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Console

Terminal

Terminal in Cockpit is actually two bubbles in one: a one-shot command bubble for things like ls or pytest, and a full interactive terminal bubble for things like bash, vim, or top. The input bar picks the right one based on what you type (see Command Input for the full dispatch rules).

One-shot command

Type something normal like:

make build

A bubble opens, the command runs, output streams in. When it finishes you see the exit status. The bubble stays around — scroll back through the output, copy it, search inside it, re-run it.

What it can do:

  • Live streaming — output appears as the command produces it, not after it finishes.
  • ANSI colours preserved.
  • Copy output — the 📋 icon in the bubble's title bar (ANSI codes stripped on copy). Copy the command itself — the 📄 icon next to it.
  • Cmd+F to search within the output. Two modes you can toggle:
    • Search highlights matches in-place.
    • Filter hides everything except the matching lines.
  • Ctrl+C button (shown in the running-status row at the bottom of the bubble, and in the header when maximised): sends SIGTERM to the entire process tree (root PID plus all descendants), then SIGKILL 1 second later to anything still alive.
  • Stdin while running — the running-status row has a small input box for piping data into long-running commands: Enter sends a line, Tab sends a tab character, Ctrl+<key> sends the corresponding control character (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+D, etc. all work).
  • Re-run with the ↻ icon in the title bar — no retyping.
  • Delete with the ✕ icon in the title bar; clicking it on a running bubble interrupts first, then clears the bubble.

What it isn't:

  • Not interactive in the full PTY sense. If you run something that expects a real terminal (vim, top, python with no flags), it'll probably break or hang. Use the interactive bubble below.

Interactive terminal

Type a known interactive program: zsh, bash, sh, fish, nu, python, python3, node, irb, lua, vim, nvim, vi, nano, emacs, top, htop, less, man.

A real terminal bubble opens with a proper PTY behind it (nodePty.spawn). vim works. top works. Ctrl+C works. Mouse selection, copy, paste — all work.

FeatureHow
Type & runClick in the bubble, type. Just like your usual terminal.
CopySelect text — Cockpit copies on selection (no Cmd+C needed in most setups).
PasteCmd+V
SearchCmd+F opens the search bar
MaximiseCmd+M makes the bubble fill the Console panel; Esc to restore
Stop the processCtrl+C like a normal terminal; the bubble's Ctrl+C button sends SIGTERM, then SIGKILL 1 second later if anything's still alive

Closing an interactive bubble sends the process a SIGTERM (with the same SIGKILL fallback). The bubble's history is preserved unless you click the explicit delete button.

Which shell does it use?

Cockpit uses your own default shell (reads the SHELL env var; on Windows it reads COMSPEC) and invokes it as <shell> --login -c <command> — for both one-shot commands and PTY bubbles. So quoting, globbing, shell aliases, ~ expansion, set -e and the rest all follow your shell's semantics.

If you want a different shell ad-hoc, the interactive bubble is yours to drive — type zsh, bash, fish, whatever. Cockpit won't override your choice.

When to use which

  • Need to see the output of one specific command? One-shot.
  • Need a session where you'll run several commands and keep state (env vars, current directory, history)? Interactive.
  • Running a tool that draws to the whole screen (vim, top, full-screen TUI)? Interactive — it'll only work there.
  • Running something for the AI to capture (!command from chat)? One-shot, the output goes back into the chat.

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