Beginner guide

In ten minutes you open a terminal in a folder of your choice, run a few commands, clone a public project and learn your way around the window. You do not need a GitHub account or an SSH key for any of it.

What you need

DhivaLabs Shell installed. See Install.
A folder to work in. Any folder will do, for example Documents.

Open your first terminal

Start DhivaLabs Shell from the Start menu.
The app opens a Local terminal tab by itself. There is nothing to set up first.

If you close every tab, a welcome screen reading Choose a folder. Start working. appears, with an Open local terminal button to start again.

The first lines in the tab are a greeting:

text

DhivaLabs Shell · Bash · Local terminal
Tab completes commands · Ctrl+R searches history · identity checks Git setup

Ready without Git or SSH setup. Type shortcuts for help. sudo requests an administrator window.

Below it is the prompt. It takes two lines: the first shows the name of the terminal, the folder you are in and, inside a Git repository, the branch. The second is a $, where you type.

The first time, a small guide appears above the tabs with the title You're ready to work. Read it, then select Got it. You can bring it back later from About & shortcuts, then Getting-started tips.

The window

Area	Where	What is there
Sidebar	Left	Local terminal, your Git identities under WORKSPACES, the Add Git identity or Identity settings button, and the version
Toolbar	Top	The name of the selected identity, then Open folder, Clone repo, SSH key and New terminal
Tab row	Under the toolbar	One tab per terminal, and the appearance button, the Focus switch, split and search
Terminal	Centre	Where you type commands and read the output
Footer	Bottom	The identity of the active terminal, the number of open sessions, and About & shortcuts

Local terminal is the plain terminal: Bash and Git with no managed identity. Everything in this guide uses it.

Open a terminal in a project folder

Select Open folder in the toolbar.
In the Windows folder picker, choose a folder and confirm.

A new tab opens, already in that folder. You never need to type a path.

Run some commands

Type each line and press Enter.

bash

pwd
ls
ll

pwd prints the folder you are in. ls lists its contents, and ll lists them with sizes, dates and hidden files.

Useful keys while typing:

Key	What it does
`Tab`	Completes a command or file name
Up and down arrows	Bring back earlier commands
`Ctrl` + `R`	Searches your command history
`Ctrl` + `C`	Stops the running command
`Ctrl` + `L`	Clears the screen

Type shortcuts for the full list inside the terminal.

Clone a public project

Cloning downloads a Git project into a folder on your PC.

Select Clone repo in the toolbar.
In GitHub repository URL, paste the address of a public project, copied from its page. For example https://github.com/git/git-scm.com.
Next to Clone into folder, select Browse… and choose where the project should go.
Select Clone & open terminal.

A terminal opens and runs the clone. When it finishes, the project is in a new folder inside the one you chose.

In Local terminal, cloning uses HTTPS and needs no account. It accepts GitHub addresses, or owner/repository on its own. If the destination already contains a folder with the project's name, the app says Destination already exists. Choose another folder.

Clone repo uses the identity selected in the sidebar. While the toolbar heading reads Local terminal, it clones as above. Private repositories need a Git identity with an SSH key. That is the next guide.

Copy and paste

Select text with the mouse, then press Ctrl + Shift + C to copy.
Press Ctrl + V or Ctrl + Shift + V to paste.

Pasting never presses Enter for you. Read a pasted command before you run it.

Open and close tabs

New terminal, or Ctrl + Shift + T, opens another tab.
The close button on a tab, or Ctrl + Shift + W, closes it.

You can have up to eight tabs open.

What you learned

Local terminal works without any setup.
Open folder starts a terminal in a folder you pick.
Clone repo downloads a public project without typing a path.
The terminal is Bash: ls, Tab completion and history search work as on Linux.

Next steps

Set up a Git identity for private repositories and separate accounts
Connect an SSH key
Commit identity and the Git guard
Tabs, split view, search and history

Beginner guide ​

What you need ​

Open your first terminal ​

The window ​

Open a terminal in a project folder ​

Run some commands ​

Clone a public project ​

Copy and paste ​

Open and close tabs ​

What you learned ​

Next steps ​