Pane Splitting & Tabs

One of MTerm’s standout features is native pane splitting — no tmux required. Split your screen into multiple independent panels, each running its own session, and combine terminals, file editors, and browsers in whatever arrangement suits your workflow.

Pane Layouts

MTerm uses a recursive split model — any pane can be split again, horizontally or vertically, as many times as you want. Press Cmd + D to split horizontally or Cmd + Shift + D to split vertically, and repeat to add more panes (unlimited on Pro).

When you first connect, you can choose from six preset layouts to get started quickly:

Preset	Description
Single	One full-screen pane
2-way Horizontal	Two panes side by side (left and right)
2-way Vertical	Two panes stacked (top and bottom)
3-way Horizontal	Three panes in a horizontal arrangement (one large, two smaller)
3-way Vertical	Three panes in a vertical arrangement (two stacked, one alongside)
4-way Grid	Four panes in a 2x2 grid

These presets are just starting points. After connecting, you can split any pane further to build whatever layout you need. For example, start with a 3-way horizontal and split the bottom-right pane again to get a 4-pane asymmetric layout — one Cmd + D is all it takes.

Resizing Panes

Drag any pane border to resize. The adjacent panes adjust automatically to fill the available space. This lets you give more room to the pane you are actively working in while keeping others visible for reference.

Pane Content Types

Each pane can display any of the following:

Terminal — A full SSH terminal session
File Editor — The built-in syntax-highlighted code editor
Finder — The remote SFTP file browser
Prompt Panel — The AI prompt input panel

Mix and match freely. A common setup for Claude Code work is a terminal in the main pane, the file editor in a side pane for reviewing generated code, and the file browser in a smaller pane for navigation.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Panes

Action	Shortcut
Split Horizontally	`Cmd + D`
Split Vertically	`Cmd + Shift + D`
Maximize / Restore Pane	`Cmd + Enter`
Move Focus Left	`Cmd + Shift + H`
Move Focus Down	`Cmd + Shift + J`
Move Focus Up	`Cmd + Shift + K`
Move Focus Right	`Cmd + Shift + L`

The navigation shortcuts follow Vim-style directional keys (H/J/K/L), making it natural for developers who already use Vim or tmux.

Pane Limits

Plan	Maximum Panes
Free	2
Pro	Unlimited

Tab Management

Tabs let you maintain multiple independent workspaces within a single connection. Each tab has its own set of panes and layout.

Open a Different Host in a Tab

Long-press the ”+” button in the tab bar to see a list of your saved hosts. Select one to open a new tab connected to that server — right alongside your existing tabs.

A normal tap on ”+” opens a new tab for the current host. But with a long-press, you can manage connections to multiple servers in a single window, switching between your production server and dev environment with a tab tap.

Action	Shortcut
New Tab	`Cmd + T`
Close Pane	`Cmd + W`
Close Tab	`Cmd + Shift + W`
Previous Tab	`Cmd + Shift + [`
Next Tab	`Cmd + Shift + ]`

For example, you might use one tab for your main development workflow (terminal + editor), a second tab for monitoring logs, and a third tab for database queries. Switch between them instantly without losing any context.

Press Cmd + B to open the sidebar, which displays your tabs as a vertical list on the left side of the screen. Compared to the standard horizontal tab bar at the top:

Full tab names visible: Horizontal tabs truncate names when you have many open. The vertical list shows every tab name in full.
Scales to many tabs: Even with 10+ tabs open, you can scroll through the full list.
Context at a glance: Each tab shows its current directory and other context information.

While the sidebar is open, the horizontal tab bar hides automatically, giving your terminal more screen space.

Tab Limits

Plan	Maximum Tabs
Free	2
Pro	Unlimited

Workspace Snapshots

Workspace snapshots let you save and restore your entire working environment — layout, pane arrangement, and pane contents — with a single action.

Saving a Workspace

Press Cmd + S to save the current state of your workspace. MTerm captures:

The pane layout (which split arrangement you are using)
What each pane is displaying (terminal, editor, browser, or prompt panel)
The current state of each pane

Restoring a Workspace

The next time you connect to the same host, your saved workspace is available for one-tap restore. Instead of manually splitting panes and opening files every time you reconnect, you pick up exactly where you left off.

Per-Host Auto Setup

For hosts you connect to frequently, you can pre-configure the automatic pane setup:

Pane count and layout — Choose your preferred split arrangement
Working directories — Set which directory each terminal pane starts in
Launch commands — Specify commands to run automatically in each pane on connection (e.g., cd ~/project && git status in one pane, tail -f /var/log/syslog in another)

This means connecting to your development server can immediately set up your full working environment without any manual steps.

Example Layouts

Claude Code Development (3-way horizontal)

TERMINAL

$ claude

Claude Code

EDITOR

Review generated code

FINDER

Project structure

Run Claude Code in the left pane, review generated code in the top-right editor, and browse the project structure in the bottom-right Finder.

Multi-Server Monitoring (4-way grid)

Production

$ tail -f /var/log/app

Staging

$ top

Development

$ npm run dev

DB Server

$ redis-cli monitor

Watch four servers at once without switching tabs. Invaluable during incidents when you need to check the impact across multiple systems.

Log Monitoring (2-way vertical)