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Personalize PonyMux

Make serious work feel alive with themes, animated session pets, per-Terminal cursor effects, and small moments of celebration.

Personalization in PonyMux is meant to make a focused workspace feel human, not to add another system to manage. The choices stay at the edges of the product: they can express identity or activity while the Terminal itself remains familiar.

Personalize Click Mochi to cycle through the activity states shown above the Terminal window.

Themes

Open Settings → Appearance to browse the available dark and light themes. Each tile previews real terminal roles—prompt, agent output, emphasis, errors, and warnings—so choosing a theme is closer to checking readability than picking a color swatch.

Selecting a theme applies it immediately across the PonyMux interface and every Terminal without restarting their processes. Choose Follow System to switch automatically between the Apple System Colors light and dark themes as macOS appearance changes.

Notifications

Permission requestsAn agent is blocked and waiting for you to allow something.
Finished turnsAn agent stopped and is ready for your input.
Agent errorsAn agent stopped because something went wrong.

Pets

Show a pet for every live sessionA pet walks the window title bar for each running agent. Click one to jump to its Terminal.
Mochi

Sessions

Resume sessions on launchEach Terminal whose agent was still running resumes its session when you open it.
Permission level for resumed sessionsWhat the agent can do when a session resumes or forks.
Ask before quitting with live agentsShow a confirmation before quitting when agents are still running.
THEMES
Follow SystemautoAuto

Font

FontWhich monospace font the Terminal uses.
Font sizePoint size for Terminal text.
Font for Chinese and Japanese charactersKeep shared characters consistent on the same line.

Cursor

Cursor shapeHow the cursor looks in the Terminal.
Cursor blinkWhether the cursor blinks when idle.

Screen Effect

Effect for new TerminalsCursor animation for new Terminals; change it per Terminal later.

Behavior

Let sessions name TerminalsUse the session topic and update it as the conversation moves.
Copy on selectSelecting Terminal text puts it on the clipboard.
New Terminal inherits working directoryOpen in the same folder as the Terminal you are viewing.

Shell

Default shellWhich shell new Terminals start with.
Shell integrationLet PonyMux track each shell’s working directory.

Window

New Terminal
Quick Terminal
Focus Mode

Navigation

Back
Forward

Terminal

Rename Terminal
Archive Terminal
Show Inspector

Reserved by the terminal

Copy, paste, select all, clear, font size, scrollback, line editingThese shortcuts go to the shell and agent, not PonyMux.

Claude Code

ConnectedAgent status and session history are tracked.
Config file~/.claude/settings.json
Forwarder script~/Library/Application Support/PonyMux/claude-hook

Codex

ConnectedAgent status and session history are tracked.
Config file~/.codex/config.toml
Forwarder script~/Library/Application Support/PonyMux/codex-notify

PonyMux only adds or removes its own entries in the config file, and backs it up first.

This copy of PonyMux

PonyMuxdev.ponymux.app
Session data~/Library/Application Support/PonyMux
Event socket~/Library/Application Support/PonyMux/events.sock

Diagnostics

Debug LogLive view of PonyMux activity, filtered by area.
Log fileInfo and error entries kept on disk, so they survive a restart.

Reset

Reset all settingsYour Terminals, sessions, theme and agent connections stay.
Appearance Theme tiles render terminal text roles, not only palette swatches.

Pets

When agent integrations are connected, each live Claude Code or Codex session can have a small animated companion above the PonyMux window. A pet is an ambient view of the same activity shown by status indicators: it works while the agent is running, waits when the agent needs you, rests while standing by, and reacts to an error. Shell-only and ended sessions do not put a pet on stage.

Each Terminal receives a pet when it is created and keeps that companion. Click a pet in the parade to jump to its Terminal, or use the Terminal’s Inspector to pick a different pet or hide it for that Terminal.

Use Settings → General → Pets to show or hide pets globally, choose the default for new Terminals, and rescan the catalog. PonyMux includes its own pets and can also read compatible pets supplied by ChatGPT or placed in ~/.codex/pets/.

Screen effects

Screen effects add a small animation to the Terminal cursor. PonyMux includes four effects—Cursor Warp, Cursor Tail, Cursor Sweep, and Ripple Cursor—and they run as part of the Terminal rendering rather than as an overlay on the app.

Choose the default for new Terminals in Settings → Terminal → Screen Effect. To change an existing Terminal independently, open its action menu and choose Screen Effect. The change applies immediately without restarting its shell or agent session.

Meaningful moments

Reactions give a Terminal a small persistent marker and a brief visual burst when added. They are useful for moments worth remembering or celebrating without turning those moments into another formal workflow.

Together, themes, pets, effects, and reactions support the same idea described in the product philosophy: serious work can stay calm and still feel alive.

Last updated on Sep 12, 2026