Getting started
Opening a project
Launch Fold and you get the welcome window — the workspace manager. It has a filter box, your workspaces, and an Open Folder… button.
Each workspace row shows the folder name and its full path. Hover a row for two actions:
- ★ / ☆ — pin to the top of the list
- ✕ — remove from the list (the folder itself is untouched)
Folders that no longer exist are dimmed and tagged missing; clicking one offers to remove it.
Pick a folder and Fold opens it — with one terminal session already running. The app is never a dead screen.
Set $FOLD_PROJECT to a path and Fold opens it directly. This is a development override, not a general setting.
The layout
Activity bar — switches the sidebar between Sessions, Explorer, Git and Search. The gear at the bottom opens Settings.
Sidebar — the current view. Drag its right edge to resize (180–420 px); double-click to reset. The width is remembered per project.
Terminal column — the main stage. This is where your agents run.
Editor column — sits to the right of the terminal and auto-hides when nothing is open. ⌘J toggles it.
Status bar — branch, ahead/behind counts, change count, session count.
Your first session
A session is already running. To add another, press ⌘T or click + in the Sessions header.
Double-click a session's name in the sidebar to rename it. Naming matters once you have five — claude · auth beats zsh (3).
The dot beside each name is its state:
| Dot | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Running |
| Grey | Exited cleanly (0) |
| Red | Exited with a non-zero code, shown beside the name |
Splitting
⌘D splits the focused pane to the right. ⇧⌘D splits it downward. Splits nest, so you can build a small tree of panes inside one session.
⌘K followed by an arrow key moves focus between panes. ⌘W closes the focused pane — and when it's the last one, the session.
See Sessions for the full model.
Reviewing what the agents did
⇧⌘G opens the git panel. The Changes section lists modified files; clicking one opens its diff as a tab beside the editor.
From there: stage, unstage, discard, commit, push. See Git panel.
Multiple projects
Fold is single-window with a workspace tab strip at the top. ⇧⌘O or the + button opens another project as a tab. Background workspaces keep their sessions alive.
⌥⇧⇥ shows the workspace switcher HUD. See Workspaces.
What persists, and what doesn't
Fold restores your layout, open tabs, session names and working directories. It never restores processes.
Closing a window kills the agents running in it, and reopening the project gives you fresh shells with the same names. This is deliberate: a resurrected shell that has lost its scrollback and its child process is worse than an honest empty one.