---
title: Workspace and Navigation
description: Focus on one Terminal, inspect its live context, review Sessions, and move through recent Terminals with browser-style Back and Forward history.
---

PonyMux keeps one Terminal at the center and brings supporting information into
view only when you need it. The workspace controls are different views of the
same durable Terminal, not separate places you have to keep in sync.


*PonyMux interface view: workspace.*


## Focus Mode

Select the viewfinder button in the toolbar or press `⇧⌘F` to give the window to
the current Terminal. Focus Mode hides the sidebar and Terminal list, collapses
an open Quick Terminal, and lets the main Terminal use the available space.

The toolbar moves out of the way and returns when you move the pointer to the top
edge. You can still open Sessions or the Inspector while focused. Leaving Focus
Mode restores the normal columns; any shell, agent, or Quick Terminal process
continues running throughout the change.

Focus Mode is temporary and is not restored the next time PonyMux launches.

## Inspector

Open the Inspector from the trailing-sidebar button or press `⌥⌘B`. It is a
resizable column for facts and actions that belong to the selected Terminal:

- Its current working directory, with copy and **Open in…** actions.
- Its List membership.
- The current provider, model, effort, context facts, and session ID when available.
- **Fork Session** while the current conversation supports it.
- The pet assigned to that Terminal.

The Inspector remains useful for a sleeping Terminal by showing its saved working
directory and other durable information. Archived and trashed Terminals use a
read-only form because their organization cannot be edited until they are restored.

## Sessions

Press `⌥⌘V` to open the Sessions panel for the selected Terminal. Unlike the
Inspector, which describes what is current, Sessions is the timeline of agent
conversations that have happened there. Use it to review recaps, Resume an older
conversation, or Fork a branch of work.

The panel can appear over the Terminal or stay pinned beside it. Its presentation
preference is remembered independently of whether a particular Terminal has the
panel open.

## Quick Terminal

A Quick Terminal is a temporary shell attached to the currently selected Terminal.
Use it for a development server, a log stream, `git status`, or another small task
that belongs beside the main session but does not deserve its own durable Terminal.

### Open and manage Quick Terminals

- Press `⌥⌘J` to show the current Quick Terminal. If none exists, PonyMux creates one.
- Press `⌥⌘N` to create another Quick Terminal for the selected Terminal.
- Select a chip in the dock to switch between Quick Terminals.
- Drag the panel edge to change its height.
- Use `⌥⌘D` to keep the dock visible instead of letting it auto-hide.
- Close a Quick Terminal from its chip or context menu. PonyMux asks first if a foreground process is still running.

Each durable Terminal owns its own set of Quick Terminals. Switching to another
Terminal swaps the visible dock, while Quick Terminals attached to the previous one
keep running. Returning restores the Quick Terminal you last selected there.

### Deliberately temporary

A Quick Terminal:

- Is not persisted across app launches.
- Has no row in All Terminals or a List.
- Does not create session history.
- Does not receive a PonyMux Terminal identity.
- Does not report Claude Code or Codex integration events.
- Is destroyed when its host Terminal leaves the active workspace.

If a command or agent conversation should be named, organized, resumed, or reviewed
later, create a [regular Terminal](/docs/organize#regular-terminals) instead. Its
List assignment and starting directory depend on the collection in which it is
created.

## Back and Forward history

PonyMux records Terminal and collection changes as navigation history. Use the
toolbar arrows or `⌘[` and `⌘]` to return to where you were without finding the
same row again.

Press and hold, right-click, or Control-click either arrow to open up to ten recent
steps on that side and jump directly to one. Entries show enough Terminal and
collection context to distinguish visits made from different Lists. History skips
destinations that no longer exist or no longer belong to that collection.