Quick start
From an empty window to a working project — the things worth learning first.
Start a project
Press Cmd+N. You get a new project in the sidebar with one
terminal in it — then cd to the repository you want, exactly as you would in
any terminal. The file tree and git panel follow you there and settle on the
repository root.
Prefer to start from the folder? Right-click it in Finder and choose Services → New Zshell Project Here.
Have several repos? Add them all. Cmd+1 through Cmd+9 jumps straight to one, and each project keeps its own tabs and layout.
Add sessions
Cmd+T opens another terminal in the same project — a new tab with its own working directory and scrollback. One for the dev server, one for tests, one to actually type in.
Ctrl+1–9 switches tabs directly; Ctrl+Tab opens a switcher ordered by how recently you used them.
Split a tab
Cmd+D splits the current pane to the right, Cmd+Shift+D splits it downward. Move between panes with Opt+Cmd+arrows, and press Cmd+Shift+Return to blow one pane up to fill the tab while you read something long.
Open the side panels
The right sidebar holds these, one keystroke each:
| Panel | Shortcut | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Git | Cmd+Shift+G | Stage, review diffs, commit, push |
| Files | Cmd+Shift+E | Browse the tree, open and edit files |
| Info | Cmd+Shift+I | Processes and listening ports |
Cmd+Shift+B hides the whole sidebar again; Cmd+B hides the project sidebar on the left.
Learn one shortcut: Cmd+P
The command palette searches every project, every open session, and every command Zshell has. If you forget the rest of this page, this is the one to keep — each command lists its own shortcut next to it.
What comes back after you quit
Quit and reopen, and your projects, tabs, and pane layout are where you left them. Each terminal starts a fresh shell in its old directory — nothing is secretly kept running in the background.
Scrollback is opt-in. Turn on
terminal.restore-history and
reopened terminals show their previous output above a
Session Contents Restored divider, with the new shell running below it.
The restored text is exactly that — text. It's the record of what happened, not a live session, so scrolling back through it won't re-run anything.