Terminal Right

English | 简体中文

A lightweight, zero-dependency VS Code extension that opens a terminal inside the editor area and positions it in a split view — right, left, top, or bottom of your editor grid.

It's built for running interactive CLI tools (such as claude, aider, codex, or copilot-cli) side-by-side with your code, while keeping the default bottom terminal panel free for builds, tests, and other tasks.

Why split the editor

A traditional bottom-docked terminal eats your vertical reading space, making it hard to read long output and code at the same time. Terminal Right splits the editor grid instead, giving you a full-height side-by-side layout:

┌───────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│                               │                               │
│                               │                               │
│      Your Code Editor         │        Terminal Right         │
│         (Left Column)         │        (Right Column)         │
│                               │                               │
│                               │                               │
└───────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

The split direction is configurable — right (default), left, up, or down. New terminal tabs join the same split group instead of spawning duplicate panels.

Features

Real editor terminal. Spawns a native, full-featured terminal directly in the editor area — drag, drop, pin, or group it like any editor tab.
Four split directions. Open the terminal on the right (default), left, top, or bottom with a single setting.
First command as tab title. The first command run in a fresh terminal becomes its tab title (e.g. claude, npm run dev), so tabs stay identifiable. Requires shell integration.
One group, many tabs. Each click adds a new terminal tab to the existing split group — no duplicate panels, no layout churn.
Four ways to launch:
1. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+T (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Alt+T (macOS).
2. Status bar: click $(terminal) Terminal Right in the bottom-right corner.
3. Editor tab menu: click the terminal icon at the top-right of the active editor tab.
4. Command Palette: Ctrl+Shift+P → Terminal Right: Open Terminal in Split View.
Localized. Follows VS Code's display language (English / 中文).

Settings

Customize under Terminal Right in VS Code's settings:

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`terminalright.splitDirection`	`string`	`"right"`	Side of the editor where new terminals open: `right`, `left`, `up`, or `down`.
`terminalright.useFirstCommandAsTitle`	`boolean`	`true`	Use the first command run in the terminal as the tab title (requires shell integration).
`terminalright.autoReveal`	`boolean`	`true`	Automatically reveal the terminal when opening.
`terminalright.newTerminalEachTime`	`boolean`	`true`	Create a new terminal tab on each click. If disabled, reopen the existing terminal instead.

Behavior notes

The first click splits the editor in the configured direction. Subsequent clicks add tabs to that same group rather than splitting again.
To split again, close the existing terminal group first.
For left / up / down, the terminal briefly appears in the active group before moving into the new split — this is expected, since the tab must be focused to be moved.

Installation

Via VS Code Marketplace (recommended)

Open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X).
Search for Terminal Right by werbenhu.
Click Install.

Manual VSIX installation

Download the latest .vsix from Releases.
Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P).
Run Extensions: Install from VSIX... and pick the file.

Local development

Clone and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/werbenhu/terminalright
cd terminalright
npm install

Compile:
```
npm run compile
```
Open the folder in VS Code and press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.
Test with Ctrl+Alt+T / Cmd+Alt+T, or run Terminal Right: Open Terminal in Split View from the Command Palette.

Package a .vsix:

npx @vscode/vsce package --no-git-tag-version