Sidebar

The sidebar is a panel on the right of the window. It shows text files, Markdown, images, video and audio in tabs next to your panes. It is not a code editor and has no file tree: there is no syntax highlighting or language support outside Markdown.

Open a file

• Press ⌘P and pick a file. The command palette leaves media files out.
• ⌘-click a path in an agent or shell. Holding ⌘ underlines the paths that exist.
• Click a link to a file in a Markdown file.
• Ask an agent to open it (open_in_sidebar).

⇧⌘E or the sidebar button at the end of the view row shows and hides the sidebar. Tabs stay the same across views and workspaces, drag to reorder, and are reopened on launch. The newest tab is on the left. Drag the left edge to resize the sidebar, from 320 points up to 60% of the window.

Text files

Any UTF-8 text file up to 5 MB can be edited. Edits are saved half a second after the last keystroke, so an agent reading the file sees them. ⌘S saves at once, ⌘F finds, ⌘Z undoes and ⌘W closes the tab.

Markdown and SVG

Markdown opens rendered, with tables, task lists and highlighted code blocks. Clicking a task list box writes [x] or [ ] to the file. Preview and Source in the header switch to the editor. SVG opens drawn, with the same switch.

In rendered Markdown, a link to a file opens it in the sidebar, and a link to a folder shows it in Finder. A web link to the same server as an open browser tab opens in that pane. Other web links open in your default browser.

Images, video and audio

Images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, HEIC, WebP, TIFF, ICO, ICNS, PSD) are shown scaled to fit. Video and audio (MP4, MOV, M4V, MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, CAF and others) open in the system player. WebM and MKV are not supported. Pinch to zoom images, SVGs and video.

Grids from agents

An agent can open several media files or a folder as a grid of thumbnails in one tab. Click a thumbnail to open the viewer over the whole window. Swipe with two fingers, or use the arrow keys or buttons, to move between items. Esc closes it.

Getting files out

Drag a tab, the name in a file's header, a thumbnail or a shown image into a browser page, an agent pane (which pastes the path), Finder or another app. A drag copies and never moves the file. The … button in a file's header, or a right-click on a tab or thumbnail, has Copy, Copy Image, Copy Path, Share…, Show in Finder and Open in Default App. ⌘V in an agent pane pastes the paths of copied files.

When a file changes on disk

A text file is reloaded when it changes on disk, and a notice says how many lines were added and removed. Show Changes shows them, removed lines in red and added lines in green. The changes are counted from the version you last saw, so several writes from an agent show as one set, until you press Dismiss or ⌘S. If your unsaved edits touch the same lines, your text stays on screen and the notice offers Reload or Keep Mine.

Bottom section

Quick command runs and the YouTube player have tabs in the bottom section of the sidebar. Drag its top edge to resize it. The chevron collapses it to its tabs.

YouTube player

The play button in the status bar opens a field for a YouTube link: watch, youtu.be, shorts, live, embed and playlist links all work, and t= sets the start time. The video plays at the bottom of the sidebar and keeps playing across views and workspaces.

• While something plays, Return adds a link to the queue and Play Now plays it straight away. The queue is listed as Up Next, with Clear to empty it.
• The video and the queue are kept when you quit. The player reopens paused where you left it.
• Hiding the sidebar pauses the video. While a video is open, the sidebar cannot be narrower than 480 points.
• Agents can play or queue a link and see what is playing (play_youtube, get_youtube_player). Skipping, closing and clearing the queue stay with you.