VelaTerm — Terminal & Agent Manager

VelaTerm

7 min read Original article ↗

the multi-agent development environment

A dev environment
for terminal · agents

VelaTerm runs your terminals and your coding agents in one window, organized into a deep project tree — so you can manage software engineering across dozens of agents and repos the way you manage a team, not a stack of chat tabs.

agents in parallel tree-organized work shells + agents, one window Tauri 2 · tiny native core

// the tour

Seventy seconds, end to end.

Real footage, no mockups: splits with two agents streaming, the session tree, live status, built-in editors, and the same workspace on a browser and a phone.

velaterm-intro.mp4

// the workspace

One window does the whole loop.

Open a session, split it, hand part of it to an agent, inspect the diff. No tab-juggling between four apps.

01

Recursive split panes

Split any pane right or down, drag the dividers, nest as deep as you think. Every pane is a live shell or an agent — flush iTerm2 layout or gapped cards, your call.

02

Shells & agents, one canvas

A pane is a zsh session or a coding-agent transcript. Watch a dev server log on the left while an agent refactors auth on the right — same window, same keystrokes.

03

A tree for everything

Infinitely nestable projects, groups, and sessions. Live search, inline rename, running and attention status dots — the whole workspace at a glance in the sidebar.

04

Inspector that follows

Files, Info, and Git for the focused session. A Codex-style file tree with diff badges, process resources, and a live diffstat — without leaving the terminal.

// project management

Your sessions live in a tree — not a scrollback.

Most agent CLIs give you one conversation in one window; close it and the context is gone. VelaTerm organizes everything — shells and coding agents alike — into a workspace you can nest, name, archive and search. A hundred sessions across a dozen repos stay one tidy outline you can actually navigate. Click any session and it opens into a full agent dev environment — transcript, files, git, live panes.

click a session — a full agent dev environment

Clicking a session opens the full workspace: tree, agent transcript, Files inspector

the tree

The session tree: projects, nested groups, sessions with status dots

Nest as deep as the work branches

Projects hold groups, groups hold sub-groups and sessions — no fixed depth. A refactor epic can own its own sub-tasks, each one a live shell or agent, instead of a wall of identical tabs.

Every node carries its state

Status dots pulse with the conversation — green while an agent works, amber when it needs you, purple once you've read it. Glance at the tree and you know exactly where to look.

Built to be reorganized

Inline rename, duplicate a whole subtree with fresh ids, archive what's finished, drag to reorder, filter live. The outline bends as the work does — it doesn't scroll away when you close a tab.

Three node typesProjects · groups · sessions, infinitely nestable.

Status at a glanceBlue ready · green working · amber pending · purple viewed.

Archive & searchTuck away finished work; filter the rest instantly.

Right-click anythingRename, duplicate, copy path, reveal, delete.

// coding agents

Bring the agent you already use.

Nine agents run as first-class sessions — pick per session, mix them in one window, and manage them all from the same tree.

Claude Code

Codex

OpenCode

Copilot

Cursor

Antigravity

Cline

Pi

Crush

// files

Open any file in a tab — vopen.

Type vopen release-notes.md in any session and the file opens as a real tab, not a pager. Markdown renders WYSIWYG — flip to source or export a PDF — code opens syntax-highlighted, images in a zoomable viewer. Edit inline, ⌘S to save, without leaving the terminal.

vopen — Markdown, rendered WYSIWYG

Markdown, rendered WYSIWYG

Code, highlightedTypeScript, Rust, Go & 40 more — with git gutter marks inline.

Markdown, renderedWYSIWYG preview, flip to source any time, ⌘S saves in place.

Images, inlinePNG / SVG / JPEG open in a zoomable viewer tab.

Remote-transparentvopen works the same over SSH — no scp dance, no sshfs.

// notifications

Know the moment agents need you.

