Slate Terminal

Slate Terminal is an open-source native macOS terminal by AlexW00, powered by libghostty. It combines tabs, split panes and saved layouts with a plugin system and a slate-term CLI so that users and their AI coding agents can build custom panels and automate their workspace. The project is in active development, and the latest listed release is v0.9.0.

What It Is

Slate is a terminal emulator for Apple silicon Macs that brings terminals, browser panes and custom tools into one workspace. Plugins are built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript and can add panels, commands, header buttons, background services and workspace events. Each plugin is described by a plugin.json manifest.

Agent-Driven Workflow

The slate-term CLI lets an agent register plugins, split panes, send input, capture the screen, and save layouts. In the illustrated demo, an agent such as Claude Code writes a plugin, opens it as a panel beside the shell, and then saves the arrangement as a Spotlight launcher. A floating pill shows which agent is working in a pane. Slate supplies the workspace while the user chooses the agent and model; the site names Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Aider and OpenCode, or your own script. An agent skill teaches the agent Slate's API.

Plugin Ideas and Status

The site shows example panels such as an experiment workbench, an agent sessions panel, a script interface, a launch-day workspace, a pull request board and a reading list. These are ideas to build and are not bundled with the app. The app requires Apple silicon and macOS 27 or later, and updates are available through Check for Updates. It is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.