terminal/doc/wtcli-commands.md

wtcli Command Reference

wtcli is the CLI client for the Windows Terminal Protocol. It calls CoCreateInstance using the per-brand CLSID and exposes a tmux-style command surface over its IDL methods.

• Source: src/tools/wtcli/main.cpp
• IDL: src/host/proxy/ITerminalProtocol.idl

Global flags

Flag	Effect
--json	Emit machine-readable JSON. Required for any caller that parses output.

Commands

The "Used in repo" column reflects whether some other component in this repository actually shells out to that subcommand today (not whether the subcommand is reachable). External callers (third-party agents, ad-hoc scripts) are not counted.

Command	Alias	What it does	Example	Used in repo
list-windows	lsw	List all Terminal windows.	wtcli --json list-windows	—
list-tabs	lst	List tabs in a window. -w defaults to the first window.	wtcli --json list-tabs -w 1	—
list-panes	lsp	List panes in a tab. -t/-w default to the first tab of the first window.	wtcli --json list-panes -t 2	—
active-pane	—	Return metadata for the currently focused pane. Used by other subcommands as the default -t target.	wtcli --json active-pane	—
capture-pane	capturep	Read pane scrollback as text. -l caps line count. --last-prompt returns only the most recent completed shell prompt (requires OSC 133 shell integration).	wtcli --json capture-pane -t 3 --last-prompt	—
pane-status	—	Report pane process state: pid, state (running/exited), and exit_code when applicable.	wtcli --json pane-status -t 3	—
new-tab	neww	Create a new tab. -c command, -n title, -d cwd.	wtcli --json new-tab -c "pwsh" -n "build" -d C:\src	—
split-pane	splitw	Split a pane. -d right|left|up|down|auto (default automatic). -H/-v are legacy aliases for down/right. -s is size fraction; -c is the command to run.	wtcli --json split-pane -t 3 -d right -s 0.4 -c "tail -f log"	—
kill-pane	killp	Close a pane.	wtcli kill-pane -t 4	—
focus-pane	focusp	Move focus to the given pane.	wtcli focus-pane -t 3	—