Opening a Terminal
Terminal Modes
The terminal has two modes, indicated in the status bar:- Terminal Mode
- Scrollback Mode
Status bar shows:
TerminalYour keyboard input goes directly to the shell. This is the default mode for interacting with the terminal.Switching Between Modes
Toggle between terminal mode and scrollback mode:Keyboard Capture
By default, most editor keybindings (likeCtrl+P for command palette) still work in terminal mode. If you need to send these keys to the terminal instead:
Captured Mode Behavior
When keyboard capture is enabled:
- Status bar shows “Terminal [capture]”
- All keys except
F9are sent to the terminal - The UI dims (menu bar, status bar, other splits) to clearly show focus is exclusively on the terminal
Scrollback Navigation
In scrollback mode, you can use standard editor navigation:| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys / Page Up / Page Down | Scroll through output |
Ctrl+Home | Jump to the beginning of scrollback history |
Ctrl+End | Jump to the end |
Ctrl+F | Search through terminal output |
Tips and Features
Workspace Persistence
Workspace Persistence
Terminal scrollback is preserved across editor restarts, but running processes are terminated.
Session Persistence (Experimental)
Session Persistence (Experimental)
Use
fresh -a to start in session mode, then detach with Ctrl+Shift+D to keep terminal processes running in the background. Reattach with fresh -a.See Session Persistence for details.Automatic Scroll
Automatic Scroll
When new output arrives while you’re in scrollback mode, the terminal automatically returns to terminal mode to show the latest output.
Disable this behavior with the
terminal.jump_to_end_on_output config option.Automatic Resizing
Automatic Resizing
The terminal automatically resizes when you resize the editor or split panes.
Windows Support
Fresh supports full terminal emulation on Windows 10 (1809+) via ConPTY.- PowerShell is preferred over cmd.exe
- Stdin piping works:
type file | fresh