Terminal UI

Run empryo inside a repository and the terminal UI opens. You chat with the agent, watch its tool calls, and review what it changed without leaving the keyboard. Everything you need is one shortcut or one slash command away.

Press Alt+H or type /shortcuts at any time to see every shortcut, grouped.

New to the terminal? The terminal lessons replay the real app and let you press each key yourself.

Keyboard shortcutsLink to this section

These work from the chat view. While a panel or dialog is open, it handles its own keys.

A checkpoint is saved for every prompt, covering both your files and the conversation. Ctrl+B and Ctrl+F let you look back through them.

The prompt boxLink to this section

If you clear a long draft with Ctrl+C, Empryo saves it first. Press Alt+P to get it back.

To change a prompt you already sent, hover it in the chat and click Edit. Empryo goes back to the checkpoint before that prompt and puts its text in the prompt box. Change it and send it to carry on from there. This also works for a turn you stopped with Ctrl+X before Empryo replied.

ModesLink to this section

A mode tells the agent how to approach your request. Press Ctrl+D to cycle forward, Shift+Tab to cycle back, or pick one with /mode. Your choice is remembered per project.

In a read-only mode the agent can still read and search everything, but edits and shell writes are refused.

Empryo asks before the agent reads a web page, touches files outside the project or runs a destructive command. auto mode skips the first two. For page reads and work outside the project, the prompt can also allow that kind of request until the tab closes. To stop the page-read prompt for good, set `approvals.fetchPage` to "allow", or list the sites you trust in approvals.fetchDomains. /yolo skips every prompt.

Two more modes run as their own kind of session: /duck opens a side chat with no access to your repository (useful for thinking out loud), and /orchestrate runs a multi-agent workflow.

TabsLink to this section

Each tab is its own conversation on the same repository. You can have up to ten. Tabs share the Genome (Empryo's live map of your code) and memory, and they coordinate file edits so two tabs never silently overwrite the same file.

• Open: Ctrl+T asks for a name, then opens the tab. /tab new does the same.
• Close: Ctrl+W. If the tab is busy, Empryo asks first. The last tab can't be closed.
• Switch: Ctrl+1…Ctrl+0, Ctrl+\ / Ctrl+], Tab in the prompt box, or click the tab bar.
• Rename: /tab rename <name>. The name is saved right away, so it survives a restart and shows up in the desktop app.
• Reorder: /tab move left or /tab move right.

All tabs are saved in one session. Reopen the session and your tabs come back.

ArtifactsLink to this section

Screenshots, pages, drawings, PDFs and videos the agent makes are the tab's artifacts. Each one shows under the turn that made it; click it to open it. The prompt box shows how many the tab has, and clicking that count lists them. /artifacts lists them too, and /artifacts 2 opens the second one, or saves a copy when it can't be opened.

WorktreesLink to this section

A tab can work in a git worktree: a second checkout of the repository on its own branch, so two tabs can change the same files without getting in each other's way. /worktree add <branch> creates the branch and its worktree and moves this tab there (--from <ref> picks where the branch starts). /worktree open moves the tab into a worktree you already have, and /worktree list shows them all. /worktree agent <task> starts an agent on the task in a new worktree. /worktree remove and /worktree prune clean up. The agent can do the same with its worktree tool. As in the desktop app, each worktree gets its own engine and Genome.

PanelsLink to this section

Anything beyond the chat opens in a panel. Search for it in the command palette (Ctrl+K), or use the command shown.

The command reference lists every slash command.

Status barLink to this section

The header and footer keep the important numbers in view:

• Model: the provider and model. Models served through the proxy or LLM Gateway show a prefix.
• Git: the current branch, marked when you have uncommitted changes.
• Mode: the active mode, or one badge per tab when several tabs are open.
• Context: how full the model's context window is. The gauge changes colour as it fills, and shows when Empryo is compacting the conversation or when you are viewing an older checkpoint.
• Plan meter: on a subscription model, how much of your plan's current limit you have used and when it resets. See Subscriptions, Proxy and Copilot.
• Cost: the estimated cost of the session so far, or FREE / Local for local models.

The footer also rotates shortcut hints and tips.

Mouse supportLink to this section

• Click and drag to select text. The selection is copied to your clipboard. Right-click copies and clears the selection.
• The scroll wheel scrolls the chat. New output keeps the view pinned to the bottom.
• Click the tab bar to switch, close or open tabs.
• Click the editor pane to focus it, and click the chat to go back.

Computer useLink to this section

With computer use, the agent can see and control apps on your machine, not just files. /computer shows what it can reach right now (displays, app windows, browser tabs), which operating system permissions are still missing, and any active sessions.

• /computer stop or Ctrl+Shift+Esc stops everything and gives the mouse and keyboard back to you.
• /computer teach records a workflow while you demonstrate it.

See computer use for the details.

Embedded NeovimLink to this section

Press Ctrl+E to open a real Neovim editor beside the chat. Neovim is an optional add-on:

empryo addon install neovim

• When the agent edits a file you have open, the buffer reloads. The agent can also drive the editor through the editor tool: navigate, rename, format and read diagnostics.
• /editor split cycles the editor width between 40, 50, 60 and 70 percent. /nvim-config switches between Empryo's bundled Neovim config and your own.
• While the editor has focus, your keystrokes go to Neovim. Press Ctrl+E to return to the chat.

NextLink to this section