Projects

Open a terminal

Use durable collaborative terminals backed by real project Linux processes.

What CoCalc terminals are for

CoCalc terminals run shell processes on the backend and use xterm.js in the browser. Hosted CoCalc projects use Linux; local CoCalc installations use the host operating system's shell, including PowerShell on Windows.

You can reconnect to the same terminal while the project runtime remains running. A project stop, restart, failure, or browser-idle timeout ends running processes. Save important results in files and plan how to resume long jobs.

Open a terminal

  1. Open the project.
  2. Open New on the activity bar, or click New in Files.
  3. Choose Terminal or create a file ending in .term.
  4. Run normal shell commands.

Terminal files are intentionally path-based. Opening work/analysis.term starts in work/, and the terminal session has a stable file anchor that humans and agents can refer to.

Agent and CLI access

Codex can inspect and drive live terminal sessions through the browser-session API. For persistent terminal work from an agent, prefer the typed terminal APIs over screenshot automation when possible.

Why this matters in CoCalc

A CoCalc terminal is collaborative, durable, and attached to project files. It is not just a temporary browser shell: it is part of a shared computational workspace with side chat, project storage, TimeTravel-friendly files, and direct SSH access when you want native tools.