About Tabby
Vision
Tabby exists to solve a simple problem: developers juggle too many terminal windows. Instead of spreading terminals across monitors, relying on tmux for session persistence, and context-switching between apps, Tabby gives you one native workspace with tabs, split panes, and live sessions that never die.
The long-term goal is a scriptable, profile-driven terminal workspace that adapts to how you work — whether that's a solo developer with three projects, a team lead reviewing PRs, or an AI-assisted workflow with Claude Code running alongside your shell.
What Makes Tabby Different?
| Terminal.app | iTerm2 | Warp | Tabby | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tabs + split panes | Basic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sessions survive tab switch | No | Partial | Yes | Always |
| Per-pane profiles (Claude, Codex) | No | No | No | Yes |
| Browser panes alongside terminals | No | No | No | Yes |
| Built-in Git UI | No | No | Partial | Yes |
| CLI automation | No | Limited | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Native performance (Rust + Tauri) | Native | Native | Rust | Rust + Tauri |
Tabby isn't trying to replace your shell or reinvent the terminal. It's a workspace layer on top of real PTY sessions that keeps everything organized, persistent, and scriptable.
Current Status
v0.1.0 — First public release. The core workspace is functional and usable for daily development.
What Works
- Workspace shell — browser-style tabs with independent layouts and sessions
- Terminal sessions — real PTY processes via portable-pty, persistent across all UI interactions
- Split layouts — grid presets (1x1 through 3x3) with resizable panes
- CLI profiles — Terminal, Claude Code, Codex, and custom command profiles per pane
- Browser panes — embedded web views alongside terminals
- Settings — font size, default layout, profile, working directory, preferences persistence
- Git integration — repository status, branches, commit history, diffs (unified + split), blame, stash
- Theme system — light/dark modes, custom color tokens, import/export, live preview
- CLI automation — launch overrides via command-line flags with single-instance routing
What's Experimental
- Git integration is read-only (no commit, push, pull yet)
- Browser panes have basic navigation (no DevTools, extensions)
- Theme import/export is manual (file-based)
Roadmap
v0.2 — Distribution & Reliability
- CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions for automated builds and tests
- Signed and notarized
.dmgdistribution (no more Gatekeeper bypass) - Auto-update mechanism
- Expanded test coverage (unit, integration, E2E)
v0.3 — Session & Workspace Persistence
- Session restore on relaunch — reopen tabs, panes, and running commands after quitting
- Tab drag-and-drop reordering
- Workspace save/load — export and import full workspace configurations
- Git write operations (commit, push, pull from the UI)
Future
- Plugin system for extending functionality
- Custom keybinding configuration
- Community theme sharing
- Linux and Windows support
- Search across terminal output history
- Split pane zoom (temporarily maximize a single pane)
Tech Stack
| Component | Technology | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop shell | Tauri v2 | Native macOS app container |
| Backend | Rust | PTY management, Git operations, state |
| Frontend | React 18 + TypeScript | UI rendering and interaction |
| Build | Bun + Vite 6 | Fast bundling and dev server |
| Terminal | xterm.js + portable-pty | Terminal rendering + real PTY sessions |
| State | Zustand | Frontend state management |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS v4 | Utility-first CSS |
| IPC | specta + tauri-specta | Type-safe Rust ↔ TypeScript communication |
| Testing | Vitest + Playwright | Unit, integration, and E2E tests |
Links
License
MIT — see LICENSE for details.