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TermBeam

Usage Guide

Usage Guide

Section titled “Usage Guide”

Once you’ve started TermBeam and connected from your device, here’s how to make the most of the terminal UI.

Terminal View

Section titled “Terminal View”

Tabs & Split View

Section titled “Tabs & Split View”
  • All open sessions appear as tabs in the top bar — tap to switch
  • Drag to reorder tabs (long-press on mobile to enter drag mode)
  • Hover (desktop) or long-press (mobile) a tab to see a live preview of its output
  • Tap the split view button to view two sessions side-by-side
  • On mobile, tap the Sessions button to open the side panel with session cards and previews

Session Colors & Activity

Section titled “Session Colors & Activity”
  • Each session has a colored dot for quick identification
  • Activity labels (e.g. “3s”, “5m”) show time since the last output

Scrolling

Section titled “Scrolling”
  • Swipe up/down to scroll through terminal history on touch devices
  • Scrollbar is hidden to save space but scrolling works normally
Section titled “Search”
  • Press Ctrl+F / Cmd+F to open the search bar overlay
  • Supports regex matching with next/previous navigation
  • Press Escape to close the search bar

Tools panel

Section titled “Tools panel”
  • Press Ctrl+K / Cmd+K (or tap the floating ▦ button in the top-right) to open the Tools panel
  • Browse categorized actions: Session · Files · View · Share · Agents · Settings · System
  • The panel is the entry point for Settings, the Touch Bar key editor and the Workspace launcher — see Customization for the full feature set

File Upload

Section titled “File Upload”
  • Open the Tools panel and select Upload files to send files from your phone (or any browser) to the active session’s working directory
  • Select one or more files — a confirmation modal shows the file list with sizes and the destination directory
  • Use the folder browser to choose a different target directory
  • Files exceeding 10 MB are flagged and cannot be uploaded
  • After upload, a toast notification confirms the count and destination

File Browser

Section titled “File Browser”

The file browser lets you browse and download files from a session’s working directory directly in the browser — useful for pulling logs, configs, or build artifacts to your phone or laptop.

  1. Open the side panel (hamburger menu or swipe from left)
  2. Tap ⬇️ Download File in the footer — the panel switches to show the active session’s files
  3. Navigate into subdirectories by tapping folder entries
  4. Tap the ⬇️ button next to any file to download it
  5. Use the breadcrumb bar at the top to jump back to parent directories
  6. Tap ← to return to the sessions list

Markdown Viewer

Section titled “Markdown Viewer”

Markdown files (.md, .markdown) can be previewed directly in the file browser without downloading them.

  1. Open the file browser (see above)
  2. Navigate to a directory containing markdown files — they appear with a 👁️ icon
  3. Tap the file name to open the rendered preview
  4. The viewer supports GitHub Flavored Markdown: tables, task lists, strikethrough, fenced code blocks, and more
  5. Tap ← to return to the file listing

Notifications

Section titled “Notifications”
  • Open the Tools panel (Ctrl+K / Cmd+K) → Settings… to enable command completion notifications
  • When enabled, you’ll receive a browser notification whenever a command finishes in a background tab
  • Preference is server-synced and persists across devices
  • Requires browser notification permission (requested on first enable)

Share & Refresh

Section titled “Share & Refresh”
  • Open the Tools panel and select Copy link to copy a shareable auto-login link to your clipboard; falls back to a manual-copy dialog when clipboard access is unavailable
  • Open the Tools panel and select Refresh to clear the PWA cache and reload

Port Preview

Section titled “Port Preview”

If you’re running a local web server (e.g., on port 8080), you can preview it through TermBeam without exposing a separate port. Use the port preview feature in the Tools panel (Ctrl+K) to reverse-proxy any local port through your TermBeam URL.

See the API Reference for the underlying REST endpoints.

Touch Controls

Section titled “Touch Controls”

The bottom touch bar provides quick access to common keys. The default layout is:

ButtonAction
EscEscape
CopyCopy terminal content to clipboard (text overlay)
PastePaste from clipboard (with fallback modal)
HomeMove cursor to beginning of line
EndMove cursor to end of line
↑ ↓ ← →Arrow keys
↵Enter / Return
CtrlToggle Ctrl modifier (tap, then press another key)
ShiftToggle Shift modifier (tap, then press another key)
TabTab completion
^CCtrl+C (interrupt process)

The bar is fully customizable — see Customization → Custom Touch Bar Keys to add, remove, reorder, or re-style keys (8-column grid up to 3 rows). Font size can be adjusted via the Tools panel (Increase / Decrease font size) or with pinch-to-zoom on touch devices.

Themes

Section titled “Themes”

TermBeam includes 38 color themes: Dark, Light, Monokai, Solarized Dark, Solarized Light, Nord, Dracula, GitHub Dark, One Dark, Catppuccin, Gruvbox, Night Owl, Tokyo Night, Rosé Pine, Kanagawa, Everforest, Ayu Dark, Matrix, Cyberpunk, Sunset Glow, Synthwave, Aurora, Deep Ocean, Neon Noir, Frost Byte, Vice City, Radical, Material Ocean, Sakura, Dark Teal, Blue Mist, Cyan Punch, Earth Tone, Crimson Night, Golden Night, Red Alert, Espresso, and Forest Floor. Open the Tools panel → VIEW section and pick from the inline theme picker — your choice is saved server-side and follows you across devices.

See Also

Section titled “See Also”