# Next Term

> Next Term is a free, open-source (MIT) macOS IDE for AI coding agents: a native terminal and code editor that runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and others side by side, shows which agent is working, done or waiting on you, and lets one agent run the others over MCP.

The missing IDE for the terminal. Current version: 0.9.0. Requires macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel (universal app: about 16 MB to download, 43 MB installed). Free and open source under the MIT licence. It brings no AI model of its own and needs no account: it runs the agent command-line tools the user installs (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, Command Code, Junie, opencode and others).

Key facts:

- Each terminal tab shows its agent’s state: a spinner while working (read from the agent’s own screen for Claude Code, Codex, Command Code and Gemini CLI, from output timing for other agents), a green check when done, an amber “!” when it waits on a decision, a red cross when a command failed. Decisions also arrive as macOS notifications.
- Claude Code, Gemini CLI and Qwen Code connect to Next Term as their IDE (local only, fresh token per launch): they see the selected lines, and their proposed edits open as side-by-side diffs to accept (⌘↩) or reject.
- Send to Agent (⌥⌘K) types a reference to the selection or files into any agent’s prompt in that agent’s syntax.
- Next Term is an MCP server (`nxtrm mcp`, 18 local tools, plus 7 for servers) for orchestration: one agent can list every project and tab with each agent’s state, open projects, start agents in new tabs or split panes, send prompts and keys, wait for them, read their screens, answer their questions (guarded by a question id, so an answer never lands on a newer question), read the projects’ files, search them and see their git status and diffs (inside open projects only, secrets files refused and secret-looking values masked), and use the editor (selection, open files, open a file at a line). It registers itself in Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, Cursor Agent, opencode, Copilot CLI, Amp, Junie and Command Code. Local only: a 0600 Unix socket, no network port.
- Remote tabs (Shell › New Remote Tab…, ⌥⌘T) open a terminal tab on the user’s own server through the system ssh and their ~/.ssh/config. With tmux or herdr the session keeps running while the Mac sleeps or the network drops, and the tab reconnects. Agents there get the same status marks, and 7 more MCP tools (list_hosts, add_host, remove_host, check_host, new_remote_tab, host_sessions, host_changes) let agents work with servers. Host keys are never accepted silently, no password is stored, nothing is installed on the server, every port forward is cleared, and Next Term’s MCP socket and editor links are never forwarded (ssh agent forwarding follows the user’s ssh config).
- Agent sessions: the Welcome window (and ⌥⌘O) lists the conversations Claude Code, Codex and Command Code kept for each project, to resume or fork in a tab in the right folder. Only titles, dates, branches and models are read.
- Git: the branch popup (⌥⌘B) checks out, creates, updates, commits and pushes, asks before changing files under a working agent and stashes uncommitted changes when switching. The Git Log (⌥⌘L) shows the commit history as a graph in a tab, with text, branch, author, date and path filters, the selected commit in full and its diffs. View › Annotate with Git Blame shows who last changed each line beside the line numbers. Git › Git Commands lists every git command Next Term ran. The gutter marks added, changed and deleted lines against the last commit.
- The editor colours code with 112 TextMate grammars (prompt placeholders and Jinja or Mustache templates inside Python strings, Prompty, Mermaid, Cypher, requirements files and more), opens Jupyter notebooks read-only with their saved outputs (no kernel, nothing runs), and opens JSON Lines, CSV and TSV files over 2 MB in a read-only head view of their first 1,000 rows. ⌘-click opens paths in terminal output at a line, Python tracebacks, pytest and ruff lines included.
- Databases: a Databases group in the project sidebar lists the databases a project names in its own files (Laravel and Herd DB_* keys, DATABASE_URL and its family, Prisma, Drizzle, Supabase, Vercel-linked projects, SQLite files), found offline without running project code, local or remote by host, passwords masked. SQLite files open read-only in a viewer; hand-offs open TablePlus, or mysql or psql in a new tab for local databases. Passwords are never shown, logged, copied or handed to an agent.
- Import (Next Term › Import Settings and Shortcuts…) reads VS Code, Cursor, Devin Desktop, JetBrains IDEs, Zed, iTerm2, Ghostty and Terminal: shortcut sets, the user’s own key changes, settings, fonts, terminal colours and recent projects, previewed first and undone in one click. It only reads, on this Mac, and never opens files that can hold secrets.
- Also built in: split panes (⌘D, ⇧⌘D), Go to File (⌘P, fuzzy), side-by-side git diffs with hunk staging (⌥⌘G), a project sidebar with git status and +/− line counts, Find and Replace in Files, tabs that show a dev server’s port (Shell › Open Served URL), the `nxtrm` command, configurable layouts and shortcuts, and self-updates checked against the release key’s signature.
- Install in one line: `curl -fsSL https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/install.sh | bash`. It checks that the release’s checksum is signed with the Next Term release key and that the download matches it, then copies the app to Applications, without sudo. On its own, Next Term makes only a daily update check to GitHub and a background `git fetch` from each open project’s own remotes; both can be turned off.
- Not released yet: sessions from more agents (Gemini CLI, opencode, Copilot CLI, Cursor) coming next; a server’s files in the editor and sidebar, and remote access to the MCP server for agents outside the Mac, coming later.

Download (the latest disk image): https://github.com/MishukAdhikari/next-term/releases/latest/download/NextTerm.dmg
Release notes: https://github.com/MishukAdhikari/next-term/releases/latest
Source code: https://github.com/MishukAdhikari/next-term

## Get started

- [Install and get started](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/getting-started/): Install Next Term on macOS 13 or later, get past the first-launch warning with Open Anyway, choose a project folder and run your first agents side by side.
- [Switching from VS Code or JetBrains](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/switching/): Bring shortcuts, settings, fonts, colours and recent projects from VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains, Zed, iTerm2, Ghostty, Terminal and more. You see it first.
- [Updates](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/updates/): How Next Term updates itself from GitHub Releases: a daily check, a one-click install verified with the release key, and how to turn automatic checks off.

