- Tab colors shown as bottom line indicator — 16-color palette, settable from the tab context menu OR the pane overflow menu ("Change pane color")
- `Tab color intensity` slider in Settings → Appearance (0–100) — at 100, a #000000 default tab paints a truly solid black pane
- Drag & drop to reorder or split
- Hover an AI-linked tab (or its pane title) for a quick Session Summary (opener, branch, message count, status)

**Appearance**
- Font picker with all installed monospace fonts
- Windows 11 Mica/Acrylic transparency (Appearance tab in Settings)
- Background material and opacity controls
- 12 built-in theme presets (8 dark, 4 light) - Catppuccin Mocha/Latte, Warm Dusk, Tokyo Night, Dracula, Nord, Gruvbox Dark, Rosé Pine / Dawn, Solarized Dark/Light, GitHub Light - or hand-pick every color. Switching a preset recolors the whole app, not just the terminal area
- Dark title bar forced regardless of system theme

**Drag & Drop**
- Drag tabs to split panes (left/right/top/bottom indicators)
- Drag to swap terminal positions
- Drag to detach as floating panel
- Visual drop zone labels showing exactly where the terminal will land
- Drop a file (or multiple files) from File Explorer onto a terminal pane to write the path(s) into the prompt

**Session Management**
- Auto-save/restore on close, crash, or reboot (saves every 5 seconds)
- Optional **Restore previous session on launch** setting - reopen your last set of terminals automatically when tmax starts
- Named layouts: save and load terminal arrangements with titles and working directories
- Startup commands per terminal — restored when loading a layout

**WSL Integration**
- Discover AI sessions running inside WSL distros
- Sessions appear with distro badge in the AI Sessions panel
- Resume WSL sessions in the correct distro and working directory
- File explorer works with WSL filesystems
- Terminal CWD tracking translates WSL paths for the Dirs panel

**Configurable Everything**
- Settings UI (`Ctrl+,`) with tabs for Terminal, Keybindings, Shells, Theme, and Appearance
- Re-record any keybinding by clicking it
- Add/remove shell profiles (PowerShell, CMD, WSL, or any executable)
- Set default start folder globally or per shell

## Tab Context Menu

Right-click any tab for:
- Rename
- Split Right / Down
- Focus / Split Mode
- Float / Dock / Detach
- Add to Group / Change Group
- Tab Color picker
- Set Startup Command
- Hide Tab Bar
- New Terminal (pick shell)
- Close / Close Others / Close All

## Status Bar & Overflow Menu

The bottom status bar is the app's navigation hub. On the left, quick-toggle buttons open the main panels:

- **Tabs**, **Dirs**, **Explorer**, **Sessions**, **Worktrees**, and **Backlog** - each opens (or docks) the matching panel described above
- The right side shows the layout mode (**Grid** / Focus), a clickable **terminal count**, zoom level, and the app **version** (click it to open the in-app Changelog)
- Hover any pane title to reveal its **⋯ menu** with Float, Hide, Diff, Move to workspace, and more

The status bar **⋯ overflow menu** collects app-level actions:

- 🔍 **Search prompts** (`Ctrl+Shift+Y`) - cross-session prompt search
- 📢 **Broadcast typing** (`Ctrl+Shift+A`) - type once and mirror your keystrokes into every tiled pane at the same time; toggle it off to go back to single-pane input
- 🎨 **Tab colors** (`Ctrl+Shift+O`) - auto-assign a color to every tab based on its working directory
- 📜 **Changelog** - view what changed in this version, rendered in-app (also opens by clicking the version number)
- 📋 **Copy diagnostics path** - copy the diagnostic log file path to the clipboard
- ⚠️ **Report an issue** - file a GitHub issue with context pre-filled (see below)

## Diagnostics & Reporting

tmax keeps a rolling **diagnostic log** to make bug reports actionable without any manual setup:

