Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do Panels Become Narrower than Their Settings?

Aster preserves usable central space, temporarily shrinking the right panel and then the left when a window is too narrow. Saved widths stay intact and return on widening. Hide panels with tab-bar collapse or the details toggle, not divider dragging.

Why Does vim or top Look Wrong?

Check Settings → Shell → Terminal Identity → TERM is auto (bundled xterm-ghostty, or an installed terminfo name), and allow mouse reporting under Control. Invalid custom names show a Pane startup warning and fall back to xterm-256color. For SSH hosts without xterm-ghostty, install that terminfo remotely or use TERM=xterm-256color ssh … temporarily.

What Happens after exit?

The Pane closes like ⌘W; Ctrl+D ending the Shell does too. A last Pane closes its tab, while the window retains at least one tab. ⇧⌘T recovers an accidentally closed layout with a new Shell.

exit without arguments preserves the last command's status, so a nonzero status still closes. These abnormal cases instead keep the last view and show an end card:

• Nonzero Shell exit within 3 seconds of startup, often from broken Shell configuration.
• A signal-terminated Shell or abnormal PTY disconnection.
• Remote managed process exit: the end card offers restart Shell or close tab.
• With local background keep-alive, exit still closes normally; a card remains only if the service already reclaimed the terminal or is temporarily unavailable.

History outside the card remains selectable/copyable. Restart Shell creates a fresh PTY in the same Pane, not reuse of the dead channel. Help → Report an Issue… opens local logs for diagnosis.

Do Recipes Execute Commands Automatically?

The Recipes replay policy decides. Default is command preview/confirmation; Never restores layout only. Trust applies to current SHA-256 contents and asks again after changes. Replay is sequential at idle prompts, not through an independent /bin/sh.

Why Is AI Usage Missing a Percentage, or Sessions Empty?

Percentages are quota-based. Claude needs subscription login and Keychain permission (Aster uses Claude Code's stored login credentials for the official interface). Codex needs at least one local run. API-key users have no 5-hour/weekly quota and show only the icon. Sessions needs Aster's control channel: if two Aster instances run, the later one may fail to acquire it and show empty Sessions; Quota/Token are unaffected.

Can Closing an Editor Lose Unsaved Content?

Closing a Pane/tab or quitting asks Save / Don't Save / Cancel for unsaved content. A failed save prevents closing.