What Zshell is
A native macOS terminal workspace — projects, sessions, browsers, files, git, and coding agents in one window.
Zshell is a terminal. The rest of the window exists so you don't have to leave it.
Each repository you work on becomes a project in the sidebar. A project holds as many terminal sessions as you need, each one a tab with its own directory and scrollback, and each tab can be split into panes. Beside all of that sit the side panels, each one a keystroke away: a git panel for reviewing and committing, a file tree with an editor, and a live view of the processes and ports your session is running. Browser panes and coding-agent status live in the same project layout instead of becoming separate windows to manage.
Terminal panes use your choice of Ghostty or Alacritty, both hosted and GPU-rendered natively by Zshell. Your shell, prompt, aliases, and dotfiles are untouched.
What it is not
Zshell is not an IDE, and it's not trying to become one. The git and files panels exist so you can read a diff or fix a typo without switching apps — not so you can live in them. Nothing runs behind your back: every git action maps to a command you could have typed, and the output is shown to you.
Where to go next
Install Zshell
Download, Homebrew, updates, and uninstalling.
Quick start
From an empty window to a working project in five minutes.
Keyboard shortcuts
The full list, grouped by what it does.
Configuration
Persistent options and where Zshell stores them.
Browser panes
Open a site or local server beside its terminal.
Working with AI agents
Let agents delegate work, coordinate across panes, and keep you in control.
Free, and quiet about it
Zshell is free and its source is public under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0, with no account and no subscription. It sends no telemetry and collects no analytics. The only network request it makes on its own is the update check against its Gitee release feed (with GitHub as a fallback); browser navigation and agent CLIs make the requests you explicitly ask them to make.