Mobile Terminal

MoltShell provides a full terminal experience on phones and tablets. The same persistent sessions you use on desktop are accessible from any mobile device with a browser.

Touch-optimized controls

Since mobile soft keyboards lack keys like Ctrl, Esc, Tab, and arrow keys, MoltShell provides a keyboard helper bar at the bottom of the screen. It includes:

Special keys

• Esc -- send escape character
• Ctrl -- toggle control modifier (tap Ctrl, then tap another key)
• Alt -- toggle alt modifier (tap Alt, then tap another key)
• Tab -- send tab character (useful for autocompletion)

Quick combinations

• ^C -- Ctrl+C (interrupt running process)
• ^D -- Ctrl+D (EOF / exit)
• ^L -- Ctrl+L (clear screen)

Arrow keys

• Up/Down arrows -- navigate command history
• Left/Right arrows -- move cursor within a command

Command input field

At the top of the keyboard bar, there is a text input field where you can type a full command using the mobile keyboard and tap Send to execute it. This is often easier than typing directly into the terminal on small screens.

Touch scrolling

Swipe up and down on the terminal to scroll through output. MoltShell implements custom touch scrolling that works correctly in all contexts:

• In the normal terminal buffer, touch scrolling moves through the scrollback history
• Inside tmux or other full-screen applications with mouse mode, touch swipes are converted to mouse wheel events
• Inside applications like vim (without mouse mode), touch swipes send cursor key sequences

The scrolling includes momentum -- a quick swipe continues scrolling with deceleration, similar to native app scrolling.

Selecting and copying text

On mobile, selecting text in a terminal is difficult because touch events are handled by the terminal. MoltShell provides a long-press gesture (500ms) that opens a Select & Copy overlay:

1. Long-press anywhere on the terminal
2. An overlay appears showing the terminal buffer as selectable text
3. Use your device's native text selection to highlight what you need
4. Tap Copy All to copy the entire buffer, or use your device's copy function for a selection
5. Tap X or outside the overlay to close it

Voice input

The microphone button in the keyboard bar lets you dictate commands. See the Voice Input page for details.

Quick commands

The lightning bolt icon in the keyboard bar opens the Quick Commands menu, giving you one-tap access to common setup commands like installing AI tools.

Same sessions, any device

Because sessions are backed by tmux on the server, you can start work on your laptop and continue on your phone. Just open moltshell.sh on your mobile browser, sign in, and launch the terminal. You will see the same sessions with the same state.