fork-terminal-skill

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Fork a terminal session to a new terminal window. Use this when the user requests 'fork terminal' or 'create a new terminal' or 'new terminal: <command>' or 'fork session: <command>'.

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[Developer Tools]

When & Why to Use This Skill

The Fork Terminal Skill is a powerful productivity tool designed to enhance developer workflows by enabling the dynamic creation of new terminal sessions. It allows users to offload tasks to background windows or delegate complex coding operations to agentic AI tools like Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Codex CLI. By supporting context-aware forking, it ensures that sub-agents have the necessary conversation history to perform tasks accurately without interrupting the main workspace.

Use Cases

  • Parallel Task Execution: Spawn a new terminal window to run long-running processes, such as build scripts, test suites, or local servers, while continuing to interact with the primary agent.
  • Agentic Delegation: Use 'Claude Code' or other AI agents in a separate terminal to handle specific refactoring or debugging tasks based on the current session's context.
  • CLI Command Isolation: Execute standalone CLI commands (e.g., ffmpeg processing, curl requests, or python scripts) in a dedicated window to keep the main terminal clean and organized.
  • Contextual Summarization: Fork a session that automatically carries over the history of the current conversation, providing a sub-agent with the full background needed to complete a specific request.
nameFork Terminal Skill
descriptionFork a terminal session to a new terminal window. Use this when the user requests 'fork terminal' or 'create a new terminal' or 'new terminal: <command>' or 'fork session: <command>'.

Purpose

Fork a terminal session to a new terminal window. Using one agentic coding tools or raw cli commands. Follow the Instructions, execute the Workflow, based on the Cookbook.

Variables

ENABLE_RAW_CLI_COMMANDS: true ENABLE_GEMINI_CLI: true ENABLE_CODEX_CLI: true ENABLE_CLAUDE_CODE: true AGENTIC_CODING_TOOLS: claude-code, codex-cli, gemini-cli

Instructions

  • Based on the user's request, follow the Cookbook to determine which tool to use.

Fork Summary User Prompts

  • IF: The user requests a fork terminal with a summary. This ONLY works for our agentic coding tools AGENTIC_CODING_TOOLS. The tool MUST BE enabled as well.
  • THEN:
    • Read, and REPLACE the .claude/skills/fork-terminal/prompts/fork_summary_user_prompt.md with the history of the conversation between you and the user so far.
    • Include the next users request in the Next User Request section.
    • This will be what you pass into the PROMPT parameter of the agentic coding tool.
    • IMPORTANT: To be clear, don't update the file directly, just read it, fill it out IN YOUR MEMORY and use it to craft a new prompt in the structure provided for the new fork agent.
    • Let's be super clear here, the fork_summary_user_prompt.md is a template for you to fill out IN YOUR MEMORY. Once you've filled it out, pass that prompt to the agentic coding tool.
    • XML Tags have been added to let you know exactly what you need to replace. You'll be replacing the and sections.
  • EXAMPLES:
    • "fork terminal use claude code to summarize work so far"
    • "spin up a new terminal request using claude code include summary"
    • "create a new terminal to with claude code with summary"

Workflow

  1. Understand the user's request.
  2. READ: .claude/skills/fork-terminal/tools/fork_terminal.py to understand our tooling.
  3. Follow the Cookbook to determine which tool to use.
  4. Execute the .claude/skills/fork-terminal/tools/fork_terminal.py: fork_terminal(command: str) tool.

Cookbook

Raw CLI Commands

  • IF: The user requests a non-agentic coding tool AND ENABLE_RAW_CLI_COMMANDS is true.
  • THEN: Read and execute: .claude/skills/fork-terminal/cookbook/cli-command.md
  • EXAMPLES:
    • "Create a new terminal to with ffmpeg"
    • "Create a new terminal to with curl"
    • "Create a new terminal to with python"

Claude Code

  • IF: The user requests a claude code agent to execute the command AND ENABLE_CLAUDE_CODE is true.
  • THEN: Read and execute: .claude/skills/fork-terminal/cookbook/claude-code.md
  • EXAMPLES:
    • "fork terminal use claude code to "
    • "spin up a new terminal request using claude code"
    • "create a new terminal to with claude code"

Codex CLI

  • IF: The user requests a codex CLI agent to execute the command AND ENABLE_CODEX_CLI is true.
  • THEN: Read and execute: .claude/skills/fork-terminal/cookbook/codex-cli.md
  • EXAMPLES:
    • "fork terminal use codex to "
    • "spin up a new terminal request using codex"
    • "create a new terminal to with codex"

Gemini CLI

  • IF: The user requests a gemini CLI agent to execute the command AND ENABLE_GEMINI_CLI is true.
  • THEN: Read and execute: .claude/skills/fork-terminal/cookbook/gemini-cli.md
  • EXAMPLES:
    • "fork terminal use gemini to "
    • "spin up a new terminal request with gemini"
    • "create a new terminal to using gemini"