What Is Intelligent Terminal

Intelligent Terminal is Microsoft's AI-powered agent built directly into Windows Terminal. It provides a conversational interface alongside your shell, capable of generating commands, explaining errors, automating multi-step workflows, and interacting with your file system and development tools.

Unlike standalone AI coding assistants, Intelligent Terminal lives where you already work — the terminal — with full context of your shell session, command history, and environment variables. Version 0.1.1 brings significant improvements to cross-platform shell support and usability.

Bash & WSL Support

The headline feature of 0.1.1 is first-class Bash and WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) support. Previously limited to PowerShell and cmd, the agent can now:

• Detect the active shell type (Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, cmd) and generate appropriate commands
• Read and understand WSL-specific paths, environment, and package managers
• Execute multi-line Bash scripts with proper quoting and escaping
• Handle cross-environment scenarios (e.g., accessing Windows files from WSL and vice versa)

The /fix Command

The new /fix command is a quick-action shortcut: when a command fails, type /fix and the agent automatically reads the error output, diagnoses the issue, and suggests a corrected command.

How it works:

1. You run a command that fails (non-zero exit code or stderr output)
2. Type /fix — the agent captures the last command, its output, and error messages
3. The agent analyzes the failure and proposes a fix, which you can accept with Enter or edit before running

Common scenarios where /fix excels: typos in commands, missing flags, incorrect file paths, permission issues, and missing package dependencies.

On-the-fly /model Picker

The /model command lets you switch between AI models mid-session without restarting. Supported models include:

• GPT-4o (default) — best for complex multi-step reasoning
• GPT-4o mini — faster responses for simple queries
• Custom Azure OpenAI deployments — bring your own endpoint

Type /model to see available models and select one interactively, or use /model gpt-4o-mini to switch directly. The model preference persists for the current session only.

Agent Pane Customization

The agent pane — the side panel where AI responses appear — now supports customization:

• Resizable width — drag the pane border to adjust, and the setting persists across sessions
• Dockable position — place the pane on the left or right side of the terminal
• Font size control — independent of the main terminal font size
• Opacity — adjustable transparency for overlay-style usage

Settings are stored in the Terminal settings JSON and can be version-controlled alongside your other terminal configuration.

Windows 10 Support

Intelligent Terminal now officially supports Windows 10 (build 19041+), broadening its reach beyond the initial Windows 11 requirement. Key compatibility work included:

• Backporting the agent pane rendering to the Windows 10 XAML stack
• Handling differences in ConPTY behavior between Windows 10 and 11
• Ensuring keyboard shortcuts don't conflict with Windows 10 system shortcuts

Session Management

New session management features help you organize and revisit past agent interactions:

• Named sessions — label sessions (e.g., "deploy-fix", "config-migration") for easy retrieval
• Session history — browse and search past sessions with /sessions
• Context carry-over — start a new session that inherits context from a previous one
• Export — save a session transcript as Markdown for documentation

Bug Fixes & Reliability

Version 0.1.1 addresses several issues from the initial release:

• Fixed agent pane not rendering on high-DPI displays
• Resolved memory leak when agent pane was left open for extended periods
• Fixed /explain command failing on multi-line command outputs
• Corrected Unicode handling in command suggestions for non-English locales
• Improved response streaming — partial responses no longer flicker during generation
• Fixed keyboard focus not returning to the terminal after dismissing agent suggestions

Installation

To install or update Intelligent Terminal:

1. Ensure you have Windows Terminal 1.22+ (available via Microsoft Store or GitHub releases)
2. Open Terminal Settings → Experimental → Enable Intelligent Terminal
3. Authenticate with your Microsoft or Azure account (required for model access)
4. The agent pane will appear as a new icon in the Terminal toolbar

For enterprise deployments, Intelligent Terminal can be configured via Group Policy or Intune, with options to restrict model selection and disable telemetry.