Sessions and terminals

Each tab in Kanbell is a real terminal that runs one agent or a shell. Sessions are filed under their project. They keep running when you change view or project, and stop when you close that project's main window. Kanbell asks first if agents are busy.

Start a session

1. Press ⌘T (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+T) to open a New Tab with the default profile.
2. Press ⌘⇧T (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+Space) to pick a profile first.
3. Close a tab with ⌘W (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+W). Switch tabs with ⌃Tab / ⌃⇧Tab (Linux: Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab).

The ⌘⇧T menu also lists agents from .claude/agents, under Project agents and My agents (Claude Code only). A project agent must be read and trusted with Trust and Launch the first time, and again whenever its file changes.

Create a profile

A profile says which agent to start and how. Kanbell creates two on first run: "Claude" (the default) and "Terminal".

1. Open Settings (⌘,, Linux: Ctrl+,) › Profiles.
2. Pick a type: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Custom command.
3. Set a name and a color. Optionally set a Launcher (your own wrapper script) and Arguments.
4. Choose the scope: All projects or This project.
5. Click Set as Default Profile if ⌘T should use it.

For Claude Code profiles you can also add a Persona (system instructions) and a Team of subagents, each with a role, instructions, allowed tools and a model (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku or the same as the agent). Start from a template offers Delegating tech lead, Demanding reviewer, Frontend dev, General developer, Product and business, and Blank.

Split panes

1. Split right with ⌘\ (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+\).
2. Split down with ⌘⇧\ (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+-).
3. Move between panes with ⌘⌥← / ⌘⌥→ (Linux: Alt+← / Alt+→).

You get up to 4 panes, in a 2×2 grid.

Move tabs

• Drag a tab to another pane.
• Or press ⌘⌥⇧← / ⌘⌥⇧→ (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+PgUp / Ctrl+Shift+PgDn).

Open a tab in its own window

1. Choose Open in New Window (⌘⌥N, Linux: Alt+N).
2. To bring it back, choose Move to Main Window (⌘⌥⇧N, Linux: Alt+R).

New Window (⌘⇧N, Linux: Ctrl+Shift+N) opens an empty window.

Find text in a terminal

1. Press ⌘F (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+F) and type.
2. Go to the next match with ⌘G (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+G), the previous one with ⇧⌘G (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+H).

Change the text size with ⌘+, ⌘− and ⌘0 (Linux: Ctrl+Plus, Ctrl+Minus, Ctrl+0).

Paste images and drop files

• Paste an image from the clipboard. Kanbell saves it as a PNG and pastes its path. 20 MB max.
• Drop files on the terminal to paste their paths.

Resume after a restart

After you restart Kanbell, sessions come back as finished. Click Resume to continue. Kanbell uses claude --resume for Claude Code and codex resume for Codex.

Track a custom command as an agent

If a Custom command profile starts an agent, Kanbell offers Track as {agent} Session. Accept it to get states and notifications for that session.

Good to know

• Persona, Team, templates and project agents work with Claude Code only.
• Personas, teams and guided sessions need zsh, bash or fish as your login shell.
• Resume works with Claude Code and Codex.

Related: Answer your agents, Keyboard shortcuts, Sessions feature.