Shell commands¶

Run shell commands in a terminal window. Type > <command> (or ><command>, no space needed); nothing happens until you press Enter. Recent commands are offered again.

How to use it¶

Type > followed by the command:

Type	Shown	Press `Enter`
`> git status`	"Run `git status` in terminal"	Opens your terminal and runs the command
`>npm test`	"Run `npm test` in terminal"	Opens your terminal and runs the command
`>` (just `>`)	"Open terminal" + recent commands	Opens a terminal at a shell prompt (if a recent is selected, runs it)

Nothing is executed until you press Enter. Recent commands are stored in usage.json and are offered again, newest first and ranked by frequency.

Example¶

flowchart TD
    A["Type: > git status"] --> B["Press Enter"]
    B --> C["Sevak hides"]
    C --> D["Terminal opens"]
    D --> E["Runs: git status"]
    E --> F["Terminal stays open at prompt"]

Keep the terminal open¶

By default, after your command finishes, the terminal stays open at a shell prompt ([shell] keep_open = true). If you want it to close when the command exits, set keep_open = false.

Choosing a terminal and shell¶

Sevak auto-detects a suitable terminal and shell for your platform, but you can specify one manually:

[shell]
terminal = ""          # "" = auto-detect
shell = ""             # "" = auto-detect
keep_open = true       # stay at a prompt after the command exits

Auto-detection order¶

WindowsmacOSLinux

Terminal: Windows Terminal (wt), else a console window.

Shell: pwsh (PowerShell Core), else powershell, else cmd.

For PowerShell, the command is encoded as Base64 to avoid quoting issues.

Terminal: Terminal.app (or iTerm2 if you set terminal = "iterm", terminal = "iterm2", or terminal = "/Applications/iTerm.app").

Shell: Your login shell (environment variable $SHELL), run by the terminal. Sevak does not choose the shell on macOS.

Terminal: $TERMINAL environment variable, then x-terminal-emulator, gnome-terminal, konsole, kitty, alacritty, wezterm, foot, xterm.

Shell: $SHELL, else sh.

Examples¶

Choose a specific terminal or emulator:

[shell]
# Use Windows Terminal explicitly
terminal = "wt"

# Or an alternative like ConHost (Windows console)
terminal = "conhost"

# macOS: use iTerm2 instead of Terminal.app
terminal = "iterm"

# Linux: use Kitty with custom arguments
terminal = "kitty --class sevak"

# Linux: use a terminal by full path
terminal = "/usr/bin/alacritty"

Choose a different shell:

[shell]
# Use bash on Windows (with Git Bash)
shell = "bash"

# Use zsh on Linux
shell = "zsh"

# PowerShell on Linux
shell = "pwsh"

Actions¶

Enter: Run the command in a terminal window.
Ctrl+K (action panel): See all available actions (typically just run).

Options¶

All of these are in Settings → System & terminal, with a Browse… button for the terminal and the shell.

Setting	Default	What it does	Config section
Terminal	(auto-detect)	Terminal program: `wt`, `iterm`, `kitty`, `alacritty`, or a full path with optional args	`[shell] terminal`
Shell	(auto-detect)	Shell that runs the command: `pwsh`, `bash`, `zsh`, `fish`, etc.	`[shell] shell`
Keep open	`true`	Leave the terminal at a shell prompt after the command exits	`[shell] keep_open`

Platform notes¶

WindowsmacOSLinux

Commands run in the terminal without a shell context, so shell aliases and functions (from .bashrc, .zshrc, etc.) are not available. Use full paths or install executables on PATH. PowerShell scripts need powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File <path>.

Commands run through your login shell, so aliases and functions from your shell profile are available.

Commands run through $SHELL (or sh) in non-interactive mode, so aliases from .bashrc (and similar) are typically not available. Use source ~/.bashrc && <command> if you need aliases or custom functions.

Tips and troubleshooting¶

Keep recent commands

Recent commands are stored in usage.json (in Sevak's data folder). Clearing the usage store deletes them. Choose Reload index from the tray to rebuild, or restart Sevak.

Set a variable for the terminal

Some terminal programs recognize environment variables. For example, on Linux you can set KITTY_LISTEN_ON to enable remote scripting, or use alacritty --class sevak to apply different window decoration.

Elevated commands on Windows

Commands run as the current user. If you need to run a command as administrator, use runas /user:Administrator <command> instead (this will prompt for your admin password).

Terminal is missing

If Sevak cannot find a terminal on Linux, install one from the auto-detection list, or set terminal to a full path. Check that the terminal is on PATH: which alacritty or which gnome-terminal.

Shell not found

If the shell you specified is not installed, Sevak falls back to sh (Linux) or tries the next option in the auto-detect order (Windows). Verify the shell exists: which bash or which pwsh.