Terminal Side Chat

Terminal Side Chat lets you ask a tangent question from the terminal AI Input without sending that prompt into the main terminal agent. Use /side to open a separate side-chat terminal seeded with a bounded transcript from the current pane.

Use /spawn when you want a full new terminal panel that continues from the same context instead of a temporary side chat.

Why it matters

• Keep the main agent thread focused while you explore an error, design option, or explanation.
• Seed the side chat with recent terminal output so you do not re-paste context by hand.
• Hide side chats as small restore dots, then bring them back when you need them.
• Continue durable parallel agent work with /spawn when a full pane is better than a modal.

/side vs /spawn

Both commands appear in the terminal AI Input slash menu (/). They do not appear in the New Workspace welcome composer, because there is no source terminal to fork.

Get started with /side

1. Open a workspace terminal pane that has recent output or a running agent.
2. Open the terminal AI Input (⌘G / Ctrl+G, or the floating handle).
3. Type / and choose /side.
4. A /side chip appears. Type your side question, then press Enter.
5. Atmos captures a bounded transcript from the source pane, opens a side chat, and sends the prompt there — not into the main terminal.
6. Use Hide to collapse the side chat into a colored restore dot next to the AI Input handle, or Close to destroy it.

If the source terminal has no detected agent, Atmos asks you to pick one before the side chat starts.

Get started with /spawn

1. Focus a terminal pane with an active agent or usable context.
2. Open the terminal AI Input and choose /spawn.
3. Type the prompt for the new panel and press Enter.
4. Atmos creates a new terminal panel and continues with that context. The original pane stays in place.

What stays constrained

• Side chats have a single panel. They do not expose split, pin-to-canvas, or normal terminal grid menus.
• Side chats opened from a Canvas terminal card stay inside that card.
• Closing the source terminal also closes side chats forked from it.
• Hidden side chats can restore after reload while their tmux windows still exist; they return as dots, not auto-opened modals.

Tips

• Prefer /side for “explain this error” style questions; prefer /spawn when you want another agent to keep working in parallel.
• You can also start a side chat from a terminal text selection when the selection toolbar offers Side chat for selection.
• Pair with Persistent Terminal Sessions and Multi-Workspace Development when several agents run at once.
• Use Dynamic Skills from the same / menu when a skill is steering the agent the wrong way for this task.