Your Terminal Tabs Are Hiding Context. This App Puts Every Shell on a Map

You've got six terminal tabs open. One is running a build, another has a Claude Code session going, a third is tailing logs, and you honestly can't remember which is which anymore. When you're juggling scattered workflows, that stack of hidden tabs works against you—it doesn't show you what's running where. nodeterm takes a different approach: instead of tabs, every shell lives as a draggable node on a single pan-and-zoom canvas.

What It Does

nodeterm is a node-based terminal manager built with Electron. Multiple real terminals live as nodes on one infinite canvas, so you can place, group, label, and zoom into them spatially rather than digging through a tab bar. Each terminal runs in its own persistent tmux session, which means sessions survive quitting the app—and even a full machine restart.

Beyond terminals, the canvas holds other node types: AI agents (including Claude Code sessions), sticky notes you can link to feed an agent context, Monaco editors, diff views, and web/video nodes. Every project also doubles as a Trello-style board of live Claude Code sessions, so you can see your active agents laid out like cards. The app is built around a service seam that lets the same canvas run three ways: as a desktop app for macOS, Linux, and Windows (beta), as a self-hosted browser app (Server Edition), and through an iOS companion that attaches to the same live sessions.

Why It's Cool

It treats your mental model as the thing worth preserving. Most terminal managers assume you'll remember what's in tab 4. nodeterm assumes you won't—and builds the interface around a spatial map instead. You place things where they make sense to you, and the layout sticks across restarts.

Persistence is the quiet killer feature. Because every terminal is backed by tmux, quitting the app or rebooting your machine doesn't kill your sessions. That's a small detail on paper and a big deal in practice when you've got a long-running agent mid-task.

The sticky-note-to-agent link is a clever bit of design. Linking a note to feed an agent context turns a passive scratchpad into a working input. It's the kind of small seam that makes the canvas feel less like a gimmick and more like a workflow.

It's honest about who it's for. The README says it's built for people with ADHD and scattered workflows. That framing matters—it explains why the spatial layout exists and sets expectations. This isn't trying to be a general-purpose terminal emulator for everyone; it's solving a specific context problem.

Three deployment modes from one codebase. Desktop, self-hosted browser access, and an iOS companion that attaches to the same live sessions is a lot of reach for an early project, and the clean service seam is what makes it possible.

How to Try It

The easiest path is to grab an installer from the releases page:

1. Head to github.com/eneskirca/nodeterm/releases and download the build for your platform—.dmg for macOS, .AppImage/.deb/.rpm for Linux, or .exe for Windows (beta).
2. Install and launch the app.
3. Right-click anywhere on the canvas to add a terminal, an agent, a sticky note, an editor, or a diff view.
4. Arrange your nodes spatially, quit, and reopen—your sessions should come back.

If you'd rather build from source, the README links to a dedicated section for that, along with architecture notes. Full setup and concepts docs live at nodeterm.dev/docs.

The project is licensed under BUSL-1.1, so check the license terms if you're planning commercial use.

Final Thoughts

nodeterm won't appeal to everyone—if you live happily in a single terminal window with tmux splits, the canvas might feel like overhead. But if your work involves multiple agents, long-running sessions, and a mental map that keeps slipping, the spatial approach is worth a look. The persistence and the agent-board concept are the parts that stand out. It's early, and Windows is still beta, but the core idea—treating terminal context as something you can see rather than something you have to remember—is a good one.

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