Terminal sessions

Every tab is one session: your login shell for local tabs, the system ssh for host tabs.

Local sessions

Local tabs start your default shell as a login shell, with TERM=xterm-256color, true-color support, and TERM_PROGRAM=OliTerm. Scrollback keeps 10,000 lines.

SSH sessions

SSH tabs run the system /usr/bin/ssh rather than a bundled SSH library. Everything you have configured for the command line works unchanged:

• ~/.ssh/config — aliases, identities, ProxyJump, and per-host options,
• your keys and ssh-agent (the agent connection is passed into every session),
• interactive password and passphrase prompts, right in the terminal.

Each SSH tab additionally opens a private connection-sharing socket. The file browser and file transfers reuse the session’s already-authenticated connection through it — listings work even on password-only hosts without asking again, and closing one tab never disturbs another tab’s connection.

Working in the terminal

• Copy (⌘C) copies the selection, Paste (⌘V) types the clipboard, Select All (⌘A) selects the buffer.
• Drag files onto the terminal to insert their paths (local tabs) or upload them (SSH tabs) — see Uploads & shell integration.
• View > Enter Full Screen (⌃⌘F) for a distraction-free session.

The Option key

By default the Option key types the characters of your keyboard layout, as in Terminal.app — on a German keyboard that is ⌥L for @, ⌥5/⌥6 for [ and ], ⌥8/⌥9 for { and }, ⌥7 for |, and ⌥N for ~. ⌥← and ⌥→ move the cursor by a word.

If you rely on Emacs-style shortcuts instead, turn on Use Option as Meta key in OliTerm > Settings… (⌘,): Option then sends Escape plus the key, so ⌥X is Meta-X, and the layout characters above are no longer typeable. View > Use Option as Meta Key (⌥⌘O) toggles the same setting.

Appearance

The terminal follows the system appearance automatically — a light paper background in Light Mode, near-black in Dark Mode — with the classic Terminal color palette.

When a session ends

When the shell or SSH connection exits, a banner appears at the bottom of the terminal — “Session ended.”, or the exit code or signal if there was one — with a Restart Session button that starts the same session again (for SSH tabs: reconnects to the host).

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