Embedded terminal

Happier can show a live terminal for the current session directly inside the app UI.

This is useful when you want to run quick shell commands, inspect project state, follow logs, or open detected local URLs without leaving the session.

The same terminal foundation is also reused for provider login flows from provider settings.

What it does

• Opens a live shell backed by your connected Happier daemon.
• Treats the terminal as part of the current session, not as a separate detached tool.
• Reuses the same terminal session when you move it between panel locations.
• Preserves the terminal across normal navigation and page refresh for that session.

Where the terminal can appear

Choose a preferred location in Settings → Features → Embedded terminal location:

• Bottom panel — the recommended default on web/tablet; best for wide command output.
• Sidebar — useful when you want the transcript and terminal visible side by side.
• Details panel — useful when the terminal is a secondary detail view for the current session.

On phones, Happier uses a more focused terminal presentation instead of trying to keep desktop-style docked panels on screen at the same time.

How to open it

1. Open a session.
2. Use the Terminal button in the session header.
3. Happier opens the terminal in your selected dock location.

Inside the terminal toolbar you can:

• move it to another dock location,
• clear the visible transcript,
• restart the terminal session,
• close the current terminal surface.

Bottom panel behavior

The bottom panel is a real panel region in the session layout, not a one-off terminal overlay.

Resize behavior

• Drag the top edge of the bottom panel to resize it.
• If the screen still has enough height for both the main content and the bottom panel, the panel stays docked.
• If the panel becomes too tall to fit beside the main content, Happier automatically switches it to an overlay.
• If you shrink it again, it returns to the docked layout.

Overlay behavior

When the bottom panel is shown as an overlay:

• it appears above the session content,
• tapping the scrim closes it,
• pressing Escape closes it when focus is outside terminal text input.

Session continuity

The embedded terminal is meant to feel like one session-owned terminal, even if you move it around.

What to expect:

• Switching between bottom, sidebar, and details keeps the same underlying terminal session.
• Refreshing the page with the terminal open restores the open panel and reconnects to the same terminal for that session.
• Returning to a session restores that session’s terminal state.
• A different session does not automatically inherit another session’s terminal state.

Mobile behavior

On mobile/native clients, Happier renders the terminal through an embedded WebView terminal surface.

That gives you:

• live terminal input and output,
• resize handling,
• restart and clear actions,
• detected URL copy/open actions,
• mobile quick keys where supported.

On smaller phone layouts, the terminal behaves more like a focused terminal screen than a multi-pane desktop layout.

Requirements

The embedded terminal depends on all of the following:

• the Embedded terminal feature toggle is enabled in Settings → Features,
• your daemon is running and connected for the machine you want to control,
• the current session resolves to a reachable machine target.

If the daemon is offline or the machine target is unavailable, Happier shows a terminal error state instead of a live shell.

Important things to know

• Commands run on the connected machine for the current session.
• The embedded terminal is best for session-adjacent work: quick shell commands, local scripts, logs, git inspection, and following links emitted by tools or dev servers.
• The terminal surface can reconnect automatically after short-lived daemon/RPC hiccups.
• Detected local URLs can appear as a banner so you can open or copy them quickly.

Common use cases

• Run git status, git diff, or project scripts while reading the transcript.
• Start a local dev server and open the detected URL from the terminal banner.
• Follow logs while keeping the main transcript visible.
• Keep one session’s shell history open while moving between panel layouts.
• Open a provider login flow from settings without leaving Happier.

Provider login terminal

When a provider supports native CLI login from Happier, the app opens that login flow with the same terminal transport and pane system used for session terminals.

What stays consistent:

• the shared connected-machine terminal session model
• detected URL banners with copy/open actions
• restart, clear, and close actions
• bottom-pane presentation on larger layouts
• focused presentation on smaller layouts

Provider login flows are documented in Provider authentication.

Troubleshooting

I enabled the feature but the terminal still does not open

Check:

• the Embedded terminal toggle is enabled,
• the daemon is running,
• the session is attached to a reachable machine,
• you are on the same server profile as the daemon you connected.

For daemon setup and lifecycle commands, see Daemon.

The terminal opens, but I want it somewhere else

Change the location in:

• Settings → Features → Embedded terminal location

or use the Dock to … control in the terminal toolbar.

The bottom terminal covers the session

That should happen only when the panel no longer fits in a docked layout. Shrink it again and it returns to the docked bottom-panel layout.

Related guides

• App
• Daemon
• Provider authentication
• Git & files
• Feature matrix