- Written to `tmax-diag.log` in the app's user-data folder, capturing app lifecycle and troubleshooting events (startup, window focus/sleep, PTY and input edge cases, etc.)
- **PII-redacted at the source**: your home directory and username are stripped from every entry (paths become `~` or `<user>`) before anything is written, so the log is safe to share
- Buffered writes and automatic rotation at a size cap keep it lightweight and bounded
- **Copy diagnostics path** (⋯ menu) puts the file path on your clipboard if you want to open or attach it yourself
- **Report an issue** (⋯ menu) opens the GitHub new-issue page with a template plus your version and platform pre-filled, and copies the same template with the last ~25 KB of the diagnostic log to your clipboard (a shorter ~5 KB tail is embedded directly in the issue URL). Review and trim before submitting - nothing is sent anywhere automatically

## Download

Download the latest version from the [Releases page](https://github.com/InbarR/tmax/releases). Available for Windows (.exe installer + portable .zip), macOS (.dmg for Apple Silicon and Intel), and Linux (.deb, .rpm).

### Troubleshooting Downloads

tmax's **Windows builds are now code-signed** (via Azure Trusted Signing), so installers show a verified publisher and Windows no longer flags them as coming from an unknown publisher. **macOS builds aren't signed** (an Apple Developer certificate costs $99/year), so you'll still need the workaround below on a Mac. Any remaining warnings are cosmetic - nothing is wrong with the file itself. Here's how to get past each one.

---

#### 🪟 Windows

Windows installers are code-signed, so the UAC / install prompts show a verified publisher and there's no "unknown publisher" warning.

A **brand-new release** can still briefly trip [Microsoft SmartScreen's reputation filter](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/operating-system-security/virus-and-threat-protection/microsoft-defender-smartscreen/) ("isn't commonly downloaded" on download, or "Windows protected your PC" on first launch) until enough people have installed it. If you see it:

- **On download** (Edge / Chrome): click the **⋯** menu → **Keep**, then the dropdown next to **Delete** → **Keep anyway**.
- **On first launch**: click **More info** → **Run anyway**.

This clears up on its own as the signed release accrues reputation.

---

#### 🍎 macOS

**"tmax is damaged and can't be opened"**

![macOS damaged warning](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/InbarR/tmax/main/docs/screenshots/download-warn-macos.png)

Despite what the dialog says, the app is fine. macOS requires apps to be signed with an Apple Developer certificate ($99/year). Since I'm not planning to pay that evil company 😏, you have to bypass the quarantine flag yourself. Click **Cancel** (not Move to Trash!) and run this in Terminal:

```bash
xattr -cr /Applications/tmax.app
```

This clears the quarantine extended attribute so macOS skips the signature check. Open tmax normally afterwards.

If you installed to a different location, adjust the path (e.g. `~/Applications/tmax.app`).

---

## Building from Source

### Prerequisites

- Node.js 18+
- npm
- **Windows**: [Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2022) with "Desktop development with C++" workload (for node-pty native compilation). VS 2025+ is not yet supported by node-gyp — if you only have VS 2025, install the 2022 Build Tools alongside it and set `GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2022` before running `npm install`.
- **macOS**: Xcode Command Line Tools (`xcode-select --install`)
- **Linux**: `build-essential`, `python3`, `libx11-dev`, `libxkbfile-dev`

### Install & Run

```bash
git clone https://github.com/InbarR/tmax.git
cd tmax
npm install
npm start
```

### Build Installer

```bash
npm run build
```

Output per platform:
- **Windows**: `out/make/squirrel.windows/x64/tmax-<version> Setup.exe`
- **macOS**: `out/make/*.dmg`
- **Linux**: `out/make/deb/x64/*.deb` and `out/make/rpm/x64/*.rpm`
- **All**: portable `.zip`

