Terminal emulator
Open: View | Tool Windows | Terminal or AltF12
Configure: Settings CtrlAlt0S | Tools | Terminal
PyCharm 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.
This functionality relies on the Terminal plugin, which is bundled and enabled in PyCharm by default. If the relevant features are not available, make sure that you did not disable the plugin.
Press CtrlAlt0S to open settings and then select Plugins.
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.
Go to View | Tool Windows | Terminal or press AltF12.
Right-click any file (for example, in the Project tool window Alt01 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.
tip
You can open the terminal as an editor tab: right-click the Terminal tool window header and select Move to Editor.
To start a new session in a separate tab, click on the toolbar or press CtrlShift0T.
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 PyCharm. It preserves tab names, the current working directory, and even the shell history.
To close a tab, click on the Terminal toolbar or press CtrlF4.
Press Alt0→ and Alt0← to switch between active tabs. Alternatively, you can press Alt0↓ to see the list of all terminal tabs.
To clear the terminal screen, press Ctrl0L.
tip
Configure shortcuts for the terminal actions in the IDE settings (CtrlAlt0S), under Keymap | Plugins | Terminal.
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.
Right-click the tab and select Rename Session from the context menu.
tip
Just like with system terminal tabs, you can rename PyCharm Terminal tabs programmatically. For example, use
title MyTitle
if your interpreter is Windows Command Prompt orecho -en "\033]0;MyTitle\a"
for bash and zsh. This feature is available if the Show application title checkbox is selected in Advanced Settings.
To search for a certain string in a terminal session, press Ctrl0F. 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.
Press CtrlAlt0S to open settings and then select Tools | Terminal.
Alternatively, click on the Terminal toolbar and select Settings.
For more information, refer to Terminal settings.
tip
For advanced settings, select Advanced Settings and scroll down to the Terminal group. For more information about the available settings, refer to Advanced Settings: Terminal.
Starting with the 2024.1 release, a beta version of the new terminal is available in PyCharm.
tip
The new terminal currently supports the Zsh, Bash, and PowerShell shells.
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 Ctrl0↑ to navigate to the output area and Ctrl0↓ to switch to the input area. Use the 0↑ and 0↓ 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 CtrlSpace 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 0↑ in the input area.
Open the Terminal tool window: View | Tool Windows | Terminal.
In the tool window header, click and select Enable New Terminal.
Alternatively, open the IDE settings (CtrlAlt0S) and go to Tools | Terminal | Enable New Terminal.
While the full text buffer remains searchable, the new terminal also enables searching within specific output blocks.
In the Terminal tool window, press Ctrl0F.
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 0↑ and 0↓ arrow keys to navigate them.
By default, PyCharm shows the terminal prompt on two lines with the input below the prompt. You can customize it to apply the single-line style or use the prompt settings from your shell.
Open the IDE settings (CtrlAlt0S) and go to Tools | Terminal.
In the Prompt style list, select one of the following:
IDE single-line prompt: show the input at the same line as the prompt.
IDE double-line prompt: show the input below the prompt (default behavior).
Shell prompt (PS1): use the prompt style configured in your shell.
Alternatively, right-click the prompt in the Terminal tool window and select a prompt style.
note
This functionality relies on the AI Assistant plugin that requires an additional license.
For more information about licensing and enabling AI Assistant, refer to JetBrains AI Service licensing and Enable AI Assistant plugin.
In addition to standard shell commands, you can type any text in the Terminal, for example, Rename current folder
. If PyCharm identifies the input as a natural language, the AI mode will be enabled automatically. If your query is not recognized as a prompt, you can enable it manually.
In the Terminal tool window, click (Ask AI Assistant) or press Ctrl0\.
Type your query and press Enter.
AI Assistant will generate a command taking into account the shell that you are using and your terminal context, such as the name of the current directory and the output of the previous commands.
Press Enter again to run this command.
tip
Some terminal commands, such as
check
orcopy
, may resemble natural language queries. As a result, AI Assistant might interpret them as part of your prompt instead of terminal commands. If you want your input to always be treated as a terminal command, you can disable the natural language detection feature. In the tool window header, click and clear the Detect Natural Language option.
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