Eon

Build for Eons.

Website: eonterm.com

Eon is an agentic development environment (ADE): the terminal for humans and agents to work together. It is a native Wayland workspace for long-running work such as coding agents, builds, servers and editors. Its terminals keep running after you detach the window with Alt+Shift+D. Run eon window attach and every tab, pane and terminal is where you left it.

Demo

Why Eon

• Detach the window, keep the work. Orbit runs each terminal's process and state apart from the window. Alt+Shift+D detaches; eon window attach returns to the same terminals. Closing the window quits it, and eon window stop ends a detached window's terminals when you choose.
• Made for coding agents. Each tab has an Agent popup (Alt+Shift+L) that starts the first installed of Codex, Grok, OpenCode, Pi or Claude and keeps its session while hidden. When you're signed in, Codex and Claude quota appear in the top bar.
• A tab per project. Each tab starts in a directory you pick with Zoxide quick search or in Yazi, and that Yazi stays as the tab's Files popup. New panes open there, and the tab's Git popup runs LazyGit in it.
• One pinned tool set. Nushell, Helix, Yazi, LazyGit and Anima are pinned together, so every install gets the same tools.
• One terminal emulator, natively drawn. Unlike tmux inside another terminal, one emulator owns each terminal's state, and Venus draws it with wgpu on Vulkan.

Get started

You need x86_64 Linux on native Wayland. From v0.2.0, an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later also works, through Nix, as a preview.

Linux, without Nix

Every release publishes a Linux archive and a small static installer as GitHub release assets, with SHA-256 checksums signed by the Eon release key and GitHub build attestations for the archive, the installer and the checksum file. Your system needs glibc 2.39 or newer, a Vulkan driver, curl, and ssh-keygen from OpenSSH 8.9 or newer (all prerequisites). Install 0.2.0:

v=0.2.0
base=https://github.com/Yazelix/eon/releases/download/v$v
mkdir -p ~/.config/eon && cd "$(mktemp -d)"
echo 'eon-release namespaces="eon-bundle" ssh-ed25519 RELEASE_PUBLIC_KEY' > ~/.config/eon/allowed_signers
curl -fL --remote-name-all "$base/eon-install-x86_64-linux" "$base/SHA256SUMS" "$base/SHA256SUMS.sig"
ssh-keygen -Y verify -f ~/.config/eon/allowed_signers -I eon-release -n eon-bundle -s SHA256SUMS.sig < SHA256SUMS &&
  sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS &&
  chmod +x eon-install-x86_64-linux &&
  ./eon-install-x86_64-linux install "$base/eon-$v-x86_64-linux.tar.zst" --signers ~/.config/eon/allowed_signers

The echo line saves the Eon release public key. The next lines check that the installer you downloaded matches the checksums that key signed, and the installer then checks the archive the same way before it installs anything. With the GitHub CLI, gh attestation verify eon-install-x86_64-linux -R Yazelix/eon also confirms that this repository's release workflow built the file.

The installer ends by printing Run PREFIX/bin/eon. Start Eon with that path, or add that bin directory to your PATH; the installer changes no shell startup file. The prefix is $XDG_DATA_HOME/eon/install when XDG_DATA_HOME holds an absolute path, and ~/.local/share/eon/install when it is unset, empty or relative. To update later, set the two [updates] keys shown in Update, then run eon update --install. The installer guide covers a dry run, another prefix, rollback and removal; the manual bundle guide covers checking and extracting the archive by hand.

With Nix

With Git and Nix with flakes enabled, on Linux or an Apple Silicon Mac, install the latest release, 0.1.16:

nix profile add --refresh github:Yazelix/eon/main

main always holds the latest release. For fixes before they are released, install github:Yazelix/eon/edge instead; it gets every change as it lands.

From v0.2.0, Nix also offers Eon without Helix:

nix profile add --refresh github:Yazelix/eon/main#no-helix

Set [editor] command in config.toml to use your terminal editor. See the Nix variant for environment fallback and update support.

To update from a terminal outside Eon, run eon update --install, then use the reported launcher for fresh windows. This command currently supports the default Nix package. For an older build without source provenance, run nix profile upgrade --refresh eon once. Windows already running keep their version until you close them. Tags such as v0.1.12 name one exact release and never update; if you installed from one, run nix profile remove eon once, then the install line above.

