Work: files and embedded terminals

Work (Mod+1) is Strand's default startup view. You can instead start in Local Changes, Review, Pull Requests, or All Commits from Settings → Appearance. Work is a place to inspect and make lightweight edits to repository files and run shells without replacing a full code editor. Local Changes (Mod+2) remains the staging and commit workspace.

File tabs#

Open the sidebar's Files lens and select a file or folder:

• A single click or keyboard focus opens one italic preview tab. Selecting a different file replaces that preview in place.
• Double-click or press Enter to pin the file. Open, file selection from the command palette, History, and Blame also open pinned tabs.
• Opening an already pinned file activates it instead of creating a duplicate.
• File and terminal tabs share the active pane's peer strip. Tabs keep their width instead of compressing; scroll the strip with the mouse wheel, or use its overflow selector to jump directly to any tab in that pane. File tabs use the same file-type icons as the Files tree.
• Drag a tab within its strip to reorder it. Drop it on another pane's strip or center to move it there, or hover the left, right, top, or bottom edge and release over the highlighted half-pane preview to create a split. Dragging an italic preview makes it pinned. A new split starts at the previewed 50/50 boundary; later resizing is remembered for that split.
• Use Ctrl/⌘+PageUp and Ctrl/⌘+PageDown to cycle the active pane's tabs quickly, including while a terminal is focused. On a tab strip, Left/Right and Home/End move, Delete or Backspace closes the focused tab, and middle-click closes any tab.

Each file tab remembers its own Content, rendered Preview, History, Compare, or Blame mode. Images and folders retain their dedicated presentations. Only the active file document is mounted and fetched; working-tree content follows the repository watcher, while selected-commit documents stay immutable. File tabs survive repository and view switches during the current run but intentionally start empty after relaunch.

For an existing UTF-8 working-tree file, type directly in Content. Strand keeps syntax highlighting while you edit; use the save icon or Mod+S to write the file. Historical revisions, binaries, oversized files, and non-UTF-8 text stay read-only. If another tool changes the file while you have unsaved edits, Strand refuses the stale save instead of overwriting the newer disk content.

If a file moves through Strand, its tabs follow the new path. A removed preview closes; a removed pinned file stays visible with a clear missing-file message. History and Blame jumps remember the exact originating Work tab for Back.

Split panes#

Use the two pane buttons at the right of any Work tab strip to Split pane right or Split pane down. You can nest the two directions to build the same editor-group layouts used by VS Code, and drag every divider to resize it. The same actions are available in Quick Launch.

You can also build and reorganize the layout directly from the tab strip: dragging to another pane transfers the existing file or terminal, while dropping on an edge creates a new pane in that direction. Moving a live terminal preserves its process, transcript, scrollback, and selection. Quick Launch provides keyboard equivalents for moving the active tab to the previous or next pane and to a new pane on any of the four sides.

Splitting a file pins a second view of that file in the new pane. Splitting a terminal starts a sibling terminal with the same shell choice. Each pane owns its own active tab and replaceable preview; files opened from Files or Quick Launch go to the pane you most recently focused. Closing the final tab in a pane collapses that empty pane. Press F6 from a document or terminal to focus the active pane's tab strip.

Terminal renderers stay mounted while the layout changes, so splitting and resizing do not reset live processes, scrollback, or selection. Pane proportions are remembered for each nested split position. File tabs and the pane topology remain session-only, matching the rest of the Work file session.

Embedded terminals#

Choose New embedded terminal in the empty state, the main + terminal button, or the command palette to use the configured default. The adjacent arrow opens a one-off shell picker; on Windows it includes installed WSL distributions. Every shell starts at the active repository/worktree root. Multiple terminal tabs are supported per repository.

Terminal processes and xterm scrollback, selection, and output continue while you switch views, repositories, or workspaces. The scrollback limit is 5,000 lines. The PTY is created at the fitted xterm grid and resynchronized after startup and host resizes, so alternate-screen CLI apps can use the full Work pane. When a shell exits, its transcript stays visible with the exit code and a Relaunch action. Closing the terminal tab stops its complete process tree and removes its saved descriptor.

The global shell default and terminal font and size (10–32px) are configurable in Settings → Terminal. Use the repository selector and adjacent shell selector to edit per-repository defaults; linked worktrees share one override. Strand keeps its complete bundled JetBrains Mono face as the glyph fallback for full-screen CLI layouts, including native box drawing, and advertises xterm-256color with true color. Claude Code launched from a Work terminal receives its fullscreen-renderer and full-welcome compatibility hints, so it uses the complete dashboard even after setup tips and release notes have already been seen. This does not change Strand's repository-root working directory and the hints are ignored by other CLI agents.

Terminal descriptors restore after restarting Strand, but processes never do. Restored tabs are unselected and dormant; explicitly selecting one starts a fresh shell using its saved one-off choice or the repository's current default. A final repository close asks before stopping live terminals. Removing the repository only from one of several owning workspaces, hiding a workspace, or switching away does not stop them. App exit drains every terminal without prompting.

While a terminal is focused, shell controls such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+R, and Ctrl+P remain shell-owned. On macOS, Command shortcuts remain app-owned. On Windows and Linux, numbered view navigation and the fixed Work-tab Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PageDown shortcuts remain app-owned. Press F6 to return focus to the Work tab strip.

Shell settings#

Settings separates two concepts:

• Settings → Terminal controls Work terminals. Choose System default, a platform preset, a discovered WSL distribution on Windows, or a custom executable plus arguments. An active repository may override the global choice or use Use global. Linked worktrees share the override.
• Settings → Integrations → Terminal remains the external application used by Open in terminal (Mod+Shift+C). It is unchanged and launches a separate terminal window.

Check availability resolves the configured executable without starting a shell. Custom commands are tokenized directly into argv; Strand does not insert an intermediary shell or search the repository for executables.