Terminal in Editor

Keep your terminal where your code is — as an editor tab, not a distant panel.

Usage demo

Why?

The default VS Code terminal lives at the bottom of the screen. Every time you need it, you shift your eyes down, resize the panel, or toggle it open and closed. It breaks your flow.

Terminal in Editor moves your terminal into the editor area so you can place it side by side with your code, keep it in a tab group, or switch to it like any other file — without leaving the editor.

Features

One shortcut to toggle — Ctrl+Shift+' moves your terminal to the editor. Press it again to send it back to the panel.
Works with any shell — Git Bash, PowerShell, Command Prompt, zsh, or anything configured in VS Code.
Smart terminal reuse — uses your existing terminal instead of creating a new one. Creates a new one only if none exists.
Configurable close behavior — decide what Ctrl+W does: ask, kill immediately, or move back to panel.
No lost terminals — every terminal moved to the editor is tracked and can always be recovered.

Demo

Terminal side by side with code

Usage

Move terminal to editor

Press Ctrl+Shift+' from anywhere in the editor or terminal panel.

Existing panel terminal → moves into the editor as a tab
No terminal open → creates a new one directly in the editor

Move terminal back to panel

Press Ctrl+Shift+' again while focused inside the editor terminal tab.

Close an editor terminal

Press Ctrl+W — behavior is controlled by the terminalInEditor.confirmOnClose setting.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Context	Action
`Ctrl+Shift+'`	Editor or panel terminal	Move terminal to editor
`Ctrl+Shift+'`	Editor terminal tab	Move terminal back to panel
`Ctrl+W`	Editor terminal tab	Close (behavior depends on setting)

To customize shortcuts: Ctrl+K Ctrl+S → search Terminal in Editor.

Settings

Open settings with Ctrl+, and search Terminal in Editor.