Tabs

A space is a container, and tabs are what’s in it. Every tab in a space works against that space’s checkout, so a terminal tab, a chat tab and a browser tab are all looking at the same files on the same branch.

Press ⌘T for the new-tab menu, then a number key to pick a row without reaching for the mouse. Drag tabs in the strip to reorder them.

The kinds

The menu lists them in this order:

Code — a conversation with an agent. This is the default and usually the first tab in a space. A space can hold several; they share the checkout but not the conversation.

Design — a canvas of design frames. Ask for a mockup and the agent builds it as live, interactive frames you can look at and iterate on. See Design spaces.

Browser — a browser inside Astra, for looking at whatever you’re building. ⌘-click a URL in any terminal and it opens here rather than in your default browser.

Simulator — a live iOS Simulator. Astra provisions and owns the simulators it uses, so a space always gets a current device, and you type into it with your own keyboard. If the project has a run command set, a Run button builds and launches the app — and reattaches when you come back to the space rather than starting over. One per space, and the row only appears when simulators are available on your machine.

Shell — a terminal in the space’s directory. Ordinary terminal, ordinary tools; it’s just a fast way to get one rooted in the right place.

Claude — the Claude CLI running in a real terminal, with the session managed by Astra. This is the raw CLI rather than Astra’s chat interface, for when you want it.

Code and design tabs carry a conversation; the rest host a terminal, a device or a web view. Closing a conversation tab ends its session, so Astra asks first if something is running.

The terminal drawer

Separate from terminal tabs, every space has a terminal drawer docked below the panel. It’s the one you want for the quick things — running the test suite, checking git status — without giving up the tab you’re in.

⌘J puts your cursor in it, revealing it if it was folded. ⌘⇧J folds and unfolds it. ⌘` makes a new one, ⌘⇧` cycles between them.

The drawer’s terminals are per checkout and their layout is remembered across restarts — but scrollback and running processes are not. They come back fresh in the right directory, not mid-command.

The right panel

Alongside the tabs sits a panel with three tabs of its own — Files, Changes and Context — covered in Files, changes and search. ⌘. shows and hides it; ⌘⇧. expands it to a wide reading pane when you want to actually read a diff rather than glance at one.

What gets restored

Reopen Astra and your spaces, tabs, active tab, panel state and composer drafts are where you left them. Conversations replay in full from disk. What doesn’t survive is anything live — terminal scrollback, running processes, browser sessions — which restart clean.