Terminal Kernel
Terminal Kernel lets you create, reuse, and manage persistent terminal sessions from VS Code.
Features
- Persistent sessions backed by
tmux or screen.
- Fast access from a dedicated Activity Bar view.
- Favorites, filtering, refresh, and session cleanup controls.
- Automatic discovery of sessions created outside the extension.
- Direct backend attachment using the user's configured default shell.
- SSH connections from aliases in the local
~/.ssh/config file.
Session groups
- Favorites contains favorited sessions.
- Terminal contains sessions named
terminal-*, including sessions created by the extension.
- Remote contains concrete host aliases from the local SSH configuration.
- Other contains every other session discovered from the selected backend and remains at the bottom of the sidebar.
A favorite also remains visible in its Terminal or Other group.
Usage
- Click the Terminal Kernel icon in the Activity Bar.
- Use the add icon on the Terminal group to create a session.
- Optionally enter a suffix. Without one, sessions are named
terminal-1, terminal-2, and so on.
- Click a session to connect.
- Use the inline actions to favorite, clear the attached VS Code terminal, or delete the persistent session.
Select a host in Remote to open ssh <alias> in an integrated terminal. SSH options configured for that alias, including its user, port, identity file, and jump host, are applied by the local SSH client. Wildcard and negated Host patterns are not shown.
The sidebar header provides icon actions for Refresh, Filter or Clear Filter, and Settings.
Settings
terminalKernel.backend: choose tmux (default) or screen.terminalKernel.tmuxMouse: enable tmux mouse mode. It is disabled by default so VS Code text selection continues to work normally.
Use the gear icon in the sidebar header to open these settings.
Backend behavior
- New sessions start in the active editor's workspace, or the first workspace folder when no file editor is active.
- The selected backend starts its configured default shell.
- tmux sessions show a compact status line, and the mouse setting applies only to sessions created by Terminal Kernel.
- screen sessions use a 10,000-line scrollback buffer. Press
Ctrl-a [ to enter screen scrollback mode.
- Sessions survive VS Code reloads until they are explicitly deleted.
Requirements
Install tmux or screen and make the selected backend available on PATH. Remote connections also require the ssh client and ~/.ssh/config.
Troubleshooting
If sessions do not appear or start, confirm that terminalKernel.backend matches an installed backend, then use the Refresh icon in the sidebar header.
License: GPL v2
