A workflow guide from the team building Shepherd. Instructions and default macOS shortcuts checked against Shepherd 0.5.6 source on September 9, 2026. Your custom bindings may differ.
When an agent starts a development server, you need to know where it is running and how to return to its output. Shepherd’s terminal-control integration lets the agent work in visible tabs and panes within the current workspace.
Install the terminal-control skill
Open Agent management → Shepherd Skill, confirm Shepherd Service is ready, and install sheperd-terminal-control for Codex or Claude Code. Install all also installs the browser-review and change-review skills. The provider CLI must be installed and authenticated separately.
Start the coding agent inside a Shepherd terminal in the project you intend it to control. The integration requires the current session’s workspace context; installation does not grant a conversation in another app access to your terminal.
Give the agent a bounded task
Try a request that identifies both the work and its location:
Use sheperd-terminal-control. Create a pane on the right in this workspace, run npm run dev there, and tell me the URL printed by the server. Keep the server running.
Use the development command your project actually defines. The skill directs the agent to read the current context before operating. The MCP connection supplies actions such as sheperd_get_context, sheperd_create_pane, and sheperd_create_tab.
A pane can be created to the right or below the current one. A new tab is useful for a separate task that does not need to remain visible beside the conversation. Commands can run in the new terminal, which returns to an interactive shell when the launched command exits.
Read output before taking the next step
Ask the agent to read the relevant pane’s output, not to guess a port or infer success from a command being submitted:
Read the development-server pane’s visible log. Tell me whether it started successfully and which URL it printed.
The log action reads the terminal’s visible output. It is not a promise of an unlimited historical transcript. If the required evidence has scrolled away, rerun a safe check or consult the project’s actual log file.
The agent can send text and submit it, or send a supported key such as Enter, Escape, an arrow key, or Ctrl+C. These are different operations: input text is not necessarily executed until it is submitted.
Keep control specific
To stop the example server, identify the pane and process:
In the pane you created for the development server, send Ctrl+C, then check that it returned to the shell prompt.
Do not ask the agent to interrupt every terminal. Other panes may contain work that should keep running. If the pane cannot be identified from the current context, establish the target before sending input.
You can also ask the integration to open a known file in Shepherd for inspection. To review several edited files together, use sheperd-change-review rather than opening each file individually.
Manual shortcut equivalents
The shortcuts below are the macOS defaults: ⌘ Command, ⇧ Shift, ⌥ Option, and ⌃ Control. Open Settings with ⌘, and choose Shortcuts to inspect app bindings. To customize one, click its field, press the new combination, and save the settings. ⌘⇧/ opens shortcut help. Browser comment-editor shortcuts are contextual controls rather than configurable app commands.
| Action | Default shortcut or control |
|---|---|
| Create a terminal tab | ⌘T |
| Split the focused pane right | ⌘D |
| Split the focused pane down | ⌘⇧D |
| Move focus between panes | ⌘⌥← / ↓ / ↑ / → |
| Jump to a numbered tab | ⌘1 through ⌘9 |
| Interrupt the foreground terminal command | ⌃C; the command decides how to handle it |
| Close the focused pane | ⌘⇧X |
| Release terminal control | ⌘⌃Q |
| Install or invoke an MCP skill | Installer buttons or an agent prompt; no dedicated default app shortcut |
Closing a pane and interrupting its foreground program are different actions. Prefer a targeted Ctrl+C when you want to stop a development server and retain its terminal for another command.
Combine terminal control with browser review
Once the server prints a working URL, ask the same agent to open a browser review. You now have the conversation, server output, and running page close together. The split-pane guide explains how to navigate that layout without losing your place.
Your next workspace
Put it to work.
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