Summon your Ghostty or Rex workspace!

Summon your Ghostty or Rex workspace with one command. Native splits, no tmux.

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Install

npm i -g summon-ws

Requires Node >= 22.12, macOS, and one of two terminals: Ghostty 1.3.1+ (1.4.0 is the recommended security baseline) or Rex (beta). Summon detects the terminal that runs it; Rex needs no extra setup.

Run summon doctor to inspect version, capabilities and effective settings. See the Ghostty workflow guide for compatibility, exact pane focus, titles, visibility-aware monitoring and opt-in SSH recipes, and Summon under Rex for what differs in Rex.

Quick Start

summon .                          # launch workspace in current directory

On first run, an interactive setup wizard guides you through choosing your editor, sidebar, layout, shell, and Starship prompt theme. You can re-run it anytime:

summon setup                      # reconfigure workspace defaults

Register projects for quick access:

summon add myapp ~/code/myapp     # register a project
summon myapp                      # launch by project name

How It Works

Under Ghostty, Summon generates and executes AppleScript that drives Ghostty's native split system. Under Rex, it sends one session.create request to the Rex server: one session per workspace, one block per pane. No terminal multiplexer of its own -- just the terminal's native panes with commands running in each one. The terminal that runs summon decides the backend; see docs/rex.md.

Default Layout

summon .    (panes=2, editor=<your editor>, sidebar=<your sidebar>, shell=true)

+------------ 75% (editor grid) ------------+------ 25% ------+
|                                            |                 |
|                                            |                 |
|    editor (1)          editor (2)          |    sidebar      |
|                                            |                 |
+--------------------------------------------+                 |
|                                            |                 |
|                   shell                    |                 |
|                                            |                 |
+--------------------------------------------+-----------------+
               editor grid (75%)                sidebar (25%)

The editor grid (left 75%) splits vertically between the two editor panes; the shell occupies the bottom of the editor grid; the sidebar runs the full height on the right (25%).

Layout Presets

Preset	Panes	Shell	Use case
full	3	yes	Multi-agent coding + shell
pair	2	yes	Two editors + shell
minimal	1	no	Simple editor + sidebar only
cli	1	yes	CLI tool development -- editor + shell
btop	2	yes	System monitoring -- editor + btop + shell

summon . --layout minimal         # 1 editor pane, no shell
summon . -l pair                  # 2 editors + shell

Custom Layouts

Define arbitrary split configurations using a tree DSL:

summon layout create              # interactive layout builder wizard
summon . --layout my-layout       # launch with a custom layout

Custom layouts are saved to ~/.config/summon/layouts/ and can be used anywhere a preset name is accepted.

Per-project Config

Drop a .summon file in your project root to override machine-level config:

# .summon
layout=minimal
editor=vim
shell=npm run dev
env.PORT=3000

Config resolution order: CLI flags > .summon > machine config > preset > defaults

Commands

Command	Description
summon <target>	Launch workspace (project name, path, or .)
summon setup	Interactive setup wizard — choose editor, sidebar, layout, shell, Starship theme
summon add <name> <path>	Register a project name to a directory
summon remove <name>	Remove a registered project
summon list	List all registered projects
summon set <key> [value]	Set a machine-level config value
summon config	Show current machine configuration
summon open [project]	Focus a running workspace or launch a stopped one; without a name, pick one interactively
summon export [path]	Export resolved config as a .summon file
summon doctor [--fix] [--verbose]	Check version, capabilities and effective settings (--fix appends eligible missing settings to an unambiguous existing file and removes stale locks; --verbose adds diagnostic info)
summon freeze <name>	Save current resolved config as a reusable custom layout
summon keybindings [--vim] [--detach-tab]	Print pane navigation config, optionally including whole-tab detachment
summon layout <action>	Manage custom layouts (create, save, list, show, delete, edit)
summon status [--once]	Interactive workspace status dashboard across all projects
summon switch [project]	Alias for summon open
summon inspect <project> [--json]	Read workspace state and current native pane observations
summon focus <project> [pane]	Focus the recorded root or named pane by exact native identity
summon title <project> [pane] [--set <text> | --reset]	Read, set or clear a tab/pane title override
summon clean <project> [--orphans]	Close an empty Rex session and end its record; --orphans reviews earlier launches (see docs/rex.md)
summon briefing	Morning briefing — overnight commits, dirty files, recommendations
summon ports	Detect port assignments across projects, highlight conflicts
summon snapshot <action>	Manage context snapshots (save, show, clear)
summon session <name>	Launch a saved multi-project session — one terminal tab (or Rex session) per project
summon session add <name> <p>...	Save a session (named list of registered projects)
summon session list	List saved sessions
summon session show <name>	Print a session's project list
summon session remove <name>	Delete a saved session
summon session --all	Launch every registered project as tabs
summon trust <dir>	Trust a project's .summon file ahead of a launch (a launch on a terminal otherwise shows the file and asks; without a terminal it fails)
summon completions <shell>	Generate shell completion script (zsh, bash, fish)

summon open myapp and summon switch myapp focus the workspace when it is running and launch it when it is stopped; without a name both show the same picker. summon focus myapp only focuses an existing recorded pane, and summon myapp launches explicitly. Missing or legacy native identity produces recovery guidance; focus does not automatically launch a replacement.

