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 are not available, make sure that you did not disable the plugin.
Press 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.
Open the Terminal tool window
Go to View | Tool Windows | Terminal or press .
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 on the toolbar or press .
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 on the Terminal toolbar or press .
Press and to switch between active tabs. Alternatively, you can press to see the list of all terminal tabs.
To clear the terminal screen, press .
tip
Configure shortcuts for the terminal actions in the IDE settings (), under Keymap | Plugins | Terminal.
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.
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.
Search in terminal
To search for a certain string in a terminal session, press . 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 to open settings and then select Tools | Terminal.
Alternatively, click on the Terminal toolbar and select Settings.
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.
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.
Enable running WebStorm commands from the Terminal
Open the Settings dialog () and go to Tools | Terminal.
Select the Run Commands using IDE checkbox.
Run a command in the Run or Debug tool window from the terminal
Type a command (npm run dev) in the terminal and notice how it is highlighted.
Instead of pressing , which runs the command in the terminal, press to open the corresponding GUI element. In this example, it will open the Run tool window with the output of the npm serve command.
To run the command in the Debug tool window, press .
Run a WebStorm command from the Run Anything popup
You can run most of the commands recognized by Run Anything in the Run or Debug tool window.
Open the Run Anything popup by pressing twice.
Start typing a command, for example, npm test.
Select the command from the list and press to show its output in the Run tool window or to show the output in the Debug tool window.
Gif
Select Terminal engine
There are currently three terminal engines in WebStorm:
Classic. This is our standard terminal emulator, built on the JediTerm library, with user input (commands and keystrokes) sent directly to the underlying shell.
Experimental 2024 (deprecated). This terminal (known as New Terminal in WebStorm 2024.*) integrated advanced IDE features, such as autocompletion and AI capabilities. However, it also introduced compatibility challenges, and as a result, it has been deprecated. Selecting this terminal engine will be available only to those who enabled it in WebStorm 2024.*. You can find the documentation for it in the earlier version of WebStorm Help.
Reworked 2025 (Beta). This is currently a work in progress aimed at ensuring better performance and compatibility with classic CLI behavior.
on the toolbar or press .
on the Terminal toolbar or press .
and select New SSH Session. 
Match case in the search field to make it case-sensitive.
and select a terminal engine.