YEN Terminal

Terminals have evolved dramatically over five decades. Each generation added capabilities — but also complexity, overhead, and distance from what makes a terminal great.

YEN doesn't reject progress — it rejects unnecessary complexity. Everything we add must make you faster without making you dependent on cloud services or AI subscriptions.

Most IDEs are text editors that bolted on a terminal panel. YEN takes the opposite approach — start with the fastest terminal on macOS, then add IDE capabilities around terminal-first workflows. No Electron. No web views. No second app to switch to.

New features ship weekly (sometimes daily)!

Hold Option + Space in any app — YEN, Safari, VS Code, Notes, anything — speak, and release. Your words appear at the cursor. Audio never leaves your Mac. Read more on the blog.

Works on macOS 13+. On macOS 26+, sessions are unlimited and missing language packs install automatically (foreground-gated; background attempts use non-modal recovery). Clipboard is restored after paste. Translate-on-Dictate (experimental, off by default) can translate transcripts before paste on macOS 26+ when translation assets are installed.

Pro tip: On older macOS, release and press again for longer content. Enable Launch at Login in Settings> Sounds > Speech Setup for dictation without a terminal window open.

Press Cmd + , to toggle Settings. Five tabs — General, Sounds, Workspace, Themes, Keyboard. Most changes apply in real-time across every open tab.

460+ bundled themes with live previews and instant apply. Comfort settings (font, cursor, opacity, padding) stay independent so you can switch themes without losing your preferred ergonomics. Window Border controls live in General > Appearance. Workspace includes instant toggles for Tab Sidebar (Cmd + Shift + B) and Scratchpad (Cmd + Shift + J).

The Sounds tab includes a Speech Setup section with live permission status for Accessibility, Microphone, and Speech Recognition. Use Cmd + Shift + P then type settings themes to jump directly to any tab.

The Keyboard tab includes reserved-shortcut disclosure, conflict detection, and inline shortcut recording with clear constraints: shortcuts must include Cmd/Ctrl/Option, Esc cancels recording, and capture times out after 10 seconds.

Advanced configuration:

~/Library/Application\ Support/com.yenchat.yen/config.yen

Press Cmd + Shift + O to open the file browser. It launches inside the terminal — not in a floating window, not in a sidebar. Browse directories, preview files, and manage your project without leaving the terminal surface.

Keyboard shortcuts:

CLI commands:

Commands run immediately inside YEN. In external shells, run yen init zsh or yen init bash once, then restart the shell so wrappers like y, chat, mail, and weather, btop, and fastfetch route to YEN.

App keys (Chat / Gmail / Google Calendar defaults):

Need the complete command + alias reference? Run yen help. For full file browser shortcuts, press ? inside the file browser.

Custom keybindings:

Open Settings > Keyboard to view all shortcuts, detect conflicts with popular apps, and re-record editable shortcuts inline. For advanced config, edit the config file directly.

• App won't open: Right-click YEN.app → Open, or allow in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
• Commands not found: YEN commands only work inside YEN terminal, not Terminal.app.
• Speech-to-text not working: Grant Accessibility, Microphone, and Speech Recognition permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Dictation listens to exact Option + Space only (no Cmd/Ctrl/Shift). Check the menu bar dropdown for blocked-state recovery actions.
• Permissions granted but still blocked: In Settings > Sounds > Speech Setup, check Local Speech status and use Re-check.
• Option + Space conflicts: Check for conflicts with input source, Spotlight, Alfred, or Raycast shortcuts. Use Settings > Keyboard for fixed-shortcut conflict guidance.
• Layout shortcut not firing: Use exact Cmd + Option + 1-0 with no extra modifiers, and keep terminal focus (Settings intentionally does not consume layout shortcuts).
• Cursor style/blink not previewing: Changes are applied, but preview appears after you refocus a terminal window (unfocused terminals show a hollow block cursor).
• Opacity slider looks unchanged: Background opacity applies after app restart. Use Window Border for an immediate focus cue.
• Dictation menu shows blocked: Check the menu bar dropdown for recovery actions. In Settings > Sounds > Speech Setup, use Re-check to verify local speech service status.
• Layout shortcuts not working in Settings: Cmd + Option + 1-0 is intentionally ignored while Settings is focused. Click a terminal window first.
• File browser not opening: Verify the terminal window is focused, not the Settings panel or another window.
• "command not found: y": Shell integration isn't active in this shell. In external shells, run yen init zsh (or bash) and restart that shell. In YEN, this usually means integration was disabled; use browse instead.
• mail / chat / weather / btop / fastfetch runs a system command: Your shell integration is missing/outdated. Re-run yen init zsh (or bash) in external shells, then restart the shell.

Reset config to defaults:

$ rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.yenchat.yen/config.yen