## Architecture

```
src/
  main/           Electron main process
    main.ts                     Window creation, IPC handlers
    pty-manager.ts              node-pty lifecycle management
    config-store.ts             electron-store config persistence
    copilot-session-monitor.ts  Scans ~/.copilot/session-state/
    copilot-session-watcher.ts  File watcher for Copilot sessions
    copilot-events-parser.ts    Incremental JSONL parser for Copilot events
    copilot-notification.ts     Desktop notifications for Copilot
    claude-code-session-monitor.ts  Scans ~/.claude/projects/
    claude-code-session-watcher.ts  File watcher for Claude Code sessions
    claude-code-events-parser.ts    JSONL parser for Claude Code sessions
    wsl-session-manager.ts      Manages session monitors for WSL distros
    wsl-utils.ts                WSL distro detection and path translation
    git-diff-service.ts         Git diff parsing for code review
    version-checker.ts          Auto-update via GitHub releases
    diag-logger.ts              Diagnostic logging for debugging
  preload/        Secure IPC bridge (contextBridge)
  renderer/       React UI
    state/          Zustand store + binary tree / grid layout engine
    components/     Terminal, TabBar, TilingLayout, FloatingPanel,
                    CopilotPanel, FileExplorer, DiffReview,
                    CommandPalette, Settings, etc.
    hooks/          Keybindings, drag & drop, PTY helpers
    utils/          Platform detection (macOS/Windows/Linux)
    styles/         Global CSS (Catppuccin theme)
  shared/         IPC channel constants, AI session types, diff types
```

**Key design decisions:**
- Binary tree layout engine for tmux-style tiling with arbitrary splits
- Zustand for state management (terminals, layout, focus, config)
- `@dnd-kit` for structured drag & drop with per-pane drop zones
- `node-pty` with ConPTY for native Windows terminal emulation
- `contextIsolation: true` for Electron security
- Session auto-save every 5s for crash recovery
- Renderer heartbeat for freeze detection diagnostics

## Configuration

Settings are stored at:
```
%APPDATA%/tmax/tmax-config.json
```

You can edit this file directly or use the Settings UI (`Ctrl+,`).

### AI Session Commands

The commands used to resume Copilot and Claude Code sessions are configurable in **Settings > Terminal**:

| Setting | Default | Description |
|---------|---------|-------------|
| Copilot Command | `copilot` | Base command for Copilot sessions |
| Claude Code Command | `claude` | Base command for Claude Code sessions |

This lets you use custom aliases or wrapper scripts. The configured command is invoked as `<command> --resume <sessionId>`.

## Support & Known Issues

Need help? Open an issue on the [GitHub tracker](https://github.com/InbarR/tmax/issues) - see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for what to include.

### Double-clicking a word in Copilot CLI / Claude Code, then right-clicking, doesn't copy

In **Copilot CLI** (and sometimes **Claude Code**), if you double-click a word to select it and then right-click, tmax pastes whatever was previously on your clipboard instead of copying the highlighted word.

This happens because those tools take over the mouse to power their own UI, so when you double-click, tmax never actually sees a selection to copy from - even though the word looks highlighted on screen.

**What works instead:**
- **Drag across the text** with the left mouse button (instead of double-clicking), then right-click. This works correctly.
- **Press `Ctrl+Shift+C`** to copy when you've already made a selection.
- **Hold `Shift`** while you click or drag - this forces a normal text selection that tmax can copy.

Triple-click line selection has the same limitation. Plain drag-select copy works everywhere.

### Terminal stops accepting keyboard input after switching windows / workspaces

Occasionally after switching apps (Alt+Tab) or workspaces, the focused tmax pane stops registering keystrokes - typing has no effect, and the cursor sometimes appears as a small hollow square pinned to a corner of the pane. This is a DOM-focus issue: another element in the page has stolen keyboard focus from xterm's hidden textarea.

**Reliable fix:** press `Ctrl+Shift+F` twice - that toggles into focus mode and back to grid view, which re-mounts the terminal layout and restores keyboard focus. (Clicking inside the pane content sometimes works, but the focus-toggle is the consistent recovery.)

The original report ([#70](https://github.com/InbarR/tmax/issues/70)) was fixed in v1.6.0; tracking re-occurrence in [#97](https://github.com/InbarR/tmax/issues/97).

## Contributing

Bug reports, feature ideas, and pull requests are very welcome. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines on filing issues, opening PRs, code style, and the project management setup.

## License

MIT

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