First run

Run eon. After a short animation (most keys skip it), pick a directory: press Enter for a Zoxide match, or Tab to browse with Yazi and Alt+Enter to use a folder. A terminal opens there.

On macOS, the Nix package also includes Eon.app. In Finder, use Go > Go to Folder and enter ~/.nix-profile/Applications, then open Eon.app. Drag that app to the Dock to keep it there. A plain nix profile install exposes the bundle in the profile; it does not copy it into /Applications. Home Manager and nix-darwin users can use their existing application integration; see distribution. Opening Eon from Finder or the Dock with no terminal, and clicking its Dock icon while it runs, are not yet tested; the macOS proof describes the work that remains.

Shortcut	Action
Alt+/	Show every shortcut
Alt+Shift+T	New tab
Alt+M	New pane in this column
Ctrl+Alt+M	New column side by side
Alt+H / Alt+L	Column or tab to the left or right
Alt+K / Alt+J	Previous or next pane
Alt+Shift+L	Agent popup
Alt+Shift+J	Git popup
Alt+Shift+O	Editor popup
Alt+Shift+Y	Files popup (Yazi)
Alt+Shift+M	Commands popup: search and run Eon commands
Alt+Shift+S	Sessions: switch, create or close a session in this window
Alt+Shift+D	Detach: hide the window, keep terminals running
Alt+Shift+Q	Quit this window; closing the window, or Command+Q on macOS, does the same

Detach whenever you like. To come back or end work:

eon window attach        # return to your terminals
eon window ls            # list running windows
eon window stop ID       # end one window's terminals

eon --help lists every command. eon versions reports the pinned component graph.

An optional, third-party binary cache can avoid local builds for the edge builds it holds; tags have no guaranteed coverage.

Status and limits

Eon is in alpha: commands, configuration and behavior may still change between releases. v0.2.0 enters beta. On Linux it installs without Nix or through Nix; the Mac preview installs through Nix. It was proved on COSMIC and private Sway before the move to one repository. Here, installed checks so far run on a private headless Sway, plus a brief COSMIC launch check; the full desktop proofs and the bounded Orca reader qualification await re-proof. Other compositors, non-systemd hosts and proprietary NVIDIA drivers are unproved. Restarting the machine ends live terminals.

Linux without Nix: this release was checked from its GitHub release on Fedora 44, and an earlier build on Ubuntu 26.04, both in virtual machines with software rendering under Sway. GNOME, KDE and COSMIC sessions, physical GPUs and other distributions with glibc 2.39 or newer are expected to work but are not yet tested from the archive; reports welcome. The archive leaves out eonbase, which stays Nix-only. The installer guide lists every limit.

Mac (preview): From v0.2.0, Eon runs on Apple Silicon Macs as a preview, installed with the same Nix command; until v0.2.0 is out, install github:Yazelix/eon/edge. It needs macOS 14 or later and was checked on macOS 15, 26 and 27. The preview makes no stability promise and is not full support. Full Eon runs natively on Apple Silicon Mac minis, including at Retina scale 2. Known issues:

• No notice appears when a detached window keeps running; eon window ls lists it.
• CJK text may look uneven on a non-Retina display.
• With stock macOS fonts, stacked accent marks may not show, and a long notice may be cut off at the window edge.
• Not yet tested: a physical Retina panel, a second display, screen readers such as VoiceOver, how the Dock and app switcher show Eon, Claude Code in the agent popup, and window translucency beyond one rented Mac.

Agent-finish sounds and desktop notifications are planned, Linux first. EON-C7 has the full list of Mac gaps. Intel Macs are out of scope. Mac reports are welcome: open an issue.

Report a problem.

Guides

• Using Eon: session controls, commands, Anima, eonbase and troubleshooting.
• Configuration: terminal, shell, popups, agent quota and managed tools.
• Distribution: Nix composition, the binary cache and release policy.
• Linux installer and manual Linux bundle: the Nix-free install, its trust checks, rollback and removal.
• Changelog: accepted user-visible changes.

Contributing

Contributors and coding agents start with AGENTS.md and Development. Architecture and contracts record component ownership, exact product boundaries and proof. Pull requests from outside the Yazelix organization are read as reference and reimplemented here, with the author credited as co-author; see Outside Contributions.