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)!

YEN ships an IDE workflow command surface in terminal context. These commands are local-first helpers for trust, search, local LSP lifecycle and diagnostics, verification, adapter orchestration, and PR review, designed to avoid context-switching to separate IDE panels.

Quick start:

$ yen ide detect
yen ide env list
yen ide lsp status
yen ide lsp status --format json
yen ide lsp diagnostics
yen ide lsp hover src/app.ts:12:3
yen ide lsp install status --all
yen ide share status
yen ide share host --read-only --ttl-minutes 30
yen ide share revoke
yen ide ast status
yen ide devcontainer status
yen ide vscode inventory
yen ide vscode import --dry-run
yen ide search verify
yen ide explain --last
yen ide verify --quick --no-security
yen ide workflow run quick-check --dry-run
yen agents list
yen ide gate --dry-run -- git reset --hard
yen ide pr-review 123 --loop --loop-script "e,q"
yen ide pr-review 123 --inline src/app.ts:42 --inline-body "Needs guard" --post
yen ide timeline --limit 20

On macOS, the same search contract appears in the desktop command palette. Press Cmd + Shift + P, keep the query empty for action launching, or type to search built-in actions first. When the action catalog misses, repo-backed terminals fall back to project files, content, diagnostics, and recent history, with generated / vendor trees excluded from indexing.

Empty-query action launching also exposes Review Pull Request and Resolve Merge Conflicts alongside quick IDE actions for LSP Status, LSP Diagnostics, LSP Install Matrix, Share Status, Share Host (Read-Only), Share Revoke, Devcontainer Status, VS Code Inventory, VS Code Import (Dry Run), and AST Status.

For trusted local repos, the review actions open the desktop PR review workspace and the desktop merge-conflict workspace. The merge-conflict flow is scoped to marker-based text conflicts and confirms + revalidates the file before staging. Terminal-first LSP requests, encrypted terminal sharing, bounded managed installs, devcontainer orchestration, and VS Code import all stay local-first, opt-in, and project-scoped.

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+, YEN uses Apple's SpeechAnalyzer with DictationTranscriber, sessions are unlimited, and missing language packs install automatically (foreground-gated; background attempts use non-modal recovery). In-app paste restores the previous clipboard shortly after paste; cross-app synthetic paste keeps dictated text on the clipboard if delivery cannot be proven. Live Transcript Preview is available in the floating overlay, while Translate-on-Dictate remains EXPERIMENTAL and off by default. If translation assets are missing, YEN can ask macOS to prepare them only while YEN is frontmost in Settings. The translation source stays bound to the recognizer locale used for that capture session, and stop-time translation runs only for pairs that are already 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. The panel uses a left sidebar with five sections — General, Sounds, Workspace, Themes, Keyboard — plus global search and in-panel Import/Export/Reset actions. Most changes apply in real-time across every open tab.

72 curated 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 section includes Speech Setup with live permission status for Accessibility, Microphone, Speech Recognition, and local speech readiness. It also includes per-stream notification controls for General, Build, Chat, Mail, and Calendar events, with independent sound, volume, and delivery mode settings (Off, Banner Only, Sound Only, Banner + Sound). Translate-on-Dictate remains experimental in this section; compatible targets follow the current recognizer locale policy, and translation asset prompts stay anchored to the visible Settings flow instead of background dictation.

The Keyboard section includes reserved-shortcut disclosure, conflict detection, and inline shortcut recording with clear constraints: fixed shortcuts and duplicate-action rows stay read-only, shortcuts must include Cmd/Ctrl/Option, recording follows your active keyboard layout, Esc cancels recording, and capture times out after 10 seconds. Importing a saved settings file validates values before applying changes.

Settings export/import carries both config.yen and the Settings-managed preferences intentionally kept outside config: Workspace toggles, the Legacy Catalog theme-browser toggle, Window Border controls, dictation translation/live-preview state, and notification routing/sound selections. Machine-local state such as permission grants, Launch at Login, installed user themes, and downloaded or imported sound assets stays on the current Mac.

Notification power users also get terminal command-finish controls, focused-window behavior, and one-click sound-pack management:Download All Sound Packs relabels to Update Sound Packs once the official library is installed, and Remove Downloaded Packs reclaims local storage without touching imported custom sounds. Use Cmd + Shift + P then type settings themes to jump directly to any section.

Advanced configuration:

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

Press Cmd + Shift + B to open the Tab Sidebar. In transient mode it appears as a floating left rail for the active terminal window. Use the header pin button, command palette, or Settings > Workspace to switch it into the persistent docked rail.

When YEN cannot trust the focused split's local path context (terminal multiplexers, remote sessions, detached commands, or empty project state), the sidebar omits cwd and git summaries instead of showing guessed metadata.

Each split pane can have a custom label displayed as a themed pill at the bottom-left corner. Open the command palette (Cmd + Shift + P) and search Rename Split Label to set or clear a label. Labels persist across window restores, tab switches, and session restarts.

Press Cmd + Shift + O to open the file browser. It launches inside the terminal — not in a floating window, not in a sidebar. Launch is scoped to the active terminal surface and does nothing when another window owns focus. 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. Fixed app shortcuts remain locked, duplicate-action rows stay read-only, and layout presets only target a foreground terminal window. 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 a terminal window focused. YEN blocks layout presets while Settings or another utility window is key instead of retargeting a background terminal.
• 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, because layout presets only target a foreground terminal window.
• 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