Terminal emulator
CLion includes an embedded terminal emulator for working with your command-line shell from inside the IDE. Use it to run Git commands, set file permissions, and perform other command-line tasks without switching to a dedicated terminal application.
Enable the Terminal plugin
This functionality relies on the Terminal plugin, which is bundled and enabled in CLion by default. If the relevant features aren't available, make sure that you didn't disable the plugin.
Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open settings and then select .
Open the Installed tab, find the Terminal plugin, and select the checkbox next to the plugin name.
Initially, the terminal emulator runs with your default system shell, but it supports many other shells, such as Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt cmd.exe, sh, bash, zsh, csh, and so on. For more information about changing the shell, refer to Terminal settings.
Open the Terminal tool window
Go to or press Alt+F12.
By default, the terminal emulator runs with the current directory set to the root directory of the current project. For more information about changing the default start directory, refer to Terminal settings.
Right-click any file (for example, in the Project tool window or any open editor tab) and select Open in Terminal to open the Terminal tool window with a new session in the directory of that file.
Start a new local session
To start a new session in a separate tab, click
on the toolbar or press Ctrl+Shift+T.
To run multiple sessions inside a tab, right-click the tab and select Split Right or Split Down in the context menu.
The Terminal saves tabs and sessions when you close the project or CLion. It preserves tab names, the current working directory, and even the shell history.
To close a tab, click 
on the Terminal toolbar or press Ctrl+F4.
Press Alt+Right and Alt+Left to switch between active tabs. Alternatively, you can press Alt+Down to see the list of all terminal tabs.
To clear the terminal screen, press Ctrl+L.
Start a new SSH session
On the toolbar, click
and select New SSH Session. Enter the address of the host to which you want to connect, and provide authentication data.
Or, if you have configured SSH configurations, you can select one of them from the list.
To terminate the connection, click in the terminal tab.
Auto-complete commands and view documentation
Code completion with documentation works for commands, paths, arguments, options, and other elements:
Navigate between commands, prompt, and output
Use arrow keys to navigate through command blocks.
To switch the focus between the prompt and output, use the ⌘↑/Ctrl+↑ and ⌘↓/Ctrl+↓ shortcuts.
Rename terminal tab
Right-click the tab and select Rename Session from the context menu.
Search in terminal
To search for a certain string in a Terminal session, press Ctrl+F. This searches all text in the session: the prompt, commands, and output.
By default, the search is not case-sensitive. You can click 
Match case in the search field to make it case-sensitive.
Configure the terminal emulator
Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open settings and then select .
Alternatively, click
on the Terminal toolbar and select Settings. 
For more information, refer to Terminal settings.
New Terminal
Starting with the 2024.1 release, a beta version of the new terminal is available in the New UI of CLion.
Along with its improved look and feel aligned with the new UI, other major features include:
Separation of command output into distinct visual blocks. Press Ctrl+Up to navigate to the output area and Ctrl+Down to switch to the input area. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to navigate the output area blocks.
Command completion, including completion for command names, arguments, flags, and paths. For each suggested value, the new terminal displays quick documentation.
Completion for command names and arguments is available as you type them, but you can also press Ctrl+Space or Tab after a command name to get the list of possible arguments.
To display the history of commands that you have previously entered, press Up in the input area.
Enable New Terminal
Open the Terminal tool window: .
In the tool window header, click
and select Enable New Terminal.
Alternatively, open the IDE settings (Ctrl+Alt+S) and go to .
Search in output blocks
While the full text buffer remains searchable, the new terminal also enables searching within specific output blocks.
In the Terminal tool window, press Ctrl+F.
In the search dialog than opens, click
(Search in block) and type the keyword you are looking for.
This narrows the search to only the output block that is currently selected. You can click any block to select it or use the Up and Down arrow keys to navigate them.