## Agents

- [Agent status in every tab](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/agent-status/): How Next Term shows which agent is working, done or waiting on you — tab marks, notifications, the Dock badge — and how it reads each agent’s screen.
- [Agents and the IDE link](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/agents/): Claude Code, Gemini CLI and Qwen Code connect to Next Term as their IDE: live selection, edits as diffs. Send to Agent (⌥⌘K) and MCP work with every agent.
- [Orchestrate agents (MCP)](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/orchestration/): Next Term as an MCP server: one agent starts others in tabs, prompts them, reads their screens, answers their questions and reads files. 18 local tools.

## Editor and diffs

- [Code editor](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/editor/): The editor above your terminal: Go to File (⌘P), 112 grammars, soft wrap, git blame, ⌘/ comments, ⌘L, and files that follow your agents’ edits.
- [Side-by-side diffs](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/diffs/): Open a changed file as a side-by-side diff with ⌥⌘G, then stage, unstage or revert one hunk at a time, without overwriting an agent’s concurrent edit.
- [Find and Replace in Files](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/search/): Search a whole project with ⇧⌘F and replace with ⇧⌘R: regular expressions, file masks, a preview of every replacement, undo, and no lost agent edits.
- [Layouts and split panes](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/layouts/): Split any tab into panes (⌘D, ⇧⌘D), put the terminal below, beside or above the editor, and the project sidebar on the left or right.

## Projects and git

- [Projects and git](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/projects-and-git/): Projects that reopen at launch, git at a glance, background fetch, the branch popup, the commit graph, file operations with undo, a project’s databases.
- [Remote tabs on your servers](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/remote/): Run agents on your own VPS from a Next Term tab: sessions that keep running while your Mac sleeps, reconnecting, and the host keys and logins left to ssh.
- [The nxtrm command](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/command-line/): Open folders as projects and files at a line from any terminal with nxtrm, Next Term’s command-line tool. nxtrm mcp is the MCP server agents start.

## Guides

- [Next Term for LangChain and LangGraph](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/langchain-and-langgraph/): LangChain and LangGraph in Next Term: prompt templates in Python strings, notebooks, large datasets, langgraph dev tabs, tracebacks and LangSmith keys.

## Reference

- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/keyboard-shortcuts/): Every default keyboard shortcut in Next Term, menu by menu, and how to change any menu command’s shortcut in Settings › Keyboard Shortcuts.
- [Settings](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/settings/): Next Term’s Settings (⌘,): fonts, line height, soft wrap, background git fetch, terminal colours, agent links, MCP, notifications, shortcuts and imports.
- [Security and privacy](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/security-and-privacy/): What Next Term shares, and with whom: local-only agent links and MCP socket, no telemetry, background git fetch, the installer, databases, remote tabs.
- [Frequently asked questions](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/faq/): Answers about Next Term: agents and Macs, installing, privacy, MCP, remote tabs, git history, notebooks, databases, importing settings, what comes next.

## Compared with other tools

- [Next Term compared](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/): How Next Term compares with VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Cursor, Devin Desktop, Zed, iTerm2 and Ghostty for running AI coding agents on a Mac.
- [Next Term vs VS Code](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/vs-code/): VS Code is a full editor with GitHub Copilot and agents. Next Term is a small macOS terminal that runs Claude Code, Codex and other agents side by side.
- [Next Term vs JetBrains IDEs](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/jetbrains/): IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, GoLand and the other JetBrains IDEs next to Next Term: what each does better for AI coding agents, and how to use them together.
- [Next Term vs PhpStorm](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/phpstorm/): PhpStorm is the PHP IDE for Laravel, Symfony and WordPress, with Xdebug and tests. Next Term runs your AI coding agents side by side on a Mac, next to it.
- [Next Term vs PyCharm](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/pycharm/): PyCharm is the Python IDE for web, data and AI work, with a debugger and notebooks. Next Term runs your AI coding agents side by side on a Mac, next to it.
- [Next Term vs Cursor](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/cursor/): Cursor is an AI editor with its own agents and models. Next Term is a free macOS terminal that runs Claude Code, Codex and other CLI agents side by side.
- [Next Term vs Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/devin-desktop/): Devin Desktop, formerly Windsurf, is an AI editor with local and cloud agents. Next Term is a free macOS terminal for the agent CLIs you already use.
- [Next Term vs Zed](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/zed/): Zed is an open-source code editor with its own agent and external agents. Next Term is a macOS terminal for running CLI agents side by side, with status.
- [Next Term vs iTerm2](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/iterm2/): iTerm2 is a mature macOS terminal with tmux integration, triggers and a Python API. Next Term adds agent status, an editor and diffs for running AI agents.
- [Next Term vs Ghostty](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/compare/ghostty/): Ghostty is a fast, GPU-rendered terminal for macOS and Linux. Next Term is a macOS terminal and editor built for running AI coding agents side by side.

## Optional

- [All documentation in one file](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/llms-full.txt): every page above as Markdown.
- [Documentation home](https://nxtrm.mishuk.me/docs/): an overview of every page.
- [Release notes](https://github.com/MishukAdhikari/next-term/releases): what changed in each version.
- [README](https://github.com/MishukAdhikari/next-term#readme): the project overview on GitHub.