CLI Flags

Flag	Description
-l, --layout <preset>	Use a layout preset (minimal, full, pair, cli, btop)
-e, --editor <cmd>	Override editor command
-p, --panes <n>	Override number of editor panes
--editor-size <n>	Override editor width percentage
-s, --sidebar <cmd>	Override sidebar command
--shell <value>	Shell pane: true, false, or a command
--auto-resize	Resize sidebar to match editor-size (default: on)
--no-auto-resize	Disable auto-resize
--starship-preset <preset>	Starship prompt preset name (per-workspace)
--font-size <n>	Override font size for workspace panes
--env KEY=VALUE	Set environment variable (repeatable)
--on-start <cmd>	Run a command before workspace creation
--new-window	Open workspace in a new terminal window (a fresh session under Rex)
--new-tab	Open workspace in a new terminal tab
--clean	Auto-close stale panes from prior Ghostty session (default: off)
--no-clean	Skip auto-close of restored panes
--fullscreen	Start workspace in fullscreen mode
--maximize	Start workspace maximized
--float	Float workspace window on top
--no-project-config	Skip the .summon file (do not require trust)
-n, --dry-run	Print the generated AppleScript (or, under Rex, the session.create request) without executing
-h, --help	Show help message
-v, --version	Show version number

Config Keys

Key	Default	Description
editor	(set during setup)	Command launched in editor panes
sidebar	lazygit	Command launched in the sidebar pane
panes	2	Number of editor panes
editor-size	75	Width percentage for the editor grid
shell	true	Shell pane: true (shell), false (none), or a command
layout		Default layout preset
auto-resize	true	Auto-resize sidebar to match editor-size
clean	false	Auto-close stale panes from a prior restored Ghostty session
starship-preset		Starship prompt theme preset (per-workspace)
font-size		Font size for workspace panes (points)
on-start		Command to run before workspace creation
on-stop		Command to run after workspace closes
new-window	false	Open workspace in a new Ghostty window (under Rex, a new session in the current window; only the --new-window flag skips the switch to a running session)
fullscreen	false	Start workspace in fullscreen mode
maximize	false	Start workspace maximized
float	false	Float workspace window on top

Machine config is stored at ~/.config/summon/config:

summon set editor vim               # use vim as the editor
summon set shell "npm run dev"      # run a command in the shell pane
summon set layout minimal           # default to minimal preset
summon set starship-preset tokyo-night  # per-workspace Starship prompt theme
summon set font-size 14                # font size for workspace panes
summon set on-start "npm install"      # run before workspace creation
summon set new-window true             # always open in a new window
summon set clean true                  # enable auto-clean of restored panes (default off)
summon set env.API_KEY sk-123          # per-workspace environment variable

Auto-clearing restored panes (--clean / --no-clean)

When Ghostty restores panes from a previous session, running summon from one of those panes would otherwise nest the new layout inside whichever pane happens to be first. By default, summon detects this case and closes the extra panes before laying out the workspace:

Clearing 4 stale panes from previous session...

To skip this behavior for a single run or permanently:

summon <project> --no-clean         # one-off opt-out
summon set clean false              # global opt-out
summon <project> --clean            # force clean (overrides config)

Auto-clean is skipped when:

• SUMMON_WORKSPACE is set (you're already inside a live summon workspace — the existing nesting warning handles that case).
• --new-window is passed (a fresh window has nothing to clean).
• The current tab has only one pane.
• Dry-run mode (--dry-run).

Note: Any TUI process in a closed pane (LazyGit, vim, etc.) receives SIGHUP. Save your work before running summon from a restored multi-pane tab, or use --no-clean to preserve the panes.

Docs

• Architecture -- module map, AppleScript generation, layout algorithm
• User Manual -- full command reference, walkthrough, troubleshooting
• Ghostty Workflows -- version/capability diagnostics, pane focus, titles, visibility and SSH
• Summon under Rex -- backend detection, session and pane mapping, already-running behavior, summon clean, per-launch files
• Changelog -- release history
• Publishing -- npm publish checklist

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the Contributing Guide for details on the development workflow, commit conventions, and PR guidelines.

