Terminal

OxideTerm’s terminal is powered by xterm.js 6 with WebGL-accelerated rendering, delivering smooth 60 fps+ output even with heavy terminal workloads.

Adaptive Rendering

A three-tier render scheduler automatically adjusts frame rate based on activity:

Tier	Trigger	Rate	Benefit
Boost	Frame data ≥ 4 KB	120 Hz+ (ProMotion native)	Eliminates scroll lag on large outputs (`cat largefile.log`)
Normal	Standard typing	60 Hz (requestAnimationFrame)	Smooth baseline
Idle	3s no I/O / tab hidden	1–15 Hz (exponential backoff)	Near-zero GPU load, battery savings

Transitions are fully automatic — driven by data volume, user input, and the Page Visibility API. Background tabs continue flushing data via an idle timer without waking requestAnimationFrame.

Wire Protocol

Terminal I/O bypasses Tauri IPC entirely, using a direct WebSocket connection with a binary Type-Length-Payload protocol:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-- ... --+
| Type   | Length (4 bytes, big-endian)      | Payload |
| (1B)   |                                   |         |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-- ... --+

Type	Name	Payload	Direction
`0x00`	Data	Raw terminal bytes	Bidirectional
`0x01`	Resize	`cols: u16 BE, rows: u16 BE`	Client → Server
`0x02`	Heartbeat	`seq: u32 BE`	Bidirectional
`0x03`	Error	UTF-8 error message	Server → Client

Maximum payload size is 16 MB. The server sends a heartbeat every 30 seconds; if the client doesn’t respond within 90 seconds, the connection is closed.

Multi-Tab & Split Pane

Open multiple terminal tabs, each connected to a different or same SSH session
Split panes horizontally or vertically for side-by-side views
Each pane maintains its own independent shell channel
Drag tabs to reorder or split into new panes

Broadcast Input

Send the same keystrokes to multiple terminal panes simultaneously — useful for managing clusters or running the same command across multiple servers.

Toggle broadcast mode from the toolbar. Selected panes receive identical input in real-time. You can selectively include/exclude specific panes from the broadcast group.

Terminal Search

Search terminal buffer content with two modes:

Visible Buffer Search

Search content currently visible in the terminal viewport and xterm.js scrollback buffer. Fast; no backend round-trip required.

Deep History Search

Search the backend scrollback buffer, which can hold significantly more history than the frontend. Results are highlighted and navigated within the terminal.

Both modes support:

Case-sensitive / case-insensitive matching
Regular expression support
Result highlighting with next/previous navigation

Use Ctrl+F (or ⌘F on macOS) to open the search bar.

Session Recording & Playback

Record terminal sessions in asciicast v2 format for later review:

Captures all terminal output with precise timestamps
Playback with variable speed control (0.5×–8×)
Export recordings for sharing or documentation
Compatible with asciinema ecosystem

Command Palette

Press ⌘K (macOS) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open the command palette — quick access to any action in OxideTerm, including connections, settings, search, and keyboard shortcuts.

Zen Mode

Minimize distractions by entering zen mode, which hides the sidebar, tab bar, and status bar, giving the terminal full screen real estate.

Background Gallery

Customize the terminal with per-tab background images:

13 supported tab types
Adjustable opacity and blur
Multiple fit modes (cover, contain, stretch)

Connection Management

Session tree — organize connections in a hierarchical tree with folders and groups
Quick connect — connect by entering host/user/port directly
Import/Export — .oxide encrypted format (ChaCha20-Poly1305 + Argon2id)
SSH Config import — auto-parse ~/.ssh/config to import existing connections
Jump host / ProxyJump — unlimited hops with network topology graph and Dijkstra pathfinding
Authentication — password, SSH key (RSA/Ed25519/ECDSA), SSH Agent (system agent support across macOS, Linux, Windows), certificates, keyboard-interactive 2FA
Known Hosts TOFU — host key verification compatible with ~/.ssh/known_hosts; rejects key changes (MITM prevention)
Connection pool — terminal, SFTP, forwards, IDE share one SSH connection via reference-counted pool
Idle timeout — configurable (5m / 15m / 30m / 1h / never); connections with no consumers auto-disconnect after the timeout

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux
New Connection	`⌘ N`	`Ctrl+N`
Local Terminal	`⌘ T`	`Ctrl+T`
Command Palette	`⌘ K`	`Ctrl+K`
Terminal Search	`⌘ F`	`Ctrl+F`
Inline AI	`⌘ I`	`Ctrl+Shift+I`
Keyboard Shortcuts	`⌘ /`	`Ctrl+/`
Zen Mode	`⌘ Shift+Z`	`Ctrl+Shift+Z`

Local Terminal

OxideTerm also supports local terminal sessions (PTY) on desktop platforms via portable-pty. Shell auto-detection finds:

macOS/Linux: zsh, bash, fish, pwsh
Windows: PowerShell 7, Git Bash, WSL2, CMD (native ConPTY — full TrueColor and ANSI support, no legacy WinPTY)

Resource Profiler

For active SSH connections, OxideTerm shows a live resource profiler:

CPU and memory usage via persistent SSH channel reading /proc/stat
Delta-based calculation for accurate CPU percentage
Auto-degrades to RTT-only metrics on non-Linux systems
Smart port detection — automatically discovers listening services on the remote host