Terminal & Shell
KuaDashboard includes a powerful integrated terminal panel that gives you full interactive access to pod shells, log streams, EC2 SSH/RDP/SSM sessions, GCP Cloud Run and Vercel deployment logs, and a local system shell — all from within the same window.
Overview
Every session opened anywhere in the app — from a resource table, from Architecture/Observability, or from the dedicated Console workspace — shares the same underlying session list. The quick panel at the bottom of the main view and the dedicated Console workspace (header console icon, any module) always show the same tabs; opening or closing one in either place is reflected in the other immediately.
The terminal panel supports multiple simultaneous tabs, each colour-coded by context:
| Context | Colour | Description |
|---|---|---|
pod | Blue | Live log stream from a Kubernetes pod |
workload | Blue | Live log stream resolved from a Deployment, StatefulSet or DaemonSet selector |
exec | Purple | Interactive shell session inside a pod |
local | Green | Local system shell (bash / zsh / PowerShell) |
ec2 | Teal | Browser-based SSH/RDP session to an EC2 instance |
ssm | Amber | AWS Systems Manager Session Manager shell to an EC2 instance (no SSH key needed) |
gcp-logs | Sky blue | Live-tailed logs from a GCP Cloud Run service |
vercel | Slate | Live-tailed logs from a Vercel deployment |
Opening a Terminal Tab
Pod and Workload Logs
Stream real-time logs from any running pod or supported workload:
- Select a pod, deployment, statefulset or daemonset in the Kubernetes resource table
- Click the Logs action
- A new tab opens with live-streaming output via WebSocket
For multi-container pods, select the container from the dropdown in the terminal header.
For workloads, KuaDashboard resolves the current pods using the resource selector and prefixes each line with the source pod name when multiple pods are streaming.
Toggle Prev in the toolbar to also include log output from the previous container instance (useful after a crash restart).
Use the search button in the toolbar to filter log output by text, date/time range or both. Filtered logs can be downloaded as a .log file.
Pod Exec (Shell)
Open an interactive shell session directly inside a pod:
- Select a pod in the Kubernetes resource table
- Click the Shell action
- A terminal tab opens with a live PTY shell
The exec session supports:
- Full PTY mode (colours, cursor movement, terminal resize)
- Container selection for multi-container pods
- Standard keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+D, Tab completion)
Local Shell
Access a local system shell without leaving the dashboard:
- Click Local Shell in the Tools section of the sidebar
- A terminal tab opens with your system shell (bash / zsh / PowerShell)
Use the local shell for running kubectl, aws, gcloud, helm, or any CLI tools without switching windows.
EC2 SSH/RDP
Open a browser-based SSH or RDP session to any running EC2 instance:
- Go to Cloud > AWS > EC2 tab
- Click SSH for Linux instances or RDP for Windows instances
- A remote session opens with the proper connection form
Remote sessions are persistent. Closing the session window only hides it; the WebSocket remains alive and the session can be restored from the floating remote-session dock. Use Disconnect inside the session, or close the dock tab, when you want to end it.
AWS Systems Manager (SSM)
Open a shell to an EC2 instance without an SSH key, security group rule or public IP — Session Manager only needs the SSM Agent and an instance profile:
- Go to Cloud > AWS > EC2 tab
- Click ⚡ SSM on any running instance (works for both Linux and Windows instances)
- A Console tab opens and connects using the credential profile currently selected for AWS
SSM requires the session-manager-plugin binary installed locally — connecting from the dedicated Console workspace's SSM launcher shows an install hint automatically if it's missing. There is no charge from AWS for using Session Manager itself.
