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Chan manual

Navigation

Arrange windows, panes, and tabs, and find actions with the command launcher.

Windows and workspaces

The main Computers window lists this machine and your devservers. Open a standalone terminal for shell work, or a workspace window for the editor, graph, search, and other project tools. Each workspace can have several windows with its own arrangement of panes and tabs.

Return to Computers to reopen a hidden window or create another one. A hidden window keeps its work running; closing its terminal tabs ends those sessions. Remote sessions can keep running while your desktop is disconnected.

Panes, tabs, and sides

A window contains panes; each pane holds tabs for terminals, files, and other apps. Use the pane menu or these default shortcuts to arrange them:

  • Split a pane with Cmd+/ (split right) or Cmd+Shift+/ (split bottom) on macOS, Ctrl+/ and Ctrl+Shift+/ on Windows and Linux, Ctrl+Alt+/ and Ctrl+Alt+? on web. Both also live in the command launcher. With a terminal focused on Windows or Linux desktop, plain Ctrl+/ goes to the shell; use the launcher or pane menu to split right.
  • Drag tabs across panes to rearrange them.
  • Every pane has two sides, A and B. The A/B button in the pane's top bar flips between them (Ctrl+`), so one pane can hold two sets of tabs.
  • Close a tab with Cmd+W on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+W on Windows and Linux, or Ctrl+D on any platform.
  • Close a window with Cmd+Shift+W on macOS, Ctrl+Alt+W on Windows and Linux. On web, close the browser tab.
  • If a window refuses to close, the hidden side of a pane still has tabs: the A/B button flashes to show you where they are. Flip and close them first.
  • Clicking the [X] close button in your window manager offers to hide the window (everything keeps running) or close it.
A terminal window split into two panes; a cs terminal survey command in the left pane drives a Pick-your-choice prompt in the right pane
A terminal window split into two panes. Each pane's top bar carries the A/B side toggle and the hamburger menu.

The command launcher

Press Cmd+K on macOS desktop (Ctrl+Alt+K on Windows, Linux, and web) to open the command launcher, or pick Commands from the pane's hamburger menu. Type an action to search, then select a result. Each command shows its current keyboard shortcut.

Choose a scope, Tab, Pane, Window, or Computers, to browse its actions. Tab commands follow the active app; Pane controls its layout and sides; Window controls the current window. Computers lets you browse available workspaces and windows, create a terminal or workspace window, and focus, hide, show, or close an existing window.

The command launcher with Tab scope selected, showing actions for the active terminal
Tab scope shows actions for the active terminal. Captured in a sample workspace.
The command launcher with Window scope selected, listing apps such as dashboard, draft, file browser, graph, and team
Window scope lists apps and window actions. Captured in a sample workspace.

Find and change shortcuts

Commands display the shortcut for the platform you are using. Open Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts to see or customize bindings. The shortcuts in this manual are defaults; use the command launcher if you have changed them.