Interface tour

PaneCrew adds two things to VS Code: an explorer that follows your focus, and a grid of terminals arranged across your workspace. Here's what each part does.

1

PaneCrew explorer

A dedicated view in its own activity-bar container — click the PaneCrew icon to open it. One subtree per workspace folder, not one giant merged tree.

2

Git status decorations

Modified, added, untracked, and deleted files and folders are badged and colored, based on git status per workspace-folder root.

3

Terminal grid

PaneCrew: Open Project Grid… and PaneCrew: Add Folder to Grid… add a workspace folder and give it its own terminal, arranged automatically via VS Code's editor-group layout.

4

Layouts

The grid isn't stuck at 2×2 — click the layout item in the status bar (or run PaneCrew: Set Grid Template…) to switch between seven arrangements, from a single full-width pane up to a 2×2 quad or a row of four. Save any arrangement as a named preset to reload later.

5

A real terminal

Every pane is a real, PTY-backed VS Code terminal. Any CLI tool runs here exactly as it would in your own shell — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, OpenCode, or a plain shell.

6

The focus-following explorer, live

Switch to a different terminal or editor tab and the PaneCrew explorer automatically selects, expands, and reveals that pane's owning workspace folder — no manual re-navigation.

7

Compact Look

PaneCrew: Apply Compact Look hides secondary chrome (status bar, minimap by default) to make room for more panes. The activity bar always stays visible, by design.