The Inspector
The right toolbar
The top button shows or hides the inspector. A divider separates it from the tool buttons below. Browser, Terminal, Context, Notes, Calendar, and Board are directly available; use the overflow menu for other destinations, including Side Chat. Tool order and available destinations can vary with the selected Agent and enabled capabilities.
Panels you open appear in a closable tab strip. Use the open-tabs menu when the strip is crowded. Locus remembers the panel selection and width. Drag the divider to resize, or expand the panel when you need more room.
Overview follows the request
During work, Overview appears in a compact popup near the top right, just below the conversation header. It shows the current request's plan, outputs, sources, helpers, and background activity when available.
Opening an inspector replaces Overview in that area. Close the inspector to return to the request summary. Use Overview's minimize button for a compact summary, or dismiss it. Reopen it from the workspace menu or with ⌘1. Opening Overview explicitly makes room by collapsing the inspector; the panel toggle restores the panel you were using.
Outputs gathers generated files and sites. Its plus menu can prefill a request to create something; that closes Overview and returns you to the composer. Sources provides the attachment and connected-app actions. Detailed context usage has its own Context panel.
Choose a panel
| Panel | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Context | Estimated token use, a segmented breakdown, expandable categories, reserved capacity, and free space |
| Files | All file types and generated folders, path search, hidden-file controls, previews, and context actions |
| Changes | Git status, file and hunk diffs, staging, discard, branches, sync, commits, and pull-request handoff |
| Terminal | A retained terminal for interactive commands and background processes |
| Browser | Shared tabs, dev servers, screenshots, console and network details, device controls, and guarded Autofill |
| Notes | The current chat or shared note, using the same document as Notebook |
| Calendar | Month view, daily agenda, and event creation for calendars connected through macOS Internet Accounts, including Google and Microsoft |
| Board | A workspace kanban shared with your Agents: columns, cards, comments, and an activity timeline of who changed what |
| Checkpoints | Named session rollback points |
| Runs | Saved Solo and team executions, evidence, attempts, budgets, recovery, and exports |
| Instructions | Workspace instructions in AGENTS.md |
| Router | Model-route scorecards and provider decisions |
| Proxies | Proxy profiles, assignments, health, and failover |
When an Agent uses the Calendar or Board in the open chat, Locus switches to that panel. Neither panel has a number shortcut.
Calendar requires full Calendar access in macOS. It reads the accounts already connected in Internet Accounts; Locus never receives their sign-in credentials. Board keeps one board per workspace in Locus's Application Support folder, not in your project. Choose Work on This in Chat on a card to send it to the composer.
Files have full-height click targets. Screen readers announce whether a row opens a file or expands or collapses a folder.
Overview, Agent, and Runs
Overview follows the current request in the open conversation. Agent describes the selected persistent Agent: instructions, triggers, environment, access, and recent activity. An Agent being active means it is enabled; a chat may still be waiting for a trigger.
Runs shows that chat's saved executions. Check exact records to distinguish waiting, skipped, failed, cancelled, and completed work. Overview and Activity stay scoped to the selected run instead of mixing in another run's events.
Open Notebook with ⇧⌘9 to search and edit notes without changing the Notes panel's owner. Reusable specialist profiles are configured through Specialists & teams.
Keyboard access
Use ⌘1 for Overview, ⌘2–⌘5 and ⌘7–⌘9 for numbered inspector panels, and ⌘6 for checkpoints. ⌘⌥I shows or hides the inspector; ⌘⌥E expands or restores it. See Shortcuts & Slash Commands.
Task details
Goals, Capsules, saved plans, and run history can open one task detail view containing the request, approved plan, verified progress, outputs, review findings, usage, and recovery history. Controls reflect the current saved state, including unknown action outcomes and stale checks; opening the view starts no work.
Use Task Recovery & Restoration to inspect an interrupted attempt or preview selected captured file reversals. Locus 3.0 also preserves panel and conversation state when switching Work and Agent; large transcripts retain lazy rendering when panels are resized or restored.