Terminal setup

Syntic Code works in any modern terminal without setup. A few small changes make it nicer: a key for new lines, Option-key shortcuts on a Mac, a ping when a long reply is ready, and a busy marker on the terminal tab. This page covers each one, plus pasting large text, vim keys, and running inside tmux.

New lines in the prompt

Enter sends your message. To start a new line instead:

/terminal-setup

Run /terminal-setup inside a session. It looks at which terminal you are in and does the right thing for it:

The terminal is recognised from TERM_PROGRAM, TERM and a few variables the terminal sets itself.

If Shift+Enter is already bound to something else in the editor’s keybindings.json, nothing is changed and you are told which command holds the key. Remove that binding and run /terminal-setup again. If the file is not a JSON list, it is left alone and reported.

Option-key shortcuts on a Mac

Several shortcuts use Alt: Alt+P (model picker), Alt+O (fast mode), Alt+T (reasoning on or off), Alt+B / Alt+F (word left / right), Alt+Enter (new line). On a Mac, Alt is the Option key, and these only reach Syntic Code when your terminal sends Option as Meta:

Option+T works even without that setting.

Over SSH, Syntic Code guesses which keyboard you are typing on from the variables your terminal forwards, so the key names in hints match your keyboard. Set SYNTIC_CLIENT_PLATFORM to mac, linux or windows to say so yourself.

Notifications

When a turn finishes and you have stepped away, Syntic Code lets you know.

When it fires. If the terminal window is not focused, every finished turn counts. If it is focused, only turns that ran for 10 seconds or more count. Either way it waits about 6 seconds first, and any key you press in that time cancels it, since you are clearly still there. The message is “Response ready”.

How it is delivered depends on your terminal:

Turn it off with the Notifications row in /config ("notificationsEnabled": false).

Choose the method yourself with SYNTIC_NOTIF_CHANNEL:

An unknown value falls back to auto.

Your own sound or message. A Notification hook runs when a permission prompt is waiting for you (its notification_type is permission_prompt). For example, in ~/.syntic/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Notification": [
      { "matcher": "permission_prompt", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff" }] }
    ]
  }
}

Use any command that plays a sound or speaks on your system.

The terminal tab

Title

Syntic Code sets the terminal’s tab title to a short topic: the session’s name once it has one (/rename), otherwise the first words of your first prompt, otherwise the folder name. A small marker in front of it turns while a turn runs and stays still when Syntic Code is waiting for you. Set SYNTIC_DISABLE_TERMINAL_TITLE=1 to leave the title alone.

Progress marker

While a turn runs, Syntic Code sets the terminal’s own progress indicator (the OSC 9;4 sequence), which many terminals show on the tab or dock icon. It shows “paused” while a permission prompt waits, and clears when the turn ends. Terminals that do not understand it ignore it; it is skipped in terminals known to print it as text instead. Turn it off with Terminal progress bar in /config ("terminalProgressBarEnabled": false).

Pasting large text

Paste as much as you like. A paste longer than 800 characters or 8 lines is not dropped into the prompt box in full. Instead, a marker takes its place:

[Pasted text #1 +42 lines]

The full text is kept and sent when you press Enter. You can type around the marker, paste more (each paste gets its own number), and delete a marker like any other text to drop that paste. Shorter pastes go straight into the prompt.

Ctrl+V pastes an image from the clipboard; it shows as an [Image #1] marker.

Vim keys in the prompt

Turn on vim-style editing with /vim, the Editor mode row in /config, "vimMode": true, or SYNTIC_VIM_MODE=1. The prompt then starts in normal mode. The keys are listed on Keyboard shortcuts. Two related settings:

tmux and screen

Syntic Code works inside tmux and GNU screen. Title changes, notifications, the progress marker and clipboard copies are wrapped so they pass through to your outer terminal. A plain bell is sent unwrapped, so tmux can flag the window as active.

Colors and width

When it goes wrong