Install it, call it,
send it away.

01 · Setup

Install and open

1. Download the disk image from the download page.
2. Open it and drag Slidecode onto Applications.
3. Eject the image, then open the app from Applications or Spotlight.

The build is Developer ID signed and Apple-notarized, with the notarization ticket stapled to the image, so there is no right-click-to-open step and no security warning to click past.

Slidecode has no window and no Dock icon. A terminal icon appears in the menu bar, and that is where the app lives. It needs macOS 14 or later; the download contains Apple silicon and Intel code.

02 · Open

Calling the panel

There are three ways to bring the panel in, and they are independent: if one does not suit your Mac, the others still work.

The trackpad edge

Put two fingers on the left edge of the trackpad and swipe right. It is the mirror image of the gesture macOS uses for Notification Center on the right edge. The first finger has to land in the outer tenth of the trackpad, the other close to it, and both travel inwards, quickly, about a quarter of its width. A key press in the last second cancels it, so a hand brushing the pad while you type does not open the panel; neither does ordinary two-finger scrolling in the middle of the pad.

This reads touches through an undocumented Apple framework, so it is the one way in that a future macOS update could break. If it is unavailable, resting the pointer at the left edge of the screen and scrolling two fingers to the right does the same thing.

The shortcut

⌃⌥Space (Control, Option and Space) toggles the panel from any app, without Slidecode being frontmost. Click the shortcut in Settings and press another combination to change it; it needs Control, Option or Command. If another app already owns the combination you choose, Settings says so and keeps the old one. (Version 0.1.0 used Control and the grave-accent key.)

The menu bar

Choose Toggle Panel from the terminal icon.

Sending it away

Swipe two fingers back toward the edge while the pointer is over the panel, click in another app, press ⌃⌥Space again, or press ⌘\. Focus returns to the app you were using. Hiding the panel does not end any session; only quitting does.

03 · Run

Harnesses

A harness is a command Slidecode runs in a session. Claude Code (claude), Codex (codex), Gemini CLI, OpenCode and a plain Shell are built in. Claude Code, Codex and the shell are on by default; the other two are off until you enable them in Settings ▸ Harnesses.

• Each session starts as a login, interactive shell running the command, so the PATH from your .zprofile and .zshrc applies, including tools installed with Homebrew or nvm.
• Tick Start beside a harness to have it open automatically the first time the panel appears.
• Add your own at the foot of the list with a name and a command, for example aider --model sonnet. Custom entries can be deleted; built-in ones can only be switched off.
• Slidecode installs none of these tools. If a command is not on your PATH the session ends with the shell’s own error and the pane offers Restart or Close.

04 · Arrange

Sessions and layouts

The + in the panel’s header opens another session of any enabled harness. A tab takes the title the running program sets and falls back to the harness name; a small orange dot marks a session whose program has ended.

• Tabs show one terminal at a time. ⌘1 to ⌘9 switch between them.
• Side by side and Stacked show every session at once, each with a slim header and a close button.
• ⌘T opens a new session of the current harness and ⌘W closes the current one.

Switching layout in Settings keeps every session running and lays them out that way again.

Drag a tab, or a pane’s title, onto another terminal to put it beside it, below it, or in its place: the edges of a terminal place it next to that edge and the middle swaps the two. A highlight shows where it will land. Drag the gap between two panes to resize them; sizes are remembered, and a pane cannot be made too small to use.

When Slidecode opens again it brings back the kinds of terminal you had open, the folder of each, and how they were arranged and sized. The programs start fresh: a new Claude Code, a new shell. The harnesses you marked Start open only when there was nothing to bring back. Starting a session with the + menu or ⌘T asks which folder to use, unless you turn that off, and tabs carry the folder’s name.

A blue dot on a tab or in the menu bar means a session you were not looking at rang the bell, went quiet after real work, or ended; Settings has the switch for it and for the macOS notification. Closing a session, quitting and installing an update ask first when a program is still running.

05 · Look

Look and feel

The theme is System, Light or Dark. The terminal has its own palette for each, and changing the theme recolours every open session at once, as does changing the font or its size. The panel opens at the width you set, from 420 to 1400 points, and takes the full usable height of the screen the pointer is on. Since 0.1.1 the panel is glass: the desktop behind it is blurred and each terminal is a translucent rounded card. The Opacity setting runs from see-through to solid; at Solid, or when macOS’s Reduce Transparency is on, the blur is off.

