Terax

Open-source lightweight cross-platform AI-native terminal (ADE)

Terax is a fast, lightweight AI terminal (ADE) built on Tauri 2 + Rust and React 19. It pairs a native PTY backend with a modern UI — multi-tab terminals, an integrated code editor, a file explorer, and a first-class AI side-panel that works with your own API keys (or fully local models via LM Studio). Under 10 MB on disk, no telemetry, keys stored in the OS keychain.

Screenshots

_{Multi-tab terminal with WebGL rendering}	_{Web preview of local dev servers}
_{AI agentic workflow with edit diffs in the code editor}

Features

Terminal

xterm.js + WebGL renderer, multi-tab with background streaming
Native PTY backend via portable-pty (zsh, bash, pwsh, …)
Shell integration (cwd reporting, prompt markers) via injected init scripts
Inline search, link detection, true-color

Editor

CodeMirror 6 with language support for TS/JS, Rust, Python, HTML/CSS, JSON, Markdown
Inline AI autocomplete and AI edit diffs
Vim mode
Prebuilt themes: Tokyo Night, Nord, GitHub, Atom One, Aura, Copilot, Xcode

File Explorer

Catppuccin icon theme (Material Icon Theme resolver)
Fuzzy search, keyboard navigation, inline rename, context actions

Web Preview

Auto-detects local dev servers and opens them in a preview tab

AI (BYOK)

Providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, xAI, Cerebras, OpenAI-compatible
Local / offline models via LM Studio
Voice input, edit diffs, multi-agent and sub-agents
Snippets / skills, customizable system prompt
TERAX.md for project memory and configuration
Tasks, plans, search, file read/write tools with approval flow

Quality

Lightweight and fast (~7 MB bundle)
API keys stored in the OS keychain
No telemetry, no account required

Windows notes

SmartScreen warning: Windows will show "Windows protected your PC" on first launch because we (temporarily) don't have a code-signing certificate yet. Click More info → Run anyway. This is normal for unsigned open-source apps.

The default shell is detected in this order: pwsh.exe (PowerShell 7+) → powershell.exe (Windows PowerShell 5.1) → cmd.exe.

Linux notes

Blank window / EGL_BAD_PARAMETER: WebKitGTK's hardware (DMA-BUF) renderer fails on some Wayland setups (wlroots compositors, NVIDIA's proprietary driver, minimal sessions). Terax disables it automatically when it detects one of these; if you still get a blank window or an EGL error, escalate in order:
1. WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 ./Terax_*.AppImage (=0 forces the hardware path back on)
2. WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 ./Terax_*.AppImage
3. LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 ./Terax_*.AppImage (software rendering — slow, last resort)
4. Install the .deb / .rpm instead — they use your system's GTK/GPU libraries directly and sidestep AppImage bundling conflicts entirely.
AppImage: needs FUSE. On systems without it, run ./Terax_*.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run.
NixOS: prebuilt binaries can't see the system GPU stack, so the AppImage may fail with an EGL error regardless of the above. Run it through nix run nixpkgs#appimage-run -- ./Terax_*.AppImage, use nixGL, or build from source.

Configure AI

Open Settings → AI.
Pick a provider and paste your API key. For local inference, point Terax at your LM Studio endpoint.
Keys are written to the OS keychain via keyring — they never touch disk or localStorage.

Build from source

Prerequisites

Rust (stable) — https://rustup.rs
Node 20+ and pnpm
Platform-specific Tauri prerequisites — https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/

Run

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev          # development
pnpm tauri build        # production bundle

Checks

pnpm exec tsc --noEmit          # frontend type-check
cd src-tauri && cargo clippy    # Rust lint

Tech stack

Tauri 2 · Rust · portable-pty · React 19 · TypeScript · xterm.js · CodeMirror 6 · Vercel AI SDK v6 · Tailwind v4 · shadcn/ui · Zustand

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome! Feel free to open issues, suggest features, or submit pull requests. See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

License

Terax is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License. For more information on our dependencies, see Apache License 2.0.