Selecting a section header in the sidebar opens a section overview pane in the main area, giving you a quick summary of everything in that section. Solo also shows dedicated panes when nothing is selected at all.
Opening a section overview
- Click a section header's label area in the sidebar, not the chevron.
- Or navigate to a section header with the sidebar keyboard controls.
The chevron only toggles collapse. The label area selects the section header and opens its overview pane. This applies to the Agents, Terminals, and Commands sections — selecting the Todos or Scratchpads header opens that project's todo list or scratchpad view instead.
What the overview pane shows
- The section's name, icon, and a short description, which may wrap with the available width.
- An item count, plus a running count when any items are running.
- A clickable list of the section's items with their current status — click a row to jump straight to that item.
- Enabled palette shortcuts appear beneath the list for quickly creating or jumping to things. If none of those shortcuts has an active binding, the hint block is absent.
If the section is empty, the pane shows an empty state (for example, "No agents yet") with a hint to add one from the sidebar or a palette.
What selection affects
While a section header is selected, sidebar keyboard actions target it:
Left arrowcollapses the selected section when it is expanded, then moves toward the parent project by default. The command can be changed or disabled.Right arrowexpands a collapsed section or moves into the next visible row by default. The command can be changed or disabled.Enterinvokes the selected row's primary click action by default. The command can be changed or disabled.- Previous/next section navigation defaults to
Option+UpandOption+Downon macOS, andAlt+UpandAlt+Downon Windows and Linux. Both commands can be changed or disabled. - Jump to Agents, Jump to Commands, and Jump to Terminals select the active project's corresponding header only when that header is currently visible. Their macOS defaults are
Option+A,Option+C, andOption+T; their Windows and Linux defaults areAlt+A,Alt+C, andAlt+T. Each command can be changed or disabled.
Add rows inside empty sections are separate sidebar rows. Selecting an add row can open the relevant creation flow.
Panes when nothing is selected
When the overall selection is none, the main area shows one of two panes:
- Welcome pane — shown on first run, or when there are no projects anywhere. It displays the Solo logo and an Add project button.
- Projects pane — shown when projects exist but nothing is selected. It lists the projects in the current workspace (or all loaded projects when workspaces are off) with a count, a clickable row per project, and an Add project row at the bottom.
Selecting a project header opens that project's per-project Project pane. The Projects overview appears only when the overall selection is none.
Leaving section selection
Select a project, another section, or a specific item in the sidebar. Clicking the same section label again keeps that section selected.
See Understanding sections for what each section contains and Collapsing and expanding sections for collapse behavior.