Support per-panel terminal profiles for running CLI agents like Claude separately from the main terminal

[nx-tobiashelmrich]

What are you proposing?

Add support for assigning different terminal commands/shells to different Zed panel locations, especially allowing a terminal-based agent such as claude to run in the Agent panel while keeping the regular integrated terminal docked at the bottom.

For example, a user could configure:

• the normal terminal to use the system shell and remain docked at the bottom
• a dedicated Agent-panel terminal to automatically start claude
• optionally, tasks or terminal profiles that can specify their preferred dock/panel

Why does this matter?

Some AI coding tools are terminal-based rather than fully integrated into Zed’s Agent UI. Today, users can run tools like claude in the integrated terminal, but the terminal dock location is effectively global. If the terminal is docked at the bottom, codex also opens there.

This makes it difficult to create a workflow where:

• the bottom terminal remains available for normal shell commands, dev servers, tests, Git, etc.
• the left/right Agent panel is used for an AI assistant workflow
• terminal-based agents can live visually and spatially alongside Zed’s native Agent panel

This would make Zed more flexible for users who combine native agents and CLI-based coding agents.

Are there any examples or context?

Current relevant settings:

{
  "terminal": {
    "shell": "system",
    "dock": "bottom"
  },
  "agent": {
    "dock": "left"
  }
}

Desired workflow:

1. Keep the normal integrated terminal docked at the bottom using the system shell.
2. Open the Agent panel on the left.
3. Start a terminal session in that agent area that automatically runs:

claude

4. Continue using the bottom terminal normally for regular development tasks.

At the moment, attempting to configure something like an agent_panel_shell is not supported, and tasks can run claude, but they do not appear to support choosing a different dock/panel from the normal terminal.

A comparable concept would be terminal profiles or tasks that can be assigned to specific panels, similar to how some editors allow dedicated terminals, task terminals, or tool windows to be placed independently.

Possible approach

A few possible ways this could work:

1. Terminal profiles with dock/panel configuration

{
  "terminal": {
    "shell": "system",
    "dock": "bottom",
    "profiles": {
      "claude": {
        "command": "claude",
        "dock": "left"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Task-level dock configuration

{
  "label": "Claude Agent Terminal",
  "command": "claude",
  "use_new_terminal": true,
  "dock": "left"
}

3. Agent panel terminal command

Allow the Agent panel to define an optional terminal-based agent command:

{
  "agent": {
    "dock": "left",
    "terminal_command": "claude"
  }
}

4. Dedicated terminal panel instances

Support multiple named terminal panels, each with its own shell/command and dock location:

{
  "terminal_panels": {
    "main": {
      "shell": "system",
      "dock": "bottom"
    },
    "codex": {
      "command": "claude",
      "dock": "left"
    }
  }
}

Any of these would allow terminal-based AI agents to be treated as first-class companions to Zed’s native Agent UI without disrupting the existing bottom-terminal workflow.