Open a chat with the Coder and choose the Terminal tab next to Chat, Work, and Computer. It shows what the Coder's coding session is doing, live:
Commands the Coder runs, each followed by its output.
File edits, marked with a rule at the left so they are easy to pick out.
Browser steps, such as opening a page or taking a screenshot.
Errors, in a warmer colour so a failure stands out.
The log follows the end as new lines arrive. Scroll up to read earlier lines and it pauses, then offers a Jump to latest button with a count of new lines. When a long session has run for a while, the oldest lines may be dropped, and the tab tells you how many.
This terminal is a record of the job, so it is also kept afterwards. You can read it again from Jobs.
To type in the workspace yourself, open the Computer page (or the Computer tab in a chat) and choose Terminal. You get a shell inside the assistant's own workspace, in its working folder.
Use it to:
Look around with ls, cat, or tree.
Run a test command and see the real output.
Check which version of a tool is installed.
Try a command before you ask the Coder to use it.
If you reload the page or your connection drops, the output you missed is replayed, so you do not lose your place.
When the terminal is a full one, programs that take over the whole screen work, such as vim and htop. The terminal draws cursor movement, colours, and scrolling correctly.
A simpler terminal when a full one is not available#
Sometimes a workspace cannot offer a full terminal. In that case you get a simpler line terminal: each line you enter runs and prints its result. Programs that take over the whole screen do not work in it.
The view tells you which one you have, so you are never left guessing. If you need a full-screen program, ask the Coder to do the work instead, or try again later.