Workspaces

Web terminal

Every Layerbase Workspace has a Terminal tab: a real login shell on the workspace, as the ubuntu user, right in the dashboard. There is no SSH key to create, no local terminal to configure and no host key to trust. It is the quickest way to run a command, finish an agent's sign-in that asks you to paste a code back, or hand an agent a screenshot.

The web terminal is rolling out. If your workspace page has no Terminal tab yet, it has not reached your account; SSH and your editor's remote connection keep working as before.

Opening a terminal

1. Open the workspace in the dashboard.
2. Choose the Terminal tab. It connects in a second or two and shows Connected.
3. Type as you would in any terminal.

If the tab asks you to update workspace tools, open the workspace's Settings tab and run Update workspace tools once. Workspaces created before the terminal existed need it to get the terminal service; it takes about a minute and does not restart anything you are running.

Sessions that survive a closed tab

The shell runs inside tmux on the workspace, so it keeps running when the browser goes away. Close the tab, put the laptop to sleep or lose the network, and the next time you open the Terminal tab you are back in the same shell, with long-running jobs (an agent run, a build, a migration) still going. Two browser tabs on the same workspace share that one shell.

A dropped connection reconnects on its own. The status line shows Reconnecting while it tries, and a Reconnect button if it gives up.

Images and files from your computer

A coding agent running on the workspace cannot read your laptop's clipboard, so pasting a screenshot into an agent over SSH never works. The web terminal closes that gap: drag a file onto the terminal, paste an image into it, or use the Upload button. The file is saved on the workspace in ~/uploads and its full path is typed at the cursor, without pressing Enter, so the agent's prompt receives it directly.

• Allowed: images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP), PDFs, and text files (plain text and logs, Markdown, CSV, YAML, JSON). Other types are refused before anything is sent.
• Size: up to 20 MB per file and 5 files at a time. The workspace checks every file again, including that an image really is the image type it claims to be.
• Names: files are saved as YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-name.ext, with spaces and unusual characters replaced. An upload never overwrites an existing file.
• Cleanup: uploads older than 7 days are removed automatically. Files you put in the folder yourself are left alone. If the folder holds more than 200 MB, new uploads are refused until you delete some.

The Upload button appears once the workspace runs the current tools. If you do not see it, run Update workspace tools from the Settings tab.

Copy, paste and keys

Links in the output open in a new tab only when you click them. Programs on the workspace cannot write to your clipboard. On a phone or tablet, a row of extra keys (Esc, Tab, arrows, Ctrl and Paste) sits under the terminal; mobile use is best effort.

Limits

• Up to 3 open terminal tabs per workspace and 10 across all your workspaces.
• A tab disconnects after 30 minutes without typing, and any connection ends after 12 hours. Either way the shell keeps running in tmux; reconnect to pick it up.
• Very fast output (a large cat) is paced so one tab cannot flood the connection. Nothing is dropped; it just arrives at a steady rate.

Security and privacy

• The workspace opens an outbound connection to the Layerbase terminal service. No inbound port is opened on your workspace and no SSH key is created for the terminal.
• Each connection uses a single-use pass that is valid for one minute and only for your workspace. The workspace checks that pass itself before it starts a shell, so the terminal service alone cannot open one.
• Only the workspace owner can open its terminal. When access to Workspaces is removed or the workspace is deleted, new sessions are refused at once and open ones close within a few minutes.
• What you type and what the terminal shows is never logged or recorded, and neither are uploaded files or their names. We keep only connection metadata (when a session started and ended, byte counts, why it closed) to run the service.

Troubleshooting

• "The workspace is connecting to the terminal service": the terminal service starts about a minute after setup or a tools update. The tab picks it up on its own.
• "Too many terminal sessions are open": close a Terminal tab in another browser window and reconnect.
• An upload is refused: check the type and size above. "The uploads folder is full" means ~/uploads holds more than 200 MB; list it (ls -la ~/uploads), delete the files you no longer need, and try again.