Overview
Mel's coding surface: review, edit, and verify without leaving the terminal.
Mel is a terminal that understands your code. Alongside the shell you get a built-in code review panel, a real editor, live language intelligence, and a tools panel with a project explorer and global search — all designed so you can read, change, and verify code without leaving the terminal.
The pieces
| Surface | What it does | Open with |
|---|---|---|
| Code review panel | Diffs of your uncommitted changes (or against a branch base) as collapsible per-file cards | ctrl+shift+=, the git chip's ± N zone, or Open Code Review in the command palette |
| Built-in editor | Syntax-highlighted editing with completion, save, and live diagnostics | Double-click a file in the project explorer, click a search hit, or the ✎ icon on a diff card |
| Language support | Real language servers: hover docs, go-to-definition, diagnostics while you type | The Enable banner at the bottom of the review panel |
| Diff comments | Inline comments on diff lines, bundled and sent to the agent | Hover a diff line and click 💬 |
| Project explorer | Lazy file tree rooted at your repo, with rename, delete, drag-and-drop into the prompt | Tools panel (ctrl+\), tree icon, or /explorer |
| Global search | Debounced ripgrep search (git grep fallback), results grouped per file | ctrl+shift+F |
A typical loop
- Run your build or tests in the terminal as usual.
- Press
ctrl+shift+=to open the review panel and read what actually changed — per-file+A -Dcounts, red/green unified diffs, syntax highlighting. - Hover an identifier in the diff to see its signature and docs;
ctrl+clickjumps to its definition in the editor. - Spot a problem? Click ✎ on the file card (or
ctrl+clickstraight through) and fix it in the editor.ctrl+Ssaves, and diagnostics update live while you type if a language server is running. - Want the agent to do the fix instead? Leave inline comments on the offending lines and hit Send to Agent — they land in your active prompt or conversation.
How the panels fit together
The window splits into up to four regions: the tools panel on the left, your terminal in the middle, and the review panel (or editor) on the right. Every divider is mouse-draggable. The review panel takes the right split by default; the ⤢ button expands it to fill the window, and the editor always fills its region. You can also drag the editor's header out of the panel to promote the file into its own tab.
The project explorer roots itself at the active pane's git toplevel (falling back to its working directory), so the tree, the search, the diffs, and your shell all agree on which project you're in.