GCP Cloud Run Logs
Tail a Cloud Run service's logs live, in a reconnectable Console tab, instead of the inline snapshot view:
- Go to Cloud > GCP > Cloud Run, select a service, open its Logs tab
- Click Open in Console next to Refresh
- A Console tab opens and starts tailing new log entries — no GCP project id needs to be entered, it's resolved from the selected credential profile
Vercel Deployment Logs
Tail a deployment's build/runtime logs in a reconnectable Console tab, alongside the existing inline log viewer:
- Go to Cloud > Vercel > Projects, find a deployment
- Click Open in Console next to Logs
- A Console tab opens and starts streaming new log lines
Terminal Toolbar
The header toolbar provides quick controls for the active tab:
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Container selector | Switch container in multi-container pod sessions |
| Prev toggle | Include logs from the previous container instance (log tabs only) |
| Search / filters | Filter logs by text and serialized date range |
| Download | Export the current filtered log view to a .log file |
| ✦ Clear | Erase all current output in the active tab |
| ⏎ Wrap text | Toggle line wrapping for long log lines |
| ↓ Scroll to end | Jump to the bottom of the output buffer |
| 📁 File browser | Toggle the side file browser (local shell tabs only) |
| ? Keyboard shortcuts | Toggle the keyboard shortcut help overlay |
| ■ Stop | Send SIGINT / terminate the active stream or session |
| ⬡ Pop out | Detach the terminal into a floating browser window |
| — Minimise | Collapse the panel to just the tab bar |
| × Close all | Close all open terminal tabs |
Input Bar
Shell tabs (exec, local, EC2, SSM) display an input bar at the bottom with:
- Command prompt (❯) — green when connected, grey when disconnected
- Command input field — type your command and press Enter to send
- Suggestion chip — shown when an autocomplete suggestion is available; click to apply
- ✕ Interrupt — send Ctrl+C to terminate the running command
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
↑ / ↓ | Navigate command history |
Tab | Path autocomplete |
Enter | Send command |
Ctrl+C | Interrupt (SIGINT) |
Ctrl+D | EOF / close session |
Ctrl+L | Clear output |
File Browser (Local Shell)
When a local shell tab is active, click the 📁 button to open the inline file browser panel on the left side of the terminal.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Click a 📁 folder | Navigate into the directory (also runs cd in the shell) |
| Click a 📄 file | Preview the file contents in the terminal output |
| Double-click a file | Insert the full file path into the command input |
Click ↑ (top entry) | Navigate to the parent directory |
| Click ↻ (breadcrumb) | Refresh the current directory listing |
A breadcrumb trail shows your current location. The active working directory is also shown in the terminal footer.
Output Highlighting
Log lines are colour-coded automatically to help you spot issues at a glance:
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🔴 Red | Error / exception / stderr |
| 🟡 Yellow | Warning |
| 🟢 Green | Success / OK |
| ⚫ Dim | System / meta messages |
Footer
The footer bar at the bottom of the panel shows:
- Status text — connection state (Connected, Reconnecting, Stopped, etc.)
- Working directory — current
cwdfor local shell tabs - Line count — total number of output lines in the current tab
Panel Resize
Drag the resize handle at the top edge of the terminal panel to adjust its height. The height is preserved while the panel is open. Click — to collapse it to just the tab bar, and click — again to restore it.
Multiple Tabs
You can have as many terminal tabs open as needed:
- Log multiple pods simultaneously
- Keep a local shell open alongside an exec session
- Switch between tabs instantly with a single click
- Close individual tabs with the ✕ button on each tab
- Tab content is preserved in memory while the tab is not active
Saved Connections
The Console workspace (header button) keeps a list of Saved connections so you can reopen a session without typing its details again:
- Save — use the bookmark button on any active session. The session's name becomes the connection name; you can change it right away. Saving the same target again only renames it.
- Open — the play button reopens the session (Kubernetes logs or exec, local shell, EC2 SSH, AWS SSM, GCP logs or SSH, Vercel logs) and names the new tab after the connection. AWS SSM still asks for confirmation first.
- Rename / Delete — the pencil button (or a double-click on the name) renames it; the trash button deletes it after confirming.
Saved connections only store what is needed to reopen a session (provider, context, namespace, resource, host, instance or deployment, and the credential profile id) — never credentials, tokens or output. They live in this device's local storage and survive reloads.
Renaming sessions — rename an active session with the pencil button in the workspace, or double-click a tab name in the terminal panel. Names are kept across reloads.
Sessions and tabs show a colored icon per provider (Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Vercel, local), and long names are shortened in the middle so both the start and the end stay visible; hover to see the full name.
Reconnecting & Session Persistence
Reloading the window restores your open tabs and their order, but never silently resumes a live remote session — a restored tab always comes back disconnected, showing its prior output. Click Reconnect (available in both the quick panel and the Console workspace's row actions) to re-establish it.
Command history is remembered per exact target (per pod/container, per EC2 host, per local shell) so switching between resources never mixes up history. Use the Clear history action (per-tab in the quick panel, or "Clear all history" in the Console workspace header) to reset it.
Common CLI Commands (Quick Reference)
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
ls -la | List files with details |
pwd | Show current directory |
env | Print environment variables |
ps aux | Show running processes |
cat /etc/os-release | OS / distro information |
df -h | Disk usage by mount point |
top / htop | CPU and memory usage |
curl -I <url> | HTTP response headers check |