valley

A lightweight, AI-aware desktop terminal for macOS — built on Tauri 2 + Rust + React 19 + xterm.js. Gruvbox by default, ~5.7 MB binary, runs on Apple Silicon.

~/works/valley  main !2 ?1                                   ⌚ 18:24
❯ pnpm test
 Test Files  8 passed (8)      ⎢ green block-rail
      Tests  55 passed (55)    ⎢
~/works/valley  main !2 ?1                                   ⌚ 18:24
❯

Why

Built around the things a daily-driver terminal should make trivial:

• Block-status rails — every command run gets a green / red side bar; ⌘⇧↑/↓ jumps between prompts.
• ⌘⇧C copies the last command's output — straight to clipboard, ready to paste into a chat, issue, or PR. Hover any rail in the gutter to see exit code + duration.
• Live cwd everywhere — sidebar follows your cd, status bar shows the git branch, file explorer scopes to the active terminal's directory. Works inside tmux via OSC passthrough.
• Cmd+P omnibar — fuzzy switcher across open tabs, recent files, files in the active cwd, modified files in the repo, plus a 15-action command palette.
• Embedded editor — CodeMirror 6 with gruvbox / tokyo-night / nord themes mirroring the terminal palette. ⌘S writes through a Vite plugin that mutes HMR for self-saves. Right-click → "Open in $EDITOR" hands off to nvim / VS Code / whatever you set.
• Diff / git pane — libgit2-backed; status badges in the explorer, side-by-side merge view per file via @codemirror/merge.
• AI built in — chat panel (⌘I) backed by Anthropic / OpenAI via the Vercel AI SDK. ⌘L attaches the active terminal's selection (or last command's output) to the composer. Tools: read_file, list_directory, write_file, run_command — read auto-runs, write + shell are gated behind approval prompts.
• Clickable file paths — tsc / cargo / pytest errors print paths; click them to open in valley's editor.
• Dev-server URL banner — npm run dev prints http://localhost:3000, valley offers a one-click "Open preview" tab.

Install

Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 11+.

1. Download the latest Valley_x.y.z_aarch64.dmg from Releases.
2. Open the DMG, drag Valley.app into Applications.
3. Strip the Gatekeeper quarantine flag (the build is unsigned; you only need to do this once):

   xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Valley.app

4. Launch Valley.

To use AI: ⌘, → AI · valley → paste your Anthropic or OpenAI key. Stored in macOS Keychain, never written to disk.

For tmux users, add to ~/.tmux.conf so cwd / branch / block-rails track inside tmux:

set -g allow-passthrough on
set -g set-clipboard on

Remote / SSH

When you SSH into a remote host, valley's status bar AND sidebar follow your remote cd:

• The status bar tracks the path via OSC 7 over SSH.
• The sidebar tries the local filesystem first; if the path doesn't exist locally, it opens a parallel SFTP connection to the same host and lists files there. The EXPLORER header gains a small · <hostname> marker so you know you're remote.

Requirements on the remote machine — add to ~/.zshrc:

autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
__osc7() { printf '\033]7;file://%s%s\a' "$HOST" "$PWD"; }
add-zsh-hook precmd __osc7

Requirements on the local machine — for the SFTP sidebar:

• Authentication is via SSH agent (ssh-add your key, make sure SSH_AUTH_SOCK is set). If your ssh hostname works without a prompt in a regular terminal, valley's SFTP connection will too.
• Host aliases from ~/.ssh/config are respected (HostName / User / Port).

For tmux inside SSH, the remote tmux config also needs set -g allow-passthrough on.

If the sidebar doesn't switch after ssh hostname:

• Quit Valley fully (⌘Q from the menu, or pkill -f Valley.app) and relaunch from /Applications/Valley.app. A Valley instance that was running before you installed the new version keeps using the old binary even after the .app file on disk has been replaced.
• Check that ssh-add -l lists at least one key on your local machine. SFTP auth is agent-only.
• Confirm the remote shell actually emits OSC 7 (the precmd hook above). If your remote zsh is wrapped by oh-my-zsh or similar, make sure the add-zsh-hook precmd __osc7 line runs after the framework loads.

Keyboard

Action	Shortcut
Open omnibar	⌘P
New terminal tab	⌘T
Close tab (prompts on unsaved file)	⌘W
Next / previous tab	⌘⇧] / ⌘⇧[
Jump to tab 1–9	⌘1 … ⌘9
Split right / below	⌘D / ⌘⇧D
Focus pane	⌘⌥← ↑ → ↓
Toggle file explorer	⌘B
Find in terminal	⌘F
Previous / next prompt	⌘⇧↑ / ⌘⇧↓
Copy current block	⌘⇧C
AI panel	⌘I
Attach selection to AI	⌘L
Settings	⌘,
Shortcuts dialog	⌘K

Inside the omnibar: ↑ / ↓ or Tab / Shift+Tab or Ctrl+N / Ctrl+P to navigate, Enter to open, Esc to close.

Build from source

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev          # dev with HMR
pnpm tauri build        # production .app + .dmg → src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Always pnpm — never npm.

Stack

Tauri 2 (Rust) · React 19 · TypeScript · xterm.js 6 · CodeMirror 6 · Vercel AI SDK 6 · libgit2 (vendored) · zustand · Vite 7

License

All rights reserved.