kill9

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Tabs and splits

Manage panes, tabs, and the tiling workspace layout.

On this page

kill9 uses a tiling workspace. You can keep multiple surfaces open at once, arranged in panes that you split and resize.

Rail surfaces vs panels

The workspace rail on the left has seven permanent surfaces — Inbox, Work, Plan, Docs, Mockups, Review, Tools. Press Mod+1 through Mod+7 to switch between them. Only one rail surface is active at a time.

Panels are additional views you open on demand. The Browser panel, agent chat panels, and settings drawer all open as panels over or beside your current view. Open a panel from the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+K) or by clicking an action like "Open in panel" on an inbox item.

Splitting panes

Press Cmd+D to split the currently focused pane horizontally. The pane divides into two, each showing a different surface or panel.

This is useful when you want to see two things at once. Keep Work (Mod+2) open on the left to chat with an agent, and the Browser panel on the right to see the result. Or keep Docs (Mod+4) open while reviewing changes in Review (Mod+6).

The split acts on the focused pane. If the wrong pane splits, click the pane you wanted first to focus it, then press Cmd+D.

Moving between panes

Use Tab and focus shortcuts to move between panes, tabs, and splits. The exact shortcut depends on your configuration — check Settings → Shortcuts.

Zen mode

Press Ctrl+Shift+Z to hide the workspace rail, tabs, and panels. This gives you a clean view of just the current surface. Press it again to restore the chrome.

Tips

Get comfortable with focus before getting ambitious with layout. Focus is what makes the split model predictable. A common setup is Work on the left and Browser on the right. Or Plan on the left and Docs on the right.

Close extra panes when the layout feels crowded. You can always reopen them.