Pixel
Pixel is a small CRT terminal with a face that lives in the status bar. Click it and it hops out with a chat balloon. Behind the balloon is Claude Code or Codex, which can read your terminals, type into them, and manage automations across every project on the server, within the Terminay MCP permissions you set.
Hi! I'm Pixel. Ask me what's going on in your terminals, or what to do in them.
Turn Pixel on
Pixel is off by default. While it is off, no client shows it and no agent runs.
- Open Settings → AI → Pixel.
- Turn on Enable Pixel. Pixel appears in the status bar of every window and device connected to that server.
- Click Pixel. The first time, it asks which agent to use and offers Claude Code and Codex as replies. Pick one.
Pixel offers only the agents that are installed and signed in on the server. If neither is, it says why, for example that Codex is not installed or Claude Code is not signed in.
The choice is saved as Pixel agent in the same settings section, and every device stops asking. Changing it later closes the current conversation on every device, and your next message starts a new one with the new agent.
Where Pixel lives
Pixel waits in a dock until you click it. The dock depends on the window:
- Status bar: on the right side, just before the remote access indicator. It fits in the bar without changing its height, and it is there on Home as well as on project tabs.
- Corner: when the status bar is hidden, a small Pixel sits in the bottom-right corner of the workspace.
- Phone header: at phone width, 640px and below, Pixel takes the last slot of the top row, where the connection control usually sits. If the server is unreachable or has an upgrade waiting, the breadcrumb says so instead.
Click the dock and Pixel flies out onto the workspace with its balloon open. Close the balloon and it flies home. If you close the balloon and leave Pixel alone for 20 seconds, it goes home by itself. You can drag Pixel anywhere; each device remembers its own position and balloon size.
With reduced motion turned on in your system settings, Pixel appears without flying and keeps to its calm resting idle.
Read the dock
Pixel is home and has nothing running.
A reply is in progress. The blue dot pulses.
An approval is waiting. Pixel also comes out on its own to ask.
Pixel is out on the workspace, so its dock shows only a ghost.
The dock's tooltip and accessible name say the same thing: Open Pixel, Pixel is working. Open Pixel., or Pixel needs your answer. Open Pixel.
Ask Pixel things
There is one Pixel conversation per server, and the server holds it. Every window and device connected to that server sees the same messages: ask a question on your desktop and the reply streams into the balloon on your phone too. Nothing from the conversation is stored on the device.
Pixel's agent reaches every project on its server through Terminay MCP. Unlike an agent you start in a terminal, it is not limited to one project. It can:
- list, read, and search terminals in any project, and type or run commands in them;
- open, split, arrange, rename, and close tabs, and see which project and tabs are on screen in the window you are talking from;
- list, create, run, and stop automations;
- manage projects, workspace windows, shell profiles, macros, and server settings, and show Home.
Pixel is told to read a terminal before typing into it and to say what it is about to do
before changing anything. While the agent works, Pixel's reply lists each step it takes, marked
… while running, ✓ when done, and ✗ if it failed.
The balloon has Stop to cancel the current reply and Clear to empty the conversation. Clearing also ends the agent's session, so the next message starts fresh.
Approve what Pixel does
Pixel follows the permission groups under Settings → AI → Terminay MCP. When a group is set to Ask Permission, the request appears in the balloon as a message from Pixel that says exactly what would happen, with three buttons:
Pixel (Claude Code) wants to run npm test in api
- Allow One Time runs this one request.
- Allow This Session allows that permission group for Pixel until the conversation is cleared or closed, Pixel's agent session ends, or the server restarts. It never applies to a terminal.
- Decline refuses it, and nothing runs.
You can answer from any device. The first answer wins, and the buttons disappear everywhere, leaving the outcome in the conversation. If Pixel is docked when a request arrives, its dock turns amber and Pixel comes out with the balloon open on the question.
Pixel's agent acts only through Terminay MCP, as far as each agent allows, but it is not a sandbox. Set a group to Never Allow to refuse it outright.
Turn Pixel off
Turn off Enable Pixel and Pixel is gone from every connected window and device at once, without a reload. Any reply in progress is cancelled, the agent process exits, and pending approvals end with nothing run. The setting is kept across server restarts.
Turning Pixel back on brings back the dock with an empty conversation and the agent you chose before.