User guide File explorer

File explorer

The Explorer tab of the sidebar browses the local disk while the active tab is a local terminal (it is disabled for other tabs). A new local terminal brings it to the front when the sidebar shows Sessions (any other tab you chose stays), and switching between a local and an SSH tab swaps the Explorer and the SFTP browser. It works like the SFTP browser on this computer's files:

  • Edit the path bar and press Enter, or use ↑ (parent), ⌂ (home folder) and ⟳ (refresh).
  • Double-click a folder to open it, or a file to open it in its default program.
  • New folder, New file (an empty file; an existing one is never replaced), Rename (an existing name is never replaced) and Delete act on the selected entry. Deleting a folder deletes everything in it, after a confirmation.
  • Right-click an entry for Open, Open with default text editor (the Text editor of Settings), Open with…, Rename…, Delete, Copy file path, Copy file path to terminal (also a middle click; quoted for the terminal's shell), Properties and, on Linux and macOS, Permissions…. Files open in place: there is no temporary copy.

With Follow terminal folder on (the default), the Explorer shows the folder the terminal's shell is in. Shells that report it with OSC 7 (fish, zsh or bash with vte.sh, PowerShell with the prompt below) are followed at once. For other shells PlexusTerm reads the shell's working folder every second while the tab is shown, on Linux and macOS; it is the shell's own folder, not that of a program it runs. On Windows only OSC 7 is followed; add this to your PowerShell profile (notepad $PROFILE):

function prompt {
  $loc = $executionContext.SessionState.Path.CurrentLocation
  if ($loc.Provider.Name -eq "FileSystem") {
    $url = "file:///" + ($loc.ProviderPath -replace "%", "%25" -replace "\\", "/")
    [Console]::Write("$([char]27)]7;$url$([char]7)")
  }
  "PS $loc$('>' * ($nestedPromptLevel + 1)) "
}

Dropping files on a terminal

Files and folders dragged from the Explorer, the SFTP browser or the desktop onto a terminal pane:

  • A folder dropped on an empty command line runs cd to it (cd /d in cmd). This only happens when the folder is on the machine the terminal runs on: local files in a local terminal, SFTP entries in the terminal of their own SSH session.
  • Anything else types the paths at the cursor, quoted for the shell and followed by a space: a file, several entries, a folder while something is already typed, at a password prompt or in a full-screen program such as vim, or a path from another machine.
  • A path with control characters is never typed; a notice says so. A Linux or macOS folder whose name contains a backslash is typed instead of run, since shells such as fish read it as an escape.

Dropping files on the AI chat

Files dragged from the Explorer, the SFTP browser or the desktop onto the AI chat are attached to the next question, each shown above the input with its × to leave it out. Their text is sent with the question as context, and only with that question:

  • At most 5 files per question; the first 64 KB of each file are read ("(first 64 KB)" marks a longer one), and at most 100,000 characters in all are sent.
  • Binary files (with a NUL byte or invalid UTF-8) are refused with a message. A dropped folder attaches the list of its entries (folders end with /).
  • The text goes to the AI provider chosen in Settings → AI. Do not attach files whose contents must not leave this computer.