Code of Conduct

This project follows the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
SHELL	Login shell used to execute pane commands. Must be an absolute path. Falls back to /bin/bash if unset or invalid.
NO_COLOR	When set, disables ANSI colors in the setup wizard. Follows the NO_COLOR standard.
FORCE_COLOR	1 turns ANSI colors on and 0 turns them off, whether or not stdout is a terminal. NO_COLOR wins over it.
COLORTERM	When set to truecolor or 24bit, the setup wizard shows colored palette swatches for Starship presets.
STARSHIP_CONFIG	Set automatically when starship-preset is configured. Points each workspace to a cached preset TOML file. Do not set manually.
SUMMON_WORKSPACE	Set to 1 inside summon workspaces. Used to detect and warn about nested launches.
SUMMON_DEBUG	Set to 1 to enable debug output. Each message is written to stderr with an ISO timestamp; nothing is written to a file.
SUMMON_NO_CACHE	No effect. It disabled a cross-invocation read cache (~/.config/summon/cache.json), which is gone; config is always read from disk. An old cache.json is no longer read, and you can delete it.
SUMMON_NO_SPINNER	When set (to any value), launch progress is printed as plain lines instead of an animated spinner.
SUMMON_NO_VISIBILITY	Set to 1 to keep normal status-monitor polling instead of negotiating terminal visibility reports.
EDITOR	Editor used by summon layout edit. Falls back to vi if unset.
TERM_PROGRAM	Set by your terminal. Summon reads it to pick the backend: rex selects Rex, ghostty selects Ghostty. Unset or another terminal: Ghostty when installed, else Rex (see docs/rex.md).
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	Read by summon doctor --fix. When it points anywhere other than ~/.config, doctor does not edit the Ghostty config, because Ghostty may load another file.
REX_SERVER	Set by Rex terminals; inside Rex, Summon uses it as the server (else ~/Library/Application Support/rex/server.sock). With TERM_PROGRAM unset, an inherited value selects Rex only when rex whoami answers on it; other terminals ignore it.
REX_BIN_DIR	Set by Rex terminals. Searched for the rex CLI after PATH, before the Rex app bundles.

Trust Model

.summon files configure commands that summon executes in each pane (editor, sidebar, shell, on-start). Running summon . in a directory will execute whatever commands its .summon file specifies -- this is the same trust model as Makefile, direnv .envrc, or VS Code .vscode/tasks.json.

Summon uses a direnv-style trust gate: before a project's .summon file is acted upon, its SHA-256 hash must be recorded as trusted. The first time you run summon in a directory with a .summon file, or after that file changed (for example after git pull), summon says which case it is. On a terminal (a direct launch, --dry-run, summon open, the picker or Enter in summon status) it shows the file and asks Trust this file and continue? [y/N]; y trusts exactly the content shown and continues, and n exits with 130 (in summon status, it returns to the dashboard). Without a terminal (scripts, CI) and in summon session (a named session or --all), nothing is asked: the launch fails, or the project is skipped. You can also grant trust explicitly:

summon trust .                    # trust the .summon file in the current directory
summon trust ~/code/myapp         # trust a specific project's .summon file

Trust is revoked automatically if the file content changes. Run summon trust <dir> again after any edit.

When a .summon file contains command values with shell metacharacters (;, |, &, `, $(, ${, <, >), summon lists the commands and asks about each one before executing: y runs it, s skips that pane, and n or Enter aborts with exit 130. In non-interactive environments (piped input, CI), execution is refused outright with exit 2. This check is skipped for --dry-run since no commands are executed.

on-start note: The on-start hook executes its value via a shell (execSync) rather than execFileSync. This is intentional -- on-start supports complex shell commands like docker compose up -d && npm install that require shell interpretation. The editor, sidebar, and shell commands are validated against SAFE_COMMAND_RE before execution, but on-start is not, since it is designed to run arbitrary shell snippets. The confirmDangerousCommands safety net still applies: if on-start is set in a .summon file and contains shell metacharacters, the user is prompted before execution.

Environment values run before the shell starts. Both backends apply env.<KEY> values (from machine config, a trusted .summon file and --env) to each pane before its login shell starts, so a variable can change what the shell and the tools in it run. Summon ignores the keys that load startup files, run a command or inject options, and prints summon: warning: ignoring denylisted env var key "<KEY>" from <source>. for each one: ENV, BASH_ENV, SHELL, PS1, PROMPT, PROMPT_COMMAND, CDPATH, IFS, NODE_OPTIONS, PERL5OPT, RUBYOPT, PYTHONSTARTUP, PAGER, EDITOR, VISUAL, GIT_EDITOR, GIT_PAGER, GIT_SSH_COMMAND, GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF, GIT_ASKPASS, SSH_ASKPASS, LESSOPEN, LESSCLOSE, and every key that starts with DYLD_, LD_ or GIT_CONFIG. HOME stays allowed. PATH, PYTHONPATH and ZDOTDIR also stay allowed because users set them on purpose, but they change what runs: PATH and PYTHONPATH decide which programs and Python modules the panes find, and ZDOTDIR decides which zsh startup files run. Review them in a trusted .summon file just as you review its commands.

Always review .summon files before running summon in untrusted repositories, paying particular attention to on-start values which execute as shell commands.

Security

To report a vulnerability, please follow the Security Policy. Do not open a public issue.

License

MIT