# Terminal > Consoles, splits, the floating terminal, links and environment variables. A console is a terminal tab running your login shell in the worktree folder. Agents run in consoles too. Shells keep running when you quit Rexa and reattach on the next launch. ## Shell - **Your shell, as a login shell.** Rexa runs `$SHELL -l`, or `/bin/zsh` if `$SHELL` is unset. - **Starts in the worktree** the tab belongs to. - **Full terminal support:** truecolor, mouse reporting, the kitty keyboard protocol and in-place IME composition. TUIs such as vim, htop, fzf and lazygit work. - **Font and theme** follow the app. The default font is JetBrains Mono; change it with `font_family` and `font_size` in [Settings](/docs/customize/settings). Every terminal gets two variables: `REXA_TERMINAL_ID` and `REXA_NAMESPACE`. Agents use them to talk back to the app. ## Consoles and splits | Action | Shortcut | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | | New console tab | ⌘ T | | New tab of a chosen kind | ⌘ N | | Reopen closed tab | ⌘ ⇧ T | | Split right | ⌘ D | | Split down | ⌘ ⇧ D | | Move between splits | ⌘ ⇧ + arrow keys | | Maximize the focused split | ⌘ ↵ | | Close the focused split | ⌘ W | Split left, split up and reset sizes are in the right-click menu. When the shell exits, its split closes, and the tab closes with its last split. ## Floating terminal ⌘ J shows or hides a terminal panel that floats over any view. ⌘ ⇧ J moves the keyboard into it and back. - **One panel per worktree.** Its tabs are terminals; ⌘ 1 to ⌘ 9 pick one while it has focus. - **Drag to move, drag the edge to resize.** Position, size and terminals survive a relaunch. - **Settings:** `floating.width`, `floating.height`, `floating.position` (one of nine anchors), `floating.offsetX`, `floating.offsetY`. ## Keys inside a terminal | Action | Shortcut | | ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | Copy / paste | ⌘ C / ⌘ V | | Clear screen and scrollback | ⌘ K | | Clear line | ⌘ ⌫ | | Start / end of line | ⌘ ← / ⌘ → | | Page up / down | ⇧ PgUp / ⇧ PgDn | | Scroll to bottom | ⌘ ↓ | Other ⌘ chords are app commands and never reach the shell. Tab and ⇧ Tab go to the shell. ## Scrollback and selection - **Scrollback holds 10,000 lines.** Typing snaps back to the bottom. - **Select** by dragging; double-click a word, triple-click a line, ⌥-drag a block. - **Hold ⇧** to select or scroll inside a program that captured the mouse. - **Copy on select:** turn on `terminal.copy_on_select` in Settings → Terminal. ## Links ⌘-click opens a link; a plain click only selects. The pointer becomes a hand while ⌘ is held. | Under the pointer | ⌘-click does | | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | `http://`, `https://` or OSC 8 link | Opens it in a Rexa browser tab. | | File path, such as `src/a.rs:12:3` or `app.ts(12,5)` | Opens the file in a tab at that line. | | Python traceback line (`File "x", line N`) | Opens the file at that line. | | Directory | Reveals it in Files, or in Finder outside the worktree. | | A path that matches no file | Opens quick open with the path filled in. | A solid underline means the file exists; a dotted one means the click searches. Paths that wrap across rows open as one link. Paths with spaces are not detected. ## Drop files and images - **Files** dropped from Files or Finder insert shell-quoted absolute paths. - **On an agent's terminal,** dropped files use the agent's mention format, and dropped images are pasted as images. ⌘ V with an image on the clipboard pastes it too. Images over 10 MB are skipped. ## Environment variables Settings → Terminal → **Environment variables** takes a block of `KEY=value` lines. Blank lines, `#` comments, a leading `export ` and surrounding quotes are handled; invalid lines are skipped with a warning. ```bash [Settings → Terminal → Environment variables] # exported to every new terminal, run and agent export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=8192" DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/dev ``` The variables reach terminals started after you save. Running terminals keep their environment. ## Terminals survive a quit A background process owns the shells. Quitting Rexa detaches from them, and the next launch reattaches, so builds and agents keep running. - **Closing a tab ends its process.** Rexa sends SIGTERM to the process group, then SIGKILL after two seconds. - **Restored terminals keep the last 500 lines** of scrollback. - **An update that changes the terminal protocol** ends running shells once. The release notes say when. `rexa pty ls` lists the background shells, and `rexa pty stop` stops the background process. See the [CLI reference](/docs/reference/cli). ## Limits - No find bar in the terminal. - No select-all and no jump to the previous prompt. - ⌥ ← and ⌥ → do not move by word in default zsh and bash configs.