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Qualia uses a multi-pane tabbed interface. The workspace is divided into specialized pane areas, each containing tabs for different types of content.

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Pane layout

The workspace has four pane areas: Each pane area can hold multiple tabs. The terminal and chat panes auto-hide when empty.

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Tab types

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Working with tabs

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Opening tabs

  • Double-click a file in the Files sidebar
  • Click search results to open files
  • + button in the editor tab bar opens the file creation dialog
  • Ctrl+` or View → New Terminal opens a new terminal in the focused pane

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Closing tabs

  • Click the X on a tab
  • Cmd/Ctrl+W closes the active tab

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Switching tabs

  • Click any tab to make it active
  • Open Project, Kernels, or the gear menu from the titlebar

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Reordering and moving tabs

  • Drag tabs left or right to reorder them within a pane
  • On a touch screen, press and hold a tab briefly before dragging it, so that scrolling doesn’t move tabs by accident
  • Drag a tab to a different pane area to move it
  • Drag an agent card from the Agents sidebar onto a tab bar to open that conversation as a tab there

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Pinning tabs

Pin a notebook, file, or chat you keep coming back to so it stays put. Right-click the tab and choose Pin Tab. Pinned tabs:
  • Always sit at the front of the tab strip, before unpinned tabs
  • Survive Close Others and Close All
  • Show a pin icon in place of the close button — click it to unpin
  • Are restored with the rest of your layout when you reopen the workspace
Unpin a tab by clicking its pin icon or choosing Unpin Tab from the right-click menu. Middle-click closing is disabled while a tab is pinned; closing it explicitly (its context menu’s Close or Cmd/Ctrl+W) still works.

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Editor splits

Work with multiple documents side by side in the editor pane.

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Creating a split

  • Drag a tab toward the edge of the editor area
  • A highlight shows where the split will appear — drop to create it

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Resizing splits

Drag the divider between split sections to resize them.

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Closing a split

When you close the last tab in a split section, it collapses automatically.

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Persistence

Open tabs are saved per workspace:
  • Reopen Qualia and your tabs are restored
  • Switch workspaces and each has its own tab state
  • Tab positions and pane layout are preserved

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Zoom

Adjust the content zoom level:

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Keyboard shortcuts

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Tab bar actions

The editor tab bar includes:
  • + button: Open the file creation dialog (notebooks, writeups, or other files)
  • Ctrl+`: Open a new terminal in the current pane
Tabs show a dot indicator when they have unsaved changes.