clide/legacy/docs/user-manual.md

Clide User Manual

Clide is a terminal-based IDE that puts Claude Code at the center of your development workflow. This manual covers installation, daily usage, and customization.

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.12 or later
• Git
• Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone <repo-url>
cd clide

# Install dependencies and create virtual environment
make setup

# Run Clide
make run

Or install directly:

pip install -e .
clide

First Run

On first launch, Clide creates a configuration directory at ~/.clide/ for user settings. Project-specific settings are stored in .clide/ within your project.

Interface Overview

┌─────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│ Sidebar         │ Workspace               │ Context          │
│                 │ [Editor][Diff][Terminal]│                  │
│ [Files][Git]    │ (appears when needed)   │ [Jira][TODOs]    │
│ [Tree]          ├─────────────────────────┤ [Problems]       │
│                 │                         │                  │
│                 │ Claude                  │                  │
│                 │ (always visible)        │                  │
│                 │                         │                  │
├─────────────────┤                         ├──────────────────┤
│ ⎇ main ▾       │                         │                  │
│ staged: 2      │                         │                  │
└─────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

Panels

Left Sidebar — File browser, git changes, and branch graph

Center — Claude Code (always visible) and workspace panels (editor, diff, terminal) that appear when needed

Right Context — Jira integration, TODO list, and problems from linters

Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts use Alt as the modifier to avoid conflicts with Claude Code input.

Panel Navigation

Action	Shortcut
Toggle left sidebar	Alt+B
Toggle right sidebar	Alt+Shift+B
Toggle terminal	Alt+`
Focus Claude	Alt+1
Focus Editor	Alt+2
Focus Terminal	Alt+3
Toggle compact mode	Alt+C

File Operations

Action	Shortcut
Quick open file	Alt+O
Save file	Alt+S
Go to line	Alt+L

Git Operations

Action	Shortcut
Open Git panel	Alt+G
Open Problems panel	Alt+M

Application

Action	Shortcut
Command palette	Alt+P
Select theme	Alt+T
Quit	Alt+Q

Working with Claude

Claude Code runs in the center panel and is always visible. Type your prompts directly and Claude will respond with code suggestions, explanations, and file operations.

Git Integration

The sidebar includes buttons for common git operations that delegate to Claude:

• Commit — Claude reviews staged changes and creates a well-formatted commit
• Stash — Claude stashes your working changes
• Pull — Claude pulls with rebase and helps resolve conflicts
• Push — Claude pushes to remote, setting upstream if needed

On first use, Clide installs the corresponding skill to your project's .claude/skills/ directory. These skills guide Claude through each operation following best practices.

Branch Status

The branch status bar at the bottom of the sidebar shows:

• Current branch name
• Staged and unstaged file counts

Click the branch name to open the branch selector:

┌─────────────────┐
│ Recent branches │
│ ● main         │
│ ○ feature/xyz  │
│ ○ develop      │
├─────────────────┤
│[Checkout] [New] │
└─────────────────┘

Left Sidebar

Files Tab

Browse your project structure. Click a file to open it in the editor.

• Directories expand/collapse on click
• Hidden files (starting with .) are shown but dimmed
• Noisy directories (.git, __pycache__, node_modules) are filtered

Git Tab

View staged and unstaged changes:

Staged (2)
  + src/new_file.py
  ~ src/modified.py

Unstaged (3)
  ~ README.md
  ? untracked.txt
  - deleted.py

Status indicators:

• + Added
• ~ Modified
• - Deleted
• ? Untracked
• → Renamed

Click a file to view its diff. Use the action buttons to commit, stash, pull, or push via Claude.

Tree Tab

Visual git graph showing branch history:

● main: Latest commit message
│
├─● feature: Feature work
│
●─┴ Merge branch 'feature'

Commit types:

• ● Regular commit
• ◆ Merge commit

Right Context Panel

Jira Tab

Displays Jira issues when configured. Click the refresh button to update.

Configure Jira integration in settings:

{
  "jira_enabled": true,
  "jira_cli_path": "jira"
}

TODOs Tab

Scans your codebase for TODO comments and project tasks.

Sub-tabs:

• Project — Items from TODO.md (checkbox format)
• Comments — TODO/FIXME/HACK/XXX comments in code

Click an item to jump to that location in the editor.

Supported comment markers:

• TODO — Tasks to complete
• FIXME — Bugs to fix
• HACK — Temporary solutions
• XXX — Dangerous or problematic code
• NOTE — Important notes
• BUG — Known bugs

Problems Tab

Displays linter errors and warnings. Click a problem to jump to the source location.

Workspace Panels

The workspace appears when you need to view or edit files. It contains three tabs:

Editor

Full-featured code editor with:

• Syntax highlighting (Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, Markdown, and more)
• Line numbers
• Current line highlighting

Diff

Side-by-side diff viewer for reviewing changes. Used when:

• Viewing git changes
• Reviewing Claude's proposed edits

Terminal

Command-line terminal for running commands. Output is preserved when the panel is hidden.

Themes

Clide includes 22 built-in themes. Press Alt+T to open the theme selector.

Theme categories:

Category	Themes
Core	summer-night (default), summer-day
Popular	one-dark, one-dark-pro, one-light, dracula, nord, gruvbox-dark, gruvbox-light
Seasonal	winter-is-coming, monokai-winter, fall, dark-autumn
Halloween	all-hallows-eve, halloween
Christmas	christmas, santa-baby
Hacker	pro-hacker, hacker-style
Other	gamma, one-dark-teal, houston

Your theme choice is saved and persists across sessions.

Custom Themes

Create custom themes in ~/.clide/themes/:

# ~/.clide/themes/my-theme.toml
name = "my-theme"
display_name = "My Custom Theme"
dark = true

[colors]
primary = "#007acc"
secondary = "#3c3c3c"
accent = "#0e639c"
background = "#1e1e1e"
surface = "#252526"
panel = "#2d2d30"
foreground = "#d4d4d4"
success = "#4ec9b0"
warning = "#dcdcaa"
error = "#f44747"

Configuration

User Settings

Settings are stored in ~/.clide/settings.json:

{
  "theme": "summer-night",
  "compact_mode": false,
  "jira_enabled": false,
  "jira_cli_path": "jira"
}

Project Settings

Project-specific settings in .clide/:

.clide/
├── settings.json     # Project overrides
└── skills/           # Installed Claude skills
    ├── commit/
    ├── stash/
    └── ...

Environment Variables

Override settings with environment variables prefixed with CLIDE_:

CLIDE_THEME=dracula clide

Compact Mode

Press Alt+C to toggle compact mode, which hides both sidebars for focused work. All panel state is preserved—nothing is lost when hiding panels.

Project TODOs

Clide integrates with a TODO.md file in your project root. Format:

# TODO

## Features

- [ ] Implement user authentication
- [ ] Add search functