Simply Another Terminal

Run routine shell work in a compact VS Code side bar. Claude and Codex stay in native editor terminals, while git, npm, sls, uv, and similar commands use an independently sized terminal surface.

The extension targets macOS and owns one interactive shell process per terminal entry. The default shell arguments start a login shell. Each entry uses xterm.js with WebGL acceleration and falls back to the core renderer when WebGL is unavailable.

After installing the extension, run Simply Another Terminal: Reveal Terminal from the Command Palette to open the SAT view in the Secondary Side Bar.

Project Structure

.
├── src/
│   ├── extension.ts           # Extension lifecycle and resource wiring
│   ├── commands.ts            # Command registrations
│   ├── configuration.ts       # Shell and renderer settings
│   ├── process.ts             # node-pty shell ownership
│   ├── protocol.ts            # Host and webview message validation
│   ├── terminalCollection.ts  # Terminal membership and selection
│   ├── terminalView.ts        # Webview view and ordered delivery
│   └── webview/               # xterm renderers and terminal layout
├── test/                      # Unit, source, and Extension Host tests
├── scripts/                   # Native preparation and VSIX validation
├── resources/terminal.svg     # View icon
├── package.json               # Extension manifest and project commands
├── DEVELOPMENT.md             # Local setup, checks, and versioning
└── README.md                  # Marketplace page

For local setup, module ownership, checks, and versioning, follow the development guide. The packaged VSIX excludes DEVELOPMENT.md.

Overview

The view keeps one native shell process and one xterm renderer for each terminal entry. Hiding and revealing the view keeps those live processes and their scrollback buffers.

When VS Code closes or reloads, the extension stores each terminal's current working directory, order, and selected entry. The next activation creates fresh shell processes in those directories and restores the selected entry. Live processes and scrollback are not restored.

Shell failures affect only their terminal and appear in the Simply Another Terminal output channel.

Usage

The SAT container lives in the Secondary Side Bar and holds the terminal entries. Drag it elsewhere to move it.

The plus action adds and selects a terminal in the active workspace. The trash action terminates and removes only the selected terminal, then selects the nearest remaining entry. Open in Simply Another Terminal appears on Explorer folders and adds a terminal in that directory.

The right-side strip shows one icon per terminal. Selecting an icon swaps the visible renderer without rebuilding it. Dragging an icon onto another reorders the strip. Hover text shows the immutable launch-folder name, process identifier, absolute launch path, and exit state. Deleting the last terminal leaves an empty view where plus can create another.

Each terminal supports keyboard input, ANSI and true-color output, live resize, selection copy, clipboard paste, HTTP and HTTPS links, independent scrollback, and explicit restart after exit.

Settings

Typography and theme settings apply to the renderer while it is open. Shell path and argument changes apply on the next explicit restart. Cursor visibility, cursor style, cursor width, ANSI contrast, font weights, letter spacing, line height, bold color behavior, and scrollback follow the corresponding terminal.integrated settings.

Limits

This surface is a webview terminal backed by node-pty. It is not a native vscode.Terminal and does not provide native terminal tabs, command decorations, command navigation, accessibility integration, or native terminal integrations. VS Code extensions that react to native terminal creation, including automatic Python environment activation, do not run for this surface.

Terminal names and paths stay tied to their launch directory and do not change after cd. The extension does not provide splits or terminal renaming. Windows and Linux process behavior are outside its supported platform contract.

Privacy

Simply Another Terminal runs locally. It spawns a shell process with node-pty and renders it in a webview, and it makes no network calls. Your shell commands run in the selected shell with the inherited and configured environment.

License

MIT