Terminal

Integrated Terminal

Zeta includes an integrated terminal panel in every workspace so you can run shell commands without leaving the file manager.

Key	Action
`F2`	Toggle the terminal panel in the current workspace
`Ctrl+\`	Alternate binding to toggle terminal

The terminal panel opens at the bottom of the current workspace. Press F2 again (or Ctrl+\) to hide it.

Zeta auto-detects the best available shell for your platform:

Platform	Default
Windows	PowerShell 7+ (`pwsh`), falls back to `powershell.exe` then `cmd.exe`
Linux / macOS	`$SHELL` env var, falls back to `bash` then `sh`

You can override the shell in your config:

[terminal]
shell = "/bin/zsh"

All shells work: bash, zsh, fish, pwsh, cmd.exe, and others.

The integrated terminal is a proper PTY (pseudo-terminal), not a command runner:

Tab completion works exactly as in your standalone terminal
All standard keyboard shortcuts work: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+L, history navigation, etc.
Colors, cursor movement, and interactive programs (e.g., vim, htop) all render correctly
Cross-platform: uses ConPTY on Windows 10 1809+, standard PTY on Unix

Each of Zeta's four workspaces has its own independent terminal session.

Switching workspaces does not kill or pause the terminal in the previous workspace
You can have four separate shell sessions running simultaneously
Use Alt+1–Alt+4 to switch workspaces while keeping shells alive

Practical use: Start a cargo watch build in workspace 2's terminal while browsing files in workspace 1, and keep a git log open in workspace 3.

Standard POSIX PTY — no extra dependencies required
Fish shell users: fish works as expected; Zeta does not interfere with fish's initialization

For deeper troubleshooting and keyboard mapping details, see docs/TERMINAL_BEHAVIOR.md in the repository.