Run QH in your terminal

Requirements

Use macOS with Bun 1.3.5 or newer and Node.js 22.13 or newer. The project CI uses Node.js 24. Run bun --version and node --version to check them.

Install and launch

1git clone https://github.com/qentrah/qh.git
2cd qh
3bun install --frozen-lockfile
4./bin/qh --help
5./bin/qh

QH takes over the current terminal window. It starts a shell in the current directory using $SHELL, with /bin/zsh as the fallback. Press Ctrl+B, release it, then q to quit; confirm the live-session dialog. The host terminal should return.

To start in another folder, use the absolute path to the cloned launcher:

1cd ~/Documents
2/path/to/qh/bin/qh

Replace /path/to/qh with your actual clone path. The launcher needs Bun and Node.js on PATH. The desktop download does not install a global qh command. If you want a global command from the source checkout, run bun link in the repository, then qh --help.

Keyboard controls

All commands below follow Ctrl+B, then release the keys before the next key:

Key	Action
`c`	New tab
`n` / `p`	Next / previous tab
`%` / `"`	Side-by-side / stacked split
Arrow keys	Focus a pane
Shift+arrow	Resize a divider
`r`	Rename the current tab
`x` / `w`	Close a pane / tab
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll history
`?`	Show keyboard help
`q`	Quit
Ctrl+B again	Send a literal Ctrl+B to the shell

Ctrl+C and ordinary typing go to the focused shell. Do not type desktop commands such as /config at the shell prompt; those belong in the desktop Commands panel.

Keep your own zsh prompt

1QENTRAH_SHELL_STYLE=original ./bin/qh

This disables QH's prompt and command-highlighting customization. User startup files still load. See themes for CLI colors.

Install and update versions

1qh install latest
2qh install stable
3qh install v0.6.10
4qh install preview --check
5qh update stable
6qh update --check

qh install latest version is also accepted. Latest and stable select a complete stable release. Preview includes prereleases. --check reports the selected version without installing. qh update follows your configured update channel and does not downgrade a newer install. Explicit install VERSION can select an older version. Draft releases and builds missing a Mac ZIP or checksum are excluded.

The public install script comes from the latest GitHub Actions release; it accepts latest, stable, preview, or a version as its argument.