Command Palette

Navigate, switch tabs, search files, run scripts, and execute actions with Cmd+K or Cmd+P.

Press ⌘ Cmd + K to switch tabs, open workspaces, search files, run scripts, and execute actions from a single search interface.

Opening the palette

There are two ways to open the palette:

⌘ Cmd + K opens in browse mode showing recent files, commands, and all action groups
⌘ Cmd + P opens in file search mode showing only workspace files for quick file navigation

Browsing categories

Without typing anything, the palette shows all available actions organized into groups:

Actions

Quick-access commands for common tasks:

New Agent - Start a new AI agent session
New Vertical Tab - Open a fresh terminal tab
New Workspace - Add a project folder

Git

Git operations available when a workspace is active:

Git Changes - View uncommitted changes
Git Push - Push your current branch

Scripts

Automatically detects scripts from your project’s package.json and shows them here. This feature is disabled by default - enable it in Settings > General > “Show Scripts in Command Palette”.

When enabled, Vertical Tabs detects the package manager (bun, npm, yarn, or pnpm) and runs scripts with it.

When you select a script, it runs in the focused pane if that pane is idle. If all panes are busy, a new split pane is created automatically.

Switch To

Lists every open terminal tab across all workspaces. Each entry shows the tab name and its workspace.

Workspaces

Shows all your workspaces. Select one to switch to its first tab.

App-level actions for getting around:

Toggle Sidebar - Show or hide the sidebar
Find in Terminal - Search within the current terminal
Settings - Open the settings panel
Keyboard Shortcuts - View all keyboard shortcuts
Clear Terminal - Clear the active terminal’s screen

File search

When a workspace is active, start typing to search files by name. File results appear alongside commands in the search results.

Each file shows a colored type badge (e.g., blue TS, yellow JS, purple # for CSS) and its relative path in the workspace.

Selecting a file opens it in a built-in editor window. Text files open in a Monaco editor with syntax highlighting, save/undo support, and external change detection. Image files (png, jpg, gif, webp, svg, ico, bmp) show an inline preview. Video files (mp4, webm, ogg, mov) open with a video player. Binary files display a “Binary file cannot be displayed” message.

Staged and unstaged files

In file search mode (Cmd+P), the palette shows git status sections at the top:

Staged - files added to the git index, ready to commit
Unstaged - modified or deleted files not yet staged

These sections only appear when there are changed files. They are fuzzy-searchable just like regular files.

Recent files

The palette tracks recently opened files per workspace (up to 10 shown). In browse mode (Cmd+K), recent files appear at the top as a “Recent Files” group. In file search mode (Cmd+P), recent files also appear at the top.

How files are listed

In git repos, Vertical Tabs uses git ls-files to list tracked and untracked files while automatically excluding anything in .gitignore.
In non-git folders, it falls back to a directory walk that skips common directories like node_modules, .git, dist, out, and build.
Results are capped at 10,000 files.

Fuzzy search

Start typing to filter results across all categories. The palette uses fuzzy matching, so exact names are not required. Results are sorted by relevance.

For example, typing “set” will surface Settings, and typing “push” will bring up Git Push.

Key	Action
Arrow Up / Down	Move through results
Enter	Execute the selected action
Escape	Close the palette

Shortcut hints

Each action in the palette displays its keyboard shortcut on the right side (when one exists).