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Every Notchly tab can be subdivided into multiple terminal panes arranged side by side or stacked. Splits are stored as a binary tree — each pane can itself be split again, giving you arbitrarily deep nested layouts inside a single tab. All panes in a tab share the same session name and Claude project context, but each runs its own independent shell process.

Creating splits

1

Split right (vertical divider)

Press Cmd+D to split the currently focused pane into two equal halves side by side. The new pane opens on the right, at the same working directory as the pane you split.
2

Split down (horizontal divider)

Press Cmd+Shift+D to split the focused pane downward. The new pane opens below the original, again at the same working directory.
3

Split controls overlay

When a pane is focused, a small controls overlay appears in its top-right corner with four split buttons (left, right, up, down) and a close button. Click any split button to create the corresponding pane.
Use keyboard shortcuts to move focus without reaching for the mouse:
ShortcutAction
Cmd+DSplit pane right
Cmd+Shift+DSplit pane down
Cmd+]Focus next pane
Cmd+[Focus previous pane
Cmd+Shift+WClose focused pane
Pane order follows the tree traversal order (left-to-right, depth-first), so Cmd+] cycles through panes in a predictable left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence regardless of nesting depth.

Identifying the focused pane

The active pane shows a subtle accent gradient along its top edge — a thin stripe that reads as “this pane is active” without drawing a heavy border around every pane in the layout. The controls overlay (split/close buttons) is only visible on the focused pane.

Resizing panes

Drag the divider between any two panes to resize them. The divider is 7 pt wide with an AppKit-native hit zone — the cursor changes to resizeLeftRight or resizeUpDown as soon as you hover over it. The resize updates live as you drag. Split ratios are clamped between 20% and 80% so neither side can be collapsed to nothing. The ratio for each split node is saved to UserDefaults; your layout survives panel resizes and app restarts. After you release the divider, keyboard focus automatically returns to the active terminal pane so you can type immediately without an extra click.

Closing a pane

Press Cmd+Shift+W or click the close button in the pane controls overlay to close the focused pane. Its shell process is terminated. If it is the only pane in the tab, closing it closes the entire tab. When a pane is removed, the sibling pane expands to fill the available space.

Nested splits

You can split a pane that is already part of a split layout. The internal representation is an indirect enum binary tree (SplitNode), so nesting is unlimited. A three-column layout, for example, is a horizontal split whose left child is itself another horizontal split. The full tree is preserved when you sleep a tab, duplicate it, or restart the app.

Duplicating a tab preserves the layout

Right-click any tab → Duplicate Tab to clone the entire pane tree with fresh shell processes at the same working directories. Each pane in the duplicate is independent — you can work in one copy while the original continues running.
Use Cmd+D to open a second Claude session in the same project directory. Run one session for making code changes and another for running tests in parallel — each pane operates independently, so neither session blocks the other.

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