Find your way around
The Neova window has three parts: the sidebar on the left, the tabs with the page you’re working on in the middle, and the status bar at the bottom.
Sidebar
Section titled “Sidebar”At the top of the sidebar:
- The search button opens Search (⌘K).
- The collapse button shrinks the sidebar to a rail of icons. Click the logo to expand it again. ⌘\ toggles it.
- The project name opens the project menu. See Switch projects.
Below that are the sections and their pages:
| Section | Pages |
|---|---|
| Project | Overview, Timeline, Goals, Wiki, Files, Images |
| Agents | Assistant, Team, Sessions, Chat, Activity, Schedules, Agent Insights |
| Tasks | Boards, Tasks, Archive |
| Tools | Snippets, Whiteboard, Terminal, Browser, MCP Servers, Git, API Tester |
| Settings | Pinned at the bottom of the sidebar |
Click a section header to open or close it. Click a page to show it.
Pages show badges when something is waiting:
- Chat: the number of unread messages.
- Activity: the number of open questions and unread notifications.
- Sessions: an amber dot when an agent needs your attention.
When the sidebar is collapsed, a section icon shows a dot if one of its pages has a badge.
Keyboard
Section titled “Keyboard”| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘1 to ⌘5 | Go to Project, Agents, Tasks, Tools or Settings |
| ⌘⌥← / ⌘⌥→ | Go to the previous or next page in the sidebar |
| ⌘\ | Collapse or expand the sidebar |
Every page opens in a tab, at the top of the content area.
- Click a page in the sidebar to show it in the current tab.
- ⌘-click a page to open it in a new tab. This also works on search results, task links, and tasks on the Tasks page.
- If a page is already open in a tab, Neova switches to that tab.
- Each task opens in its own tab, so you can have several tasks open at once. Settings and the Agent Editor each use one tab.
Drag a tab to move it along the tab bar. Click the × on a tab to close it. A tab with unsaved changes shows a dot. If you close it, Neova asks whether to save or discard the changes.
Neova keeps up to 12 tabs open. When you open a 13th, it closes the tab you haven’t used for the longest time. It never closes a tab with unsaved changes or a tab that is on screen.
When you open a project again, Neova restores its tabs and split view. Turn this off in Settings › General with Reopen my tabs when I open a project.
Split view
Section titled “Split view”Click the Split the view button at the right end of the tab bar. A second pane opens on the right and becomes the active pane: the next page you open shows there. The active pane has a tinted tab bar.
- To move a tab to the other pane, click the arrow on the active tab (Move this tab to the right pane or Move this tab to the left pane).
- To go back to one pane, click Close the split. The tabs from the right pane move to the left pane.
Search
Section titled “Search”Press ⌘K or click the search button. Search finds tasks, goals, wiki pages, agents, agent templates, snippets and links.
- ↑ ↓ moves through the results. A preview of the selected result shows next to the list.
- ↵ opens the result. ⌘↵ opens it in a new tab.
- Esc closes search.
Opening a result goes to the matching page: a task opens in the task editor, a wiki page in the Wiki, a link in your browser. An agent opens its terminal. If the agent isn’t running, the result says Start and starts it.
With an empty search box, search shows your Quick Actions. Choosing one copies its prompt for the task you’re looking at.
Insert Reference
Section titled “Insert Reference”Press ⌘⇧K to insert a reference to a task, wiki page, goal, snippet, agent, skill or image. Agents can look up anything you reference this way.
- Click where the reference should go: an editor, a text field or an agent’s terminal.
- Press ⌘⇧K and search for the item.
- Press ↵.
The line above the results shows where the reference goes, for example Editor or Terminal — Software Engineer. If nothing has focus, Neova copies the reference to the clipboard.
A reference looks like [task:1791809147323-jc, title:"Write the docs"].
Assistant
Section titled “Assistant”The Assistant answers questions about your project and about where things are in Neova. It knows which page you’re on.
- Click Assistant in the status bar to open it in a small window.
- Press ⌘J to open it in a large window, from any page.
- Open Agents › Assistant to have it in a tab.
If the Assistant isn’t running, click Start assistant. See Quick start for setting it up.
Status bar
Section titled “Status bar”The status bar shows the state of Neova and your agents. Hover over an item for details, and click it to go to the page that belongs to it.
| Item | Shows | Click goes to |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant | The Assistant’s status | Opens the Assistant |
| Activity | Open questions and notifications | Agents › Activity |
| Agents | Which agents are running | Agents › Team |
| Terminals | Running tool terminals | Tools › Terminal |
| Email, Telegram, GitHub | Connected apps | Settings › Connectors |
| Web | The web server and its port | Settings › Server |
| Neova Git | Backups of the .neova/ folder |
Tools › Git |
| MCP | The MCP server, its port and the connected agents | Settings › Server |
The dot next to Activity is amber when a question is waiting for you. The dot next to Agents is green when an agent is running, amber when one needs your attention, and red when one has an error.
Keyboard shortcuts
Section titled “Keyboard shortcuts”Press ⌘/ for the list of keyboard shortcuts. The most used ones:
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘K | Search |
| ⌘⇧K | Insert Reference |
| ⌘J | Assistant |
| ⌘T | New task |
| ⌘N | New window |
| ⌘O | Open project |
| ⌘S | Save |
| ⌘, | Settings |
| ⌘/ | Keyboard shortcuts |