Nothing about your habits changes. You type elide test the way you always have; in a Tern terminal the results
draw as a view instead of scrolling past as lines. Five commands behave this way, and none of them needs the plugin.
The plugin’s part is to open the elide:// links the views carry (see Links).
| Command | In a Tern terminal | Plain output kept for |
|---|---|---|
elide test | Results inline in the pane | --reporter, --project, a glob or missing path, redirected output |
elide build | The build inline in the pane | --inspect, --help, --progress, --project, redirected output, no elide.pkl |
elide help | The docs as a native page | --format markdown, redirected output |
elide serve | The Server page | --no-tui, no terminal |
elide repl | The REPL inline in the pane | Piped or redirected input or output |
Outside Tern every command prints as it does in any terminal. Scripts and other tools see the same text they always
did: a pipe or a redirect, a non-terminal stdin or TERM=dumb is enough to get it. -p counts as --project, and
-- on elide test keeps plain output too.
Inline and page surfaces
elide test and elide build draw inline by default: the view sits in the pane’s output, and when the command ends it
stays in scrollback like printed text. A page takes the whole pane until you quit it.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
--surface=inline | Draw inline. The default. |
--surface=screen | Open the full page. |
--surface=auto | Same as inline. |
ELIDE_ | The default mode for every run in that environment. |
The flag wins over the variable. A flag value other than inline, screen or auto is an error. A variable
naming no mode makes the run use auto; elide test also prints one warning on stderr:
elide: ELIDE_TERN_SURFACE='full' names no surface mode (expected inline, screen or auto); using auto
A Tern without inline surfaces gets the page. Outside Tern, and on any run that keeps the plain output, --surface is
accepted and has no effect, so scripts can always pass it. An inline view closes when its run finishes and the
command returns; the keys below act on the pages.
elide test in Tern
| Level | How to get it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text | Outside Tern, or --reporter | The reporter’s lines. |
| Inline | elide test in a Tern terminal | Status, counts and the results table, with the selected test’s failure beneath. |
| Tests page | --surface=screen | Results, Failures, Output and Coverage tabs, with rerun and cancel. |
| Project Tests page | Run tests in the plugin | The Tests page on a shared project session, with Debug this test. |
Plain text:
Inline:
Project Tests page in the workspace:
elide test exits nonzero when the last run failed, and 130 when a run is cancelled or interrupted before it
finishes. Test files and failure locations inside a project link to the source editor.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Tab, ] / Shift+Tab, [ | Next and previous tab. |
j k, ↑ ↓ | Select a test; on Coverage, a file. |
r | Run again. |
c | Run with coverage. |
x | Cancel the run. |
d | Debug the selected test (project Tests page). |
Esc | Back out one view. |
q, Ctrl+D | Quit from Results. |
Tests run with the same flags as a plain run: --coverage, -t, --where and the other
elide test flags pass through. Each run saves its TAP report and runner log under
.dev/reports/tests/tern/ in the project, or in the test file’s directory outside one.
elide build in Tern
| Level | How to get it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text | Outside Tern, or a run that keeps plain output | The build’s log lines. |
| Inline | elide build in a Tern terminal | State, error and warning counts, task progress and a card per diagnostic. |
| Build page | --surface=screen, or Build project in the workspace | The same, full pane, with Rebuild (r). |
Plain text:
Inline:
Build page from the workspace:
x cancels a running build; q, Esc and Ctrl+D close the page once the build has finished. elide build exits
with the build’s own status, and 130 when it is cancelled or interrupted. Each run writes its diagnostics report,
which the source editor and status bar read; see Build diagnostics.
elide help in Tern
| Level | How to get it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text | Outside Tern | The terminal reader. |
| Help page | elide help in a Tern terminal | Navigation beside the page, a trail to its group and a search field. |
Plain text:
Help page:
elide help TOPIC opens at that topic; elide help options and the other command-line topics print text. Under 80 columns the page stacks the search field, the page and the navigation.
Keys and search: help. Links between help pages are elide://help?topic=<slug> URLs;
through the plugin they open in a new pane beside the one you clicked in.
elide serve in Tern
| Level | How to get it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text | --no-tui, or no terminal | Plain log output. |
| Terminal dashboard | elide serve outside Tern | Requests, logs and metrics in the terminal. |
| Server page | elide serve in a Tern terminal, or Serve directory or script | Address, state, Requests, Traces and Logs tabs, Restart and Stop. |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Tab, ] / Shift+Tab, [ | Next and previous tab. |
j k, ↑ ↓ | Select a request. |
r | Restart the server. |
s | Stop the server. |
p | Pause or resume trace capture. |
e | Show only failed traces (Traces); Esc shows all again. |
c | Clear traces (Traces) or logs (Logs). |
q, Esc, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+D | Quit; the server stops. |
A directory is served as static files; a script runs with its fetch handler, and elide dev on a script opens the
same page. The Logs tab appears with the first log line and the Traces tab once a request is captured; see
Traces.
elide repl in Tern
| Level | How to get it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text | elide repl outside Tern | The terminal REPL. |
| Inline REPL | elide repl in a Tern terminal | A language picker, an editor, and results as they arrive. |
| Notebook | Open REPL in the plugin | A notebook where JavaScript and Python share live values. |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Enter | Evaluate. |
Shift+Enter, Ctrl+J | New line. |
Ctrl+L | Open the language picker; ↑ ↓ choose, Enter switches, Esc closes it. |
↑ on the first line, then ↓ | Step through history. |
Tab | Complete a / command. |
Ctrl+C | Interrupt an evaluation. |
Ctrl+D | Quit, on an empty editor. |
Clear sends /clear. The REPL’s commands work inline and in the notebook. The notebook is described under
REPL notebook.
Next
The views so far live in whatever terminal you typed in. The project workspace gives a project its own tab, with a toolbar that opens these same pages and test runs that every view shares.