The terminal desktop is built for durable work. A project keeps its place while you move between tools, layers and views. Put an editor beside the tests, give an agent a pane of its own, and switch projects when you need to. The terminals you leave behind keep running.
The test output is still on screen when you switch back to an API project. The shell is still in its folder. If an agent is working in another pane, you can see it beside the code it is working on. That is the kind of continuity the terminal desktop is built around. The arrangement is part of the work, even though it never appears in a Git diff.
Follow the Cherrytree
Start at the left edge of the recording. The Cherrytree shows where the current workspace sits and which layer or surface is in front. A layer holds a project’s working view. Its branch lists the panes that belong to it, so you can see where a terminal lives even when another layer is on screen.
Watch the tree as the view changes. Opening a branch shows what’s inside. Selecting a layer brings its work forward. When we return to the first layer, look for the same panes and their output.
Durability is part of the desk
Layer switching is the easiest place to see persistence. Leave the API layer, work on the website, then return to the same panes and their output. Terminal runs also live separately from the desktop client. Close the client and reconnect to a run when you reopen it. That persistence applies across client exits. Terminal recovery across a machine reboot is separate work.
Durable work also needs a record of what happened. Cherry Pi stores conversations and run records in SQLite. For changes it governs, it records intent before execution and the result afterward. If a write is interrupted and its outcome is uncertain, Recovery gives you a place to settle what happened before trying again.
In the VHS clips, watch for continuity you can see: the same output when a layer comes back into view, or a process that keeps running while its pane moves from a tile into a float. Those scenes show persistence at the desk. The records and Recovery address what happens when work itself is interrupted.
Make room for a tool
Keep your editor and shell in tiles. When you need a tool temporarily, lift its pane into a float, drag it by the title and resize it from an edge. Dock it again when you want it back in the layout. The useful detail to watch is what happens to the pane’s running program as its position changes.
A float makes sense for something you want to consult without dividing the editor again. Think of a test log you pull forward while investigating a failure. The clip should let you follow that log from its tile into the float and back. If the output continues while the pane moves, you can see what the move preserved.
Give the agent a seat
Picache has its own chat, and an installed agent harness can have its own pane. That lets you keep an agent’s work in sight while you read a diff or run a check yourself. When agents exchange a question or a handoff through the workspace, the handoff can point to a branch or path. You can inspect the thing they’re discussing in the same project.
For the browser desktop, see The Cherry Pi GUI. Cherrytop has tiled panes of its own, with a canvas underneath. It can open a terminal run from the workspace.
Continue with Cellar Door and Traverse the Network for the experiments in spatial navigation.