Browser Panel

Séance includes an in-app browser panel powered by WebKitGTK. Open documentation, dashboards, or any URL alongside your agent without leaving the terminal.

Opening a Browser Panel

Action	Shortcut
New browser panel	Ctrl+Alt+B
New browser tab	Ctrl+Alt+E
Command palette	New Browser Panel or New Browser Tab

A new browser panel opens in its own column to the right of the active pane. The URL bar displays the current page with a styled readout — domain in normal color, path and scheme dimmed.

URL Bar

Click the styled URL display to switch to edit mode. Type a URL and press Enter to navigate. Click elsewhere or press Escape to return to the styled display.

The URL bar accepts any scheme that WebKit supports. Séance allows http, https, and about URLs (including localhost and private network addresses for local development); file:, data:, javascript:, and blob: URLs are rejected.

Navigation

Action	Shortcut
Back	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Left
Forward	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Right
Reload	Ctrl+R
Focus URL bar	Ctrl+L

Browser Focus Mode

Press Ctrl+Alt+F to toggle browser focus mode. When active, all keystrokes pass through directly to the browser page — useful for interacting with web apps, filling forms, or using page-level shortcuts. Press Ctrl+Alt+F again to return to normal mode where Séance keybindings are active.

Zoom

Ctrl+= to zoom in, Ctrl+- to zoom out, Ctrl+0 to reset. Zoom works in both terminal panes and browser panels — the same keys control font size in terminals and page zoom in the browser.

Tabs

Browser panels support multiple tabs, like a tabbed browser within a single column. Use Ctrl+Alt+E to open a new tab in the current browser column, or Ctrl+Shift+L to switch between tabbed and stacked layout modes.

TLS Certificates

When a page fails TLS verification (self-signed certificates, local CAs), Séance shows a dialog with the hostname and error details. Click Proceed Anyway to temporarily bypass the certificate check for that session. The override resets when you navigate away.

Developer Tools

Press Ctrl+Shift+I or use the Developer Tools command palette entry to open the WebKit inspector. This provides a full DOM inspector, JavaScript console, network monitor, and rendering debug tools — identical to browser dev tools.

Dim Unfocused Panes

When dim-unfocused-panes is enabled (default), unfocused browser panels are dimmed to 80% opacity, making it easy to see which panel is active. See Configuration for the setting.

Configuration

Two settings in ~/.config/seance/config.toml affect browser behavior:

[behavior]
open-url-in-browser = false    # open URLs in-app instead of system browser
dim-unfocused-panes = true     # dim unfocused terminal and browser panes

When open-url-in-browser is enabled and an agent opens a URL, Séance looks for an existing browser panel to the right of the source terminal. If one exists, the URL loads there. If not, a new browser column is created next to the source terminal.

Command Palette

The command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) includes these browser commands:

Command	Description
New Browser Panel	Open a new browser column
New Browser Tab	Open a tab in the current browser column
Developer Tools	Open the WebKit inspector

Layout

Browser panels participate in the same column layout as terminal panes. You can:

• Move columns with Ctrl+Shift+A / Ctrl+Shift+D
• Resize columns with Ctrl+Shift+= / Ctrl+Shift+-
• Expel a browser panel to an adjacent column
• Stack multiple browser panels in a single column with Ctrl+Shift+L

Browser panels appear in the same scrolling strip as terminal panes — scroll to find them alongside your agent sessions.

Limitations

• Browser panels are not listed by seance ctl list-surfaces (use seance ctl browser-list instead)
• Session restore recreates browser panels with their last URL, but page state (form inputs, scroll position) is not preserved
• WebGL and hardware-accelerated rendering are available but depend on your GPU and driver