Tabs & sessions

A tab in Mooring is either a shell tab or an agent tab, such as Claude Code. Each one is a real terminal, drawn by the same engine as Ghostty. Behind each tab, Mooring keeps a terminal session running in the background. That session is what lets a tab carry on while Mooring is closed, so these docs use "tab" and "session" almost interchangeably.

Open a tab

New tabs come from the project strip, the bar above the tabs:

• The shell button opens a shell in the project, or in the worktree you have selected. Shortcut: ⌘T.
• One button per agent setup starts that agent, such as Claude. If the buttons don't all fit, the rest are under ⋯. ⇧⌘T opens your default agent.

Manage agent setups in Settings ▸ AI Agents. See Agents.

A tab's menu

Right-click a tab to rename it, move it to another worktree, choose its terminal theme or close it. You can also click ⋯ at the end of the tab strip, or click the selected tab's icon. Close the selected tab with ⌘W.

Quitting keeps sessions running

Mooring is designed to keep your sessions running after you quit. When you press ⌘Q with sessions open, Mooring asks what to do:

• Keep Running (the default) leaves every session working. Your tabs are there when you open Mooring again, with the same scrollback and the same Claude conversation.
• Close All gives each session the chance to finish on its own, then closes it. A Claude session saves its conversation first. This also clears your tabs. Past conversations stay in the Sessions window (⇧⌘Y), ready to resume.
• Wind Down, Then Quit appears when Claude is working near a plan limit. See Claude usage and plan limits.

To stop the question, select Don't ask again, or choose an answer in Settings ▸ General ▸ Sessions under When quitting Mooring.

Sleep and restart

• Sleep: each session picks up where it was when your Mac wakes.
• Restarting your Mac ends every session, but not your tabs. Next time you open the project, each tab starts a fresh session in the same place. Claude's earlier conversations stay in the Sessions window.

See Session attach for more.

Tabs and worktrees

Each tab belongs to one worktree of its project, or to the project's main folder. Click a worktree in the sidebar to see its tabs. New tabs open in the worktree you're viewing.

To move a tab to another worktree of the same project, drag the tab onto that worktree in the sidebar, or right-click the tab and choose Move to Worktree. The session keeps running while it moves.

Agent tabs and shell tabs

An agent tab starts Claude Code, or a command you set up, instead of a plain shell. See Agents for what Mooring adds to a Claude tab, and Status badges for how Mooring shows which tabs are running and which need you.