ncode CLI Using ncode
The session screen
ncode opens one conversation of one project in full screen. The screen is built around the composer: letters always type into your draft, and nothing you type is taken as a command unless it starts with /.
Layout#
| Area | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Run tabs | the runs of this conversation; Alt+1 … Alt+4 switch to a tab as drawn |
| Transcript | your messages, the assistant's answers, and one row per tool call (a file read, an edit, a command) |
| Side panel | one row per agent at work, most urgent first; Ctrl+B cycles full, compact and hidden (see Agents) |
| Composer | your draft; Enter sends it (see Composer) |
| Status line | the project's approval mode (read-only, auto or full access), always, and hints for the keys that work right now |
Under 120 columns the side panel becomes a one-line strip, or disappears. A small 80 × 24 terminal still works.
Reading long output#
A transcript row shows at most 8 KB of a prompt or an answer and 2 KB of a tool's output; the row says how much more there is. To read all of it, move to the row in select mode and press Enter (or o): it opens whole in a pager.
Select mode#
Ctrl+T switches from typing to selecting transcript rows:
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
j / k | move down / up |
| Enter | open the row (the whole output, or the agent it belongs to) |
y | copy the row |
| Esc or Ctrl+T | back to typing |
Scrolling and the mouse#
- PgUp / PgDn scroll the transcript; on an empty draft Ctrl+U / Ctrl+D scroll half a page.
- The mouse wheel scrolls the pane under the pointer (the transcript, the side panel, an agent overlay, the pager), three lines a notch.
- To select text with the mouse, hold Shift while dragging (in Terminal.app and iTerm2, Option).
/mouse offhands mouse selection back to the terminal completely; see Terminal, themes and mouse.
Switching conversations and finding things#
- Ctrl+P opens the palette: conversations, runs, the model, and the feature screens: Workflows, Deep Research, Scheduled Tasks, Settings, Usage, Changes, Checkpoints and MCP Servers.
/resumeopens a picker of saved conversations by title;/newstarts a new one and keeps this one saved.- Ctrl+G opens the runs dashboard, Ctrl+R the run palette.
- F1 (or
?outside a text field) shows every key that works where you are. F2 opens Settings.
Quitting#
Press Ctrl+C twice within 1.5 seconds with nothing else to cancel. A single Ctrl+C first closes an open layer, then clears your draft (Ctrl+Z brings it back), then stops the running turn; a press that did one of those never counts towards quitting. When runs are still working, ncode asks:
Stop 2 live runs and quit?
Quitting stops this session's runs. Back in your shell, a short summary lists the runs it stopped and the line to reopen the conversation:
ncode --resume <conversation-id>A Ctrl+C outside the full screen (while it starts, during a -p run, or after the summary) simply ends the program.