Access a full SSH terminal in your browser. Manage tabs, replay command history, use the AI assistant, and work with the server directly.

Web Terminal

The Devpilot Web Terminal gives you a real SSH session to your server from the browser. It supports multiple tabs, command history, ANSI color output, an integrated AI assistant, and optional command filtering — without requiring a local SSH client or key configuration.

Every command you type executes directly on the server with the connected user's privileges. Treat the Web Terminal with the same care you'd treat any other SSH session.

Opening a Terminal Session

Open Servers, select a server, and click Terminal. Devpilot establishes an SSH session using the credentials already on file for the server. Each session is tracked with:

Started / last active / ended timestamps.
A running total commands counter.
Status indicating whether the session is live or has ended.

Once the session is live, you can start typing. The prompt reflects the hostname, connected user, and current working directory.

Tabs

The Web Terminal supports multiple tabs, each a fully independent SSH session.

New tab

Click the + button in the tab bar. Each tab has its own shell, working directory, and command history.

Switching tabs

Click any tab to bring it to the foreground. Background tabs keep running — long-running commands aren't interrupted when you switch away.

Closing a tab

Click the X on the tab. The SSH session ends and any foreground process in that tab is terminated.

To keep a process running after closing a tab, launch it inside tmux, screen, or nohup. Those sessions survive the SSH connection dropping.

Command History

Devpilot records command history at two levels:

Shell history — Your own ~/.bash_history or ~/.zsh_history on the server, available via Up Arrow or Ctrl+R.
Server-side history — Devpilot also records every command per session in the workspace, with execution order and whether the command was filtered.

The server-side log is useful for auditing what happened during a session even after the tab is closed.

Command Filtering

Devpilot supports an optional command filter per server. Filters can flag or block specific commands by pattern.

When a filter matches a command you type, the Web Terminal records the attempt as filtered in the history and follows the configured policy (for example flag-only, or deny). This is useful for shared team servers where certain destructive commands should be explicit or restricted.

Autocomplete

Press Tab for shell autocomplete on commands, file paths, and directories. Behavior comes from your shell (Bash, Zsh, or other) — Devpilot doesn't intercept it.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Standard terminal shortcuts are forwarded to the shell when the terminal pane is focused:

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+C`	Send interrupt (SIGINT).
`Ctrl+D`	EOF / exit current shell.
`Ctrl+L`	Clear the screen.
`Ctrl+R`	Reverse search shell history.
`Ctrl+A` / `Ctrl+E`	Move cursor to start / end of line.
`Ctrl+U` / `Ctrl+K`	Delete to start / end of line.
`Ctrl+W`	Delete word before cursor.
`Up / Down`	Previous / next command.
`Tab`	Autocomplete.

Browser shortcuts can occasionally conflict (for example Ctrl+W to close the tab). If a shortcut doesn't reach the terminal, click inside the pane to re-focus it.

ANSI Color and Rich Output

The terminal supports full ANSI color, 256-color, and 24-bit true color. htop, vim, nano, ls --color, and other TUI tools render correctly.

Common actions are available from the toolbar:

New Tab — Open an additional SSH session.
Clear Terminal — Clear visible output without killing the session.
Reconnect — Re-establish a dropped connection.
AI Assistant — Open the AI panel described below.

AI Terminal Assistant

Devpilot includes a terminal-aware AI assistant. Click AI Assistant in the toolbar to open it alongside your session.

What you can ask

Command suggestions — Describe what you want to do in plain language ("find the 10 largest files under /var/log") and get a ready-to-run command.
Error explanations — Paste an error output or stack trace and get a diagnosis.
Syntax help — Ask about flags and options for awk, sed, find, systemctl, or any other tool.
Multi-step tasks — Get a sequence of commands for tasks like "rotate logs older than 30 days" or "safely restart a service behind a reverse proxy."

Inserting suggestions

Click Insert on a suggested command to drop it into your active terminal pane. You always press Enter yourself — Devpilot never auto-executes commands on your behalf.

Review AI-suggested commands before running them. The assistant is helpful but isn't infallible, and you're responsible for every command that executes on your server.

Session and Connection Behavior

Idle timeout — Long-idle sessions may disconnect. Click Reconnect to re-establish.
Multiple sessions — Closing the browser tab ends every active terminal session in that tab. Use tmux/screen for anything that must outlive the browser.
Audit trail — The session and its command history remain in your workspace records after the session ends.

Next Steps

File Manager — Visual alternative for file editing and transfer.
Scripts and Automation — Save frequently used commands as reusable scripts.
Database Management — Manage databases without dropping to the terminal.

Web Terminal

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