Long runs are only useful if you can look away. Session states track the conversation, live — as pulsing dots in the tree, counters in the status bar, and desktop notifications when something needs a human.

two agents working — green, live in the tree

two agents working — green, live in the tree

// live counters in the status barStatus bar counters: 1 Working, 1 Pending, 1 Viewed

// remote access

Leave your desk.
Keep every session.

Two ways out of your chair: connect to remote boxes over SSH, or flip one toggle and VelaTerm serves its full desktop UI over HTTPS with end-to-end encryption. Every project, split and running agent, on any machine with a URL. Kick off a long agent run at your desk; keep an eye on it from the laptop in the next room.

https://dev-box.local:8799 E2EE

The full VelaTerm desktop UI, served to a browser over HTTPS with E2EE

ssh › deploy@prod-gpu-01 connected · sessions joined your tree…or the other way round: serve your desktop, open it from anywhere

One toggleSelf-hosted on your own network — no cloud, no account. Runs on port 8799.

🔒End-to-end encryptedServed over HTTPS with E2EE — nothing readable on the wire.

SSH built inConnect to any box over SSH from the app — its sessions join your tree.

Always liveAgents keep running on the host — reconnect and they're right where you left them.

VelaTerm's mobile layout: the session tree with Working / Pending / Viewed filters

// mobile

The whole workspace, in your pocket.

Open VelaTerm in any mobile browser today and it reflows into a full touch layout — the same session tree, the same Working / Pending / Viewed filters. Open any transcript, watch it stream, then tap back to desktop when you're at your machine again.

  • Browse every project, group & session
  • Read live agent transcripts as they stream
  • Reply to agents on the go
  • One tap back to the desktop layout

Coming soonA dedicated iOS & Android app is on the way — the same workspace, with native push notifications and one-tap home-screen access.

// native core

Tiny. Built on Tauri 2.

No Electron, no bundled Chromium. A native binary that opens fast, idles quietly, and leaves the machine to your builds and your agents.

Tauri 2 core

A Rust core on the system webview — no bundled browser, no 400 MB helper processes.

Featherweight

An installer measured in megabytes, not hundreds — it stays out of your RAM so builds can have it.

Tuned hard

Rendering and session handling profiled against heavy terminal workloads, so a tree full of agents stays smooth.

// cross-platform

Native on macOS, Linux and Windows.

One workspace, three operating systems — same tree, same splits, same agents. Windows gets first-class treatment, not a port.

macOS

Apple Silicon & Intel

Native window chrome, full-screen splits, and the system keychain — feels at home on macOS.

Linux

X11 & Wayland

Ships as AppImage, .deb and .rpm. Your default shell, tmux-free splits, GPU-accelerated rendering.

Windowsfirst-class

10 & 11 — no compromises

Full parity with macOS and Linux: real ConPTY terminals, native split panes (no tmux), and Git Bash bundled in the installer — a proper dev environment with zero setup fights.

// windows, done right

Git Bash ships in the box.

The Windows installer bundles Git Bash — open the app and you have a real Unix shell, no downloads, no PATH surgery. Or pick PowerShell and cmd per session and mix them in one window: a PowerShell build on the left, Git Bash on the right, an agent below. Real PTYs, true split panes.

  • Git Bash bundled — a dev environment out of the box
  • Native split panes, no tmux required
  • Coding agents run the same as everywhere else

// shipping next

Already running in nightly builds.

The near roadmap, in the order it will land. Follow along — every one of these has an open tracking issue.

Mobile appIN DEV

Approve agents and watch sessions from your pocket — push notifications included.

refactor auth · step 3 of 4

· [ approve ]

Terminal IntelliSenseIN DEV

Inline ghost completions from your history, man pages and the repo itself.

$ git rebase -i origin/main

Agent session viewsIN DEV

A structured view of each session built from the transcript — richer than the raw terminal.

plan · 5 steps

· ±2 files ·

tests ✓

Set sail in one command.