qtxterm

A cross-platform tabbed terminal (Windows, Linux, macOS) built with PySide6, rendering terminals via embedded xterm.js in a QWebEngineView, backed by real PTYs - ConPTY on Windows, openpty elsewhere.

One macro produced that layout: a tab split three ways, each pane running its own command. Shown in the default theme - several dark themes ship with it.

Features

• Tabs and split panes - split any pane right or down, move panes between tabs or out into their own.
• Any shell on the box - PowerShell, Command Prompt, Git Bash or a specific WSL distro, discovered at runtime.
• Commands and Macros - saved one-liners sent to the terminal you're in; macros that open their own tabs and panes.
• Cron - run a macro on a schedule for as long as the app is open.
• Selection Actions - search or pipe selected text, without interpolating it into a shell line.
• Browser tabs and panes - a page beside a terminal.
• Themes and typography - applied to the terminal and the window chrome, plus font, size and scrollback.

Each is covered in Usage.

Install

Needs uv and Python 3.12+ (uv fetches it). No clone needed - uv builds and installs straight from here:

uv tool install git+https://github.com/rigidlab/qtxterm.git
qtxterm

That installs two commands: qtxterm (console, so it prints where you ran it from) and qtxtermw (no console window - what a desktop shortcut should point at). On Windows, scripts/install-shortcut.ps1 creates Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts with the app icon.

Usage

The full guide is in the app under Help → Usage, or read src/qtxterm/assets/USAGE.md.

Development

Run from source

git clone https://github.com/rigidlab/qtxterm.git
cd qtxterm
uv sync
uv run qtxterm

To build (if needed):

uv build
uv tool install dist/qtxterm-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl  # replace version

Making a change

git checkout main && git pull
git checkout -b feat/change-123   # feat|fix|docs|chore|refactor|test|perf

One logical change per commit, and add or update tests as you go.

Test locally

uv run pytest            # ~340 tests, about 15 seconds
uv run ruff check src/
uv run ruff format src/  # CI runs --check; both cover src/ only

The soak test is excluded from that run and from CI because it takes minutes. Run uv run pytest -m soak (~90s) if you touched anything owning a widget, a timer or a PTY.

Open a PR

git add <files>          # not `git add .`
git commit -m "feat: implement change 123"
git push -u origin feat/change-123

Open the PR on GitHub and say what changed and why - a screenshot saves a round trip for anything visual. CI then runs the checks above on Windows, Linux and macOS, and builds the wheel.

After CI passes

Green and approved, the PR is merged from the GitHub UI - merge, squash or rebase, whichever suits the change. Then delete the branch and git checkout main && git pull before starting the next one.

Merging is itself a push to main, so CI runs once more on the result. That run is the one that catches a PR which was green against a stale base and broke against what landed in the meantime - worth a glance before you move on.

Releases are cut by tag, and only by a maintainer:

# bump `version` in pyproject.toml first, on main
git tag v1.1.0 && git push origin v1.1.0

That builds the wheel, checks the tag and the package version agree, installs it into a clean venv on Linux and Windows and runs the app from it, and only then publishes a GitHub Release with the artifacts attached. A failing smoke test leaves the tag in git but publishes nothing.

Where things live

Path (under src/qtxterm/)	What
terminal_widget.py	one terminal: xterm.js in a web view, wired to a PTY
terminal_tabs.py	tabs, split panes, what runs where
pty_backend/	ConPTY on Windows, openpty elsewhere
presets.py, cron*.py	Commands/Macros/Selection Actions, and schedules
assets/	terminal.html/terminal.js, vendored xterm.js

License

MIT - see LICENSE. Vendored xterm.js is MIT as well, with its notice alongside the code it covers in src/qtxterm/assets/xterm/LICENSE.