VS Code Terminal & Pane Management Shortcuts
Most developers leave VS Code's integrated terminal open for an entire session, often alongside multiple split editor panes, and the shortcuts here are about moving between those panels without ever needing to reach for the mouse to click into a specific pane or terminal tab. Beyond toggling and creating terminals, day-to-day terminal management also depends on genuinely killing a stuck or finished shell process, clearing cluttered scrollback output, and toggling the entire bottom panel area for quick full-editor focus.
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toggle integrated terminal | Ctrl+` | Cmd+` | Shows or hides the integrated terminal panel without leaving the editor, preserving whatever shell session and command history was already running there. |
| Split editor | Ctrl+\ | Cmd+\ | Opens a second editor pane beside the current one, letting you view and edit two files (or two parts of the same file) side by side. |
| Focus next editor group | Ctrl+K Ctrl+Right (or Ctrl+2) | Cmd+K Cmd+Right (or Cmd+2) | Moves keyboard focus to the next split editor group, the fast way to switch between side-by-side panes without clicking into the other pane with the mouse. |
| Create a new terminal instance | Ctrl+Shift+` | Cmd+Shift+` | Opens an additional terminal tab alongside any existing ones, useful for running a dev server in one terminal while keeping a second free for git commands or one-off scripts. |
| Toggle sidebar visibility | Ctrl+B | Cmd+B | Collapses or restores the file explorer sidebar entirely, handing that reclaimed width back to the editor pane — worth doing on a cramped laptop screen or anytime the file tree is just visual clutter while you focus on one file. |
| Kill/close active terminal | Trash icon, or Ctrl+Shift+`` then close | Trash icon | Terminates the active terminal tab's shell process entirely, distinct from just hiding the panel with Ctrl+backtick, which leaves the underlying process running in the background. |
| Clear terminal output | Ctrl+K (terminal focused) | Cmd+K | Clears the visible scrollback in the active terminal, similar to a shell's own clear command, giving you a clean view without needing to scroll past a long previous command's output. |
| Maximize/restore the panel | Ctrl+J (toggles panel visibility) | Cmd+J | Toggles the visibility of the bottom panel area (which hosts the terminal, output, and problems tabs), giving quick access to full editor space when the panel isn't currently needed. |
Ctrl+` (Cmd+` on Mac) toggles the integrated terminal panel open and closed, preserving whatever shell session, running process, or scroll-back history was already there — closing it with this shortcut doesn't kill the underlying shell, it just hides the panel, so reopening it brings you right back to where you left off, including any long-running dev server output that continued accumulating while hidden.
Ctrl+Shift+` opens an entirely new terminal instance as an additional tab, which matters because a single terminal panel can hold several independent shell sessions as tabs — a common pattern is running a dev server in one terminal tab and keeping a second tab free for git commands, package installs, or one-off scripts, switching between them with the terminal panel's own tab UI or its own dedicated next/previous terminal shortcuts.
Split Editor (Ctrl+\, Cmd+\ on Mac) divides the editor area into two side-by-side panes, letting you view two files — or two different scroll positions within the same file — simultaneously. This is especially useful when referencing one file's content while editing another, like keeping a type definition visible in one pane while writing code that uses it in the other, without constantly switching tabs back and forth.
Moving focus between split panes by keyboard (Ctrl+K then Ctrl+Right/Left as a chord, or the numbered shortcuts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 for jumping directly to a specific pane by its position) avoids needing to click into the target pane first, which matters for maintaining flow when you're bouncing attention between two open files frequently during a focused editing session.
Ctrl+B (Cmd+B on Mac) toggles the file explorer sidebar's visibility entirely, reclaiming horizontal space for the editor — useful on smaller laptop screens where the sidebar's fixed width meaningfully shrinks the usable code-editing area, or simply when you've already navigated to the file you need and don't need the tree visible anymore.
Killing a terminal (via its trash-can icon in the terminal tab bar) genuinely terminates the underlying shell process, which is meaningfully different from simply hiding the terminal panel with Ctrl+` — hiding preserves the running process and its state in the background, while killing ends it entirely, appropriate when a terminal's shell session is no longer needed at all rather than just temporarily out of view.
Clearing terminal output (Ctrl+K with the terminal focused) wipes the visible scrollback, similar to typing a shell's own clear command but triggered directly from VS Code's keybinding rather than needing to type and execute a command — useful for getting a clean starting view before running a new command whose output you want to read without scrolling past a long previous command's noise.
Toggling the bottom panel (Ctrl+J / Cmd+J) shows or hides the entire panel area that hosts the terminal alongside other panel-based views like Output and Problems, giving you quick access to reclaim the full editor height when you don't currently need any of the panel-based tools visible, then restoring it instantly once you do need the terminal or another panel view again.