06 · Settings

Settings

Theme, Layout, Slides in from, Width, Opacity

What the panel looks like and where it comes from. Changing the edge rebuilds the panel so its rounded corners face the right way.

Edge swipe opens the panel

Turns the trackpad and scroll gestures on or off. The shortcut and the menu bar are unaffected.

Hide when clicking outside

Whether a click in another app sends the panel away.

Panel shortcut

Click it, then press the combination you want. Esc cancels, and Reset goes back to Control-Option-Space.

Ask for a folder when starting a session

Whether the + menu and ⌘T ask where to start.

Tell me when a hidden session goes quiet or needs me

The dot and the notification described above.

Launch at login

Starts Slidecode when you log in. This works from the Applications folder.

Check for updates automatically

See Updates, below.

Quit Slidecode

The same as ⌘Q: it asks first if a program is still running.

Font, Size, Working directory

The terminal font by name, its size from 9 to 28 points, and the folder new sessions start in (home when empty). Font and size apply to open sessions at once; the working directory applies to sessions started afterwards.

07 · Keep

Updates

Slidecode checks whether a newer version is published when it opens, at most once every six hours, and the menu-bar menu then shows Update to Slidecode with the version and its size. Choosing it downloads the disk image, checks the file against its published SHA-256 and against the Developer ID signature of this app’s team, checks the app inside the image again, and then replaces the running copy and relaunches. If the app cannot replace itself, for example because it is not somewhere writable, it opens the verified image for you instead.

Check for Updates… in the same menu asks on demand. The automatic check can be turned off in Settings; the app makes no other network connection. Every build also stays on the download page and in the changelog.

08 · Keys

Every shortcut

⌃⌥Space

Show or hide the panel, from any app (changeable in Settings).

⌘T

New session of the current harness.

⌘W

Close the current session.

⌘1 – ⌘9

Switch to the numbered session.

⌘\

Hide the panel.

⌘,

Settings.

⌘C · ⌘V · ⌘A

Copy, paste and select all in the terminal.

⌘Q

Quit, ending every program (asks first if one is running).

Everything else goes to the program in the terminal, including Esc, which Slidecode never takes for itself.

09 · Edges

What it will not do

The same list the product page carries, in one place, because the useful question about a new app is what it still cannot do.

• The trackpad edge swipe uses an undocumented Apple framework and could stop working after a macOS update. The shortcut, the menu bar and the scroll fallback do not depend on it.
• It has been built and run on macOS 27 on Apple silicon only. The Intel slice and macOS 14 have not been run by hand.
• Quitting ends every program. The next launch brings back the kinds of terminal, their folders and the arrangement, but each program starts fresh.
• Tabs cannot be reordered in the tab bar; dragging places a terminal on screen.
• The panel’s width is a setting rather than a drag handle.
• It is not sandboxed, so terminals run with your account’s permissions.
• It installs no harness and does not manage their accounts or updates.
• It has not been checked with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access.

10 · Resolve

Troubleshooting

The swipe does nothing.

Check that Edge swipe opens the panel is on in Settings, and that the edge is the one you are swiping from. The first finger must land right at the edge of the trackpad, the other next to it, and both must move inwards quickly; nothing happens within a second of a key press or if a third finger is down. The shortcut and the menu bar work regardless.

The shortcut does nothing.

Another app may own the combination. Record a different shortcut in Settings, or use the swipe or the menu bar.

A session says the command is missing.

Slidecode runs the claude, codex or other command already installed on your Mac. Install the one you want and make sure your shell’s startup files put it on the PATH, then choose Restart.

Claude Code asks whether I trust the folder.

Sessions start in the working directory from Settings, which is your home folder when empty. Set it to a project folder, and the question is about that folder instead.

The panel disappears when I click elsewhere.

That is Hide when clicking outside. Turn it off in Settings to keep the panel until you dismiss it.

The update check says it cannot reach the server.

The check needs a network connection and fails quietly on launch if there is none. Choosing Check for Updates… asks again.

Something else went wrong.

Reports are how it gets better. Send one with your macOS version, your Mac, the steps and what happened instead.