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Getting Started with CrossTerm

Welcome to CrossTerm — a cross-platform terminal emulator and remote access suite. This guide walks you through the interface and your first connections.

Not installed yet?

See the Installation & Upgrade guide for macOS (Homebrew), Windows (MSI/exe), and Linux (deb/rpm/AppImage) instructions.

Creating Your First Session

  1. Press Ctrl+T (or ⌘T on macOS) to open a new local shell tab.
  2. A terminal session will open in the main canvas area.
  3. You can type commands just like any other terminal.

Connecting to a Remote Host

To connect to a remote server via SSH:

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+N (or ⌘⇧N on macOS) to open Quick Connect.
  2. Enter the hostname, port, username, and authentication details.
  3. Click Connect or press Enter.
  4. A new SSH tab will appear showing your remote session.

Alternatively, you can create a saved session:

  1. Click the + button next to the tab bar.
  2. Select New SSH Session from the dropdown.
  3. Fill in the connection details.
  4. The session is saved for quick access later.

CrossTerm uses a six-region layout:

  • Title Bar (top): App branding, theme toggle, profile switcher.
  • Tab Bar: Manage open sessions. Right-click tabs for context menu options.
  • Sidebar (left): Browse saved sessions, snippets, and tunnel configurations.
  • Session Canvas (center): Your active terminal sessions.
  • Bottom Panel: SFTP browser, snippet manager, audit log, and search.
  • Status Bar (bottom): Connection status, encoding, and terminal dimensions.

Using the Command Palette

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or ⌘⇧P on macOS) to open the Command Palette. From here you can:

  • Open new sessions
  • Toggle panels
  • Change settings
  • Switch themes
  • Lock the credential vault

Managing Tabs

  • New tab: Ctrl+T / ⌘T
  • Close tab: Ctrl+W / ⌘W
  • Next tab: Ctrl+Tab
  • Previous tab: Ctrl+Shift+Tab
  • Go to tab 1–9: Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9

Right-click a tab to access options like duplicate, split, rename, and close others.

Split Panes

You can split your terminal workspace:

  1. Right-click any tab.
  2. Select Split Right or Split Down.
  3. Both panes remain active and can be used independently.

Theme Selection

CrossTerm ships with several built-in themes including Dark, Light, Dracula, Nord, Monokai Pro, and Solarized variants. Change themes via:

  • The sun/moon icon in the title bar (cycles Dark → Light → System)
  • Settings panel (Ctrl+, / ⌘,)

Next Steps