WebStorm
 
2023.2
Shortcuts: Windows
Get WebStorm
You are viewing the documentation for an earlier version of WebStorm.
  1. Advanced WebStorm features
  2. Terminal

Terminal

Last modified: 13 September 2023

Open: View | Tool Windows | Terminal or AltF12

Configure: Settings CtrlAlt0S | Tools | Terminal

WebStorm 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 WebStorm by default. If the relevant features aren't available, make sure that you didn't disable the plugin.

  1. Press CtrlAlt0S to open the IDE settings and then select Plugins.

  2. 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 View | Tool Windows | Terminal or press AltF12.

    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.

tip

You can open the terminal as an editor tab: right-click the Terminal tool window header and select Move to Editor.

Start a new local session

  • To start a new session in a separate tab, click the Add button on the toolbar or press CtrlShift0T.

    New session in the terminal

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 WebStorm. It preserves tab names, the current working directory, and even the shell history.

To close a tab, click the Close button 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.

tip

Configure shortcuts for the terminal actions in the IDE settings (CtrlAlt0S), under Keymap | Plugins | Terminal.

Start a new SSH session

  1. On the toolbar, click Start a new SSH session.

  2. Click New SSH Session, enter the address of a 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.

Start a new SSH session

To terminate the connection, click Terminate session in the terminal tab.

Rename terminal tab

  • Right-click the tab and select Rename Session from the context menu.

tip

Just like with system terminal tabs, you can rename WebStorm Terminal tabs programmatically. For example, use title MyTitle if your interpreter is Windows Command Prompt or echo -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 the Match case icon Match case in the search box to make it case-sensitive.

Configure the terminal emulator

  • Press CtrlAlt0S to open the IDE settings and then select Tools | Terminal. For more information, refer to Terminal settings.

tip

For advanced settings, select Advanced Settings and scroll down to the Terminal group. For more information, refer to Advanced Settings: Terminal.

Run IDE features from the terminal

Instead of running a specific command in the integrated terminal and reading console output, you can use the relevant IDE feature, like a tool window or a dialog that implements this functionality. For example, you can launch an npm, yarn, gulp, or grunt command from the Terminal tool window and view its output in the Run or Debug tool window.

Run a command in the Run or Debug tool window from the terminal

  1. Type a command (npm run serve) in the terminal and notice how it is highlighted.

    Smart command execution highlighting for npm run serve command in the Terminal

  2. Instead of pressing Enter, which runs the command in the terminal, press CtrlEnter to open the corresponding GUI element. In this example, it will open the Run tool window with the output of the npm serve command.

    Run tool window shows the output of the npm serve command

    To run the command in the Debug tool window, press CtrlShiftEnter.

You can run most of the commands recognized by Run Anything in the Run or Debug tool window.

https://resources.jetbrains.com/help/img/idea/2023.2/ws_smart_command_execution_npm_serve_run_anything_debug.png
Gif

Run a WebStorm command from the Run Anything popup

  1. Open the Run Anything popup by pressing Ctrl twice.

  2. Start typing a command, for example, npm run serve.

  3. Select the command from the list and press CtrlEnter to show its output in the Run tool window or ShiftEnter to show the output in the Debug tool window.

Disable running WebStorm commands from the Terminal

  • Click the Options icon on the title bar of the Terminal tool window and clear the Run Commands using IDE option.

    Disable smart command execution from the Terminal tool window

  • Alternatively, open the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S), go to Tools | Terminal, and clear the Run Commands using IDE checkbox.