Files, Search, And Previews

File tools work on the active workspace’s checkout, the files its agents change. They are made for reviewing agent work; the editor has no language server. The paired phone can browse and search files too.

Mod is ⌘ on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux.

Where The Tools Live#

Explorer, Search, Source Control, and Pull Request open as tabs in the right panel. Open one from Add Tab or an empty panel; drag it to the center panel if you prefer. Mod+Shift+E shows the Explorer and Mod+Alt+B hides or shows the panel. Settings → Application → Desktop → New Workspace Tools picks the tools a new workspace starts with.

Explorer#

The tree marks untracked, added, and modified files with U, A, and M. Git-ignored files stay hidden until you click Show ignored files in the toolbar, next to New File, New Folder, Save All Files, and Refresh.

Right-click an item for Copy, Cut, Paste, Duplicate, Rename, Delete, Copy path, Copy relative path, and Reveal in Finder (Reveal in Explorer on Windows, Reveal in File Manager on Linux).

• Drag a row onto a folder to move it, or onto a terminal to paste its path, relative to the workspace when the terminal belongs to it.
• Open tabs follow a file you rename or move.
• Delete asks first and moves the item to the trash when one is available.

File operations and Search never touch .git, .hg, or .svn folders. A local workspace’s tree refreshes as files change on disk; for a workspace on a remote host, click Refresh.

Quick Open#

Mod+P opens Quick Open for the active workspace: type part of a path and press Enter. It lists up to 50 matches, includes hidden files, skips git-ignored ones, and indexes at most 50,000 files.

Search Across The Workspace#

Mod+Shift+F (Find in Files) opens Search with the query focused; Mod+Shift+H (Replace in Files) also opens the replace field. Results update as you type. The query field toggles Match Case, Match Whole Word, and Use Regular Expression. Show Details adds Files to include and Files to exclude, which take comma-separated globs such as src/**, *.test.ts; a pattern without a / matches at any depth.

Search follows .gitignore unless you turn on Search ignored files, and View as Tree groups results by folder. It skips binary files, files over 5 MB, and symbolic links, and stops at 2,000 matches (100 per file). Click a result to open the file with the match selected.

Replacing#

Open Show Replace and type the replacement to preview it on every result. Preserve Case keeps each match’s capitalization, and regular expressions can use capture groups such as $1. Apply it with Replace Match, Replace in file, or Replace All, which needs results under the limit.

A file with unsaved editor changes is refused until you save or discard them. A file that changed on disk since the search is skipped and reported, never overwritten.

The Editor#

UTF-8 text files up to 10 MB open in an editor tab with syntax highlighting, line numbers, a find and replace bar, and undo and redo. The bar above the text has Comment on File, View Diff, Save File, Discard Changes, and, for Markdown and Mermaid files, Open Preview. Save with Mod+S; closing a tab with unsaved changes asks first.

Settings → Editor sets the Theme Preset (ten syntax themes, Alera by default) and the Tab Size (4 spaces; lines you do not edit keep their original tabs). Autosave is off by default, with an Autosave Delay of 1 to 60 seconds.

An editor tab does not reload when an agent changes the file. If the file changed on disk since it was loaded, saving stops with File changed on disk, and Overwrite keeps your version; autosave pauses on the same question. Replace in Files reloads editors that have no unsaved changes. To see an agent’s edits in a file you have not touched, close the tab and open the file again.

Previews#

• Markdown: .md files open rendered. Unsaved edits in an editor tab appear live, Open Source File switches to the text, and web links open in your browser.
• PDF: page count, zoom, Show Outline, and Search PDF with previous and next match.
• Mermaid: .mmd files open as text; Open Preview renders the saved diagram in its own tab with zoom, pan, and Refresh.
• Images: PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP, and ICO open in a tab you can zoom and pan.

Where A File Opens#

From the Explorer, Search, or Quick Open, a file opens as a preview tab, titled in italics, in the panel and split group you opened it from; the next file you open there replaces it. Editing the file, double-clicking it in the Explorer, or Keep Open in the tab’s context menu makes it a regular tab. A file already open anywhere in the workspace is selected, not duplicated. For Quick Open, the origin is the tab that had focus.

Hold Mod while you click to open a preview in the other panel instead: the center if you started on the right, the right if you started in the center. Splits inside one panel do not count, and a hidden right panel opens. This works from the Explorer, Search, Source Control, Pull Request, View Diff, and Quick Open (Mod held while pressing Enter), even when the file is already open where you started.