Guides

Editor And Workspace Navigation

Coldtea keeps the terminal, editor, project navigation, and task context in one workspace. The goal is to review and adjust agent work without leaving the app.

Workspace Areas

The desktop workspace is organized around:

  • Terminal sessions for agents and shell commands.
  • An embedded editor for files, diffs, and review.
  • Task and plan views for structured work.
  • Team, settings, monitoring, and QA areas where enabled.

The exact layout can change by build, but the main pattern is stable: terminal work and code review stay side by side.

Embedded Editor

Coldtea includes an embedded editor experience in the app. Use it to:

  • Browse project files.
  • Inspect files changed by an agent.
  • Review annotations.
  • Open editor-focused views from the workspace.
  • Jump between terminal context and code context.

If the editor fails to open, confirm a project is selected and see the troubleshooting guide.

Annotations

Annotations let you connect a code location or selected text to a terminal or review action. They are useful when you want to steer an agent with precise context:

  1. Select relevant code or open the file in the editor.
  2. Create or use an annotation action where available.
  3. Send the context to the active terminal or review flow.
  4. Keep the resulting discussion attached to the work.

Use annotations when the relevant code selection is clearer than another paragraph of prompt context.

  • Keep one terminal pane available for the active agent.
  • Keep another pane for tests or dev servers when useful.
  • Use the editor for inspection before asking the agent to revise.
  • Use task detail pages when the work needs a durable record.
  • Use settings for agent preferences, theme behavior, and workspace defaults.

Worktrees

Worktrees help isolate parallel work. Use them when:

  • Two agents may touch the same files.
  • You want to test an alternate implementation.
  • A task should stay separate from your main working tree.

Coldtea includes worktree management and onboarding helpers. If your repo needs custom setup scripts for worktrees, use the app's worktree onboarding flow to draft and configure them.

When The Editor Feels Stuck

  • Confirm the right project is selected.
  • Reopen the editor surface.
  • If a command does not respond, click the editor once and try again.
  • Restart Coldtea only after reopening the editor surface does not help.

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