The window at a glance
Title bar, left sidebar, the usage meter, the side panel and its rail, the command palette, the hub and notifications — what every part of the PaneScale window does.
PaneScale keeps one calm window: a title bar on top, your projects on the left, the work in the middle and tools on the right. Nothing opens a second window, and nothing you open stops what is running.
| Area | Holds |
|---|---|
| Title bar | Mode tabs, search, hub, menu, Voice, notifications, side panel toggle |
| Left sidebar | Workspaces with their sessions — or your chats in Chat mode — plus the usage meter and your account |
| Stage | The current mode, or a stage such as Settings, Usage or the Autopilot |
| Side panel | Dashboard, files, search, a thread, workflows or the browser |
| Rail | The narrow strip on the far right that chooses what the side panel shows |
Title bar
From left to right:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Logo and name | Drag to move the window; double-click to maximize |
| Sidebar button | Shows or hides the left sidebar |
| Mode tabs | Agent, Code, Chat, Workflow, Video — or Ctrl+Alt+1 … Ctrl+Alt+5. Video only appears while Video Studio is on in Labs |
| Update x.y.z | Appears when a new version is ready; nothing installs until you click. See Updates |
| Connected | The local core is running. PaneScale has no server; this is the link between the window and its Rust core |
| Search | Opens the command palette — Ctrl+K |
| Hub | The Workspace hub: everything at a glance |
| More | Tasks (Ctrl+T), Routines, Overnight Autopilot and Settings (Ctrl+,) |
| Microphone | Voice: dictation and spoken commands |
| Bell | Notifications and pending approvals, with a badge for unread items and sessions that wait for you |
| Panel button | Shows or hides the side panel |
| Window controls | Minimize, maximize, close |
Left sidebar
Workspaces
Every project you opened is listed with its sessions underneath, so you can see across projects what is happening without switching.
| On a project row | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Number | How many sessions are open in this project |
| Check mark with a number | Sessions that finished while you weren’t looking |
| Yellow number | Sessions that need you — waiting for an answer, or failed |
Each session row shows the agent logo, the session name, what it is doing now, a branch icon if it runs in its own worktree, and a status dot. Hover a row for how long it has been in that state. Click it to switch to that project, open Code mode and focus the pane.
Click the arrow next to a project to collapse it. Right-click a project for Open in Code mode, Show in Explorer and Remove from list — removing only takes it off the list; your files are not touched.
Chats
In Chat mode the same sidebar shows your chats instead of the workspaces: plain chats grouped by date, and project threads grouped by project. See Chat.
Usage meter
Above your account sits a compact view of your Claude and Codex subscription limits: one line per window with the percentage left, when it resets and a hairline bar. The small tick in the bar marks where you would be at an even pace. Below it: what your agents would have cost today and in the last 30 days at list prices. Hover for a detail card with a forecast; click for the full Usage & limits page.
Account
The bottom row shows your PaneScale account and plan. Click it for account, usage and appearance shortcuts.
Side panel and rail
The rail on the far right chooses what the side panel shows: Dashboard, Files, Search in project, Thread, Workflows and Browser. Click the active icon again to close the panel. The dashboard icon carries a badge with the number of sessions that need you. Drag the panel’s left edge to resize it; double-click the edge to reset it. See Side panel and Dashboard.
Command palette
Ctrl+K opens a search box for everything in the app. Type a few letters — it matches the start of words, anywhere in a label, and even letters in order — then move with ↑ / ↓ and run with Enter.
| Group | Examples |
|---|---|
| Navigation | Any mode, Overnight Autopilot, Usage & limits, Tasks, Routines, Workspace hub, browser or dashboard in the side panel |
| Project | Open a project folder, switch to another open project |
| Pane | Start any installed agent, open a terminal |
| Open panes | Jump to a running session — by name, with what it is doing |
| Layout | Any grid layout, Duo + Preview |
| Appearance | Every theme |
| Settings | Every settings section |
| Chats, threads, teammate conversations | The 40 most recent conversations |
Workspace hub
The hub is an overview of the whole app in one dialog: pending approvals at the top (or Nothing is waiting for your approval), then tiles for Teammates, Code, Chat, Tasks, Routines and Workflows with their counts, a row for Skills, MCP bridge, Plugins and Remote SSH, and this month’s measured tokens. Every tile opens its place.
Notifications
The bell collects what happened while you were elsewhere: a session that finished or waits for you, a task that is ready for review, an autopilot report, a failed run. Click an entry to go there; Mark all read clears the badge. Pending approvals appear here too, with Deny and Allow once.
When the PaneScale window isn’t visible, the same events can appear as Windows notifications — at most three in three seconds — and play a short sound. Configure both in Settings → Notifications.
Small confirmations (“Saved”, “Sent to 3 panes”) appear briefly at the bottom of the window. Some carry an action, such as Open for a chat answer that finished while you were in another mode.
Themes
PaneScale comes in Graphite Dark and Graphite Light, plus Midnight. With the Theme Pack (on by default in Labs) you also get Tokyo Night, Catppuccin Mocha and Latte, Dracula, GitHub Dark and Light, Nord and Solarized Light. Every theme comes with matching terminal colours and is adjusted only in brightness, never in hue, so text keeps enough contrast. Choose dark, light or follow the system in Settings → Appearance, or type “theme” in the command palette.