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Every Whim task includes a live terminal that streams the AI agent’s work directly to your browser. You can watch commands execute, read output as it appears, and jump in whenever you need to.

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Terminal Panel

When you open a task, the terminal panel takes up the main area of the task view. It renders a full terminal emulator in your browser — the same output you’d see if you were SSHed into the machine. Each task provides two terminal sessions:
  • Whim terminal — the AI agent’s interactive session where it reads your prompt, runs commands, and writes code.
  • Shell terminal — a separate shell you can use for your own commands alongside the agent, like running tests or checking file contents.

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Real-Time Streaming

Terminal output streams over a WebSocket connection, so you see every line as it happens — there’s no polling or manual refresh. Whether the agent is installing dependencies, running a build, or writing files, the output appears instantly. If you navigate away and come back, the terminal reconnects automatically and restores recent output so you don’t lose context.

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Colors and Formatting

The terminal supports full ANSI escape codes, so syntax highlighting, colored diffs, progress bars, and styled CLI output all render correctly. Whim includes several built-in themes:
  • Dark (default) — light text on a dark background
  • Light — dark text on a white background
  • Dracula — vibrant colors on a deep purple background
The theme follows your workspace appearance settings.

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Scrollback

The terminal keeps a scrollback buffer of 10,000 lines, so you can scroll up to review earlier output without losing anything. Use your mouse wheel, trackpad, or touch to scroll through the history.
Use Cmd+F (Mac) or Ctrl+F (Windows/Linux) in read mode to search through terminal output for specific text.

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Terminal Resizing

The terminal automatically resizes to fit your browser window. If you resize your window, switch layouts, or toggle side panels, the terminal adjusts its column and row count to match the new dimensions. This means line wrapping and full-width output (like tables or logs) always render correctly for your current screen size.

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Mobile Experience

The terminal works on phones and tablets too. On mobile devices:
  • Tap the terminal to bring up your device keyboard and start typing.
  • Swipe up and down to scroll through the output buffer.
  • A keyboard toolbar appears above your device keyboard with special keys that are hard to type on mobile — see Mobile Keyboard Toolbar for details.
The terminal adapts its caching to mobile constraints — keeping fewer sessions in memory on phones to stay responsive, with even tighter limits on iOS Safari to work within its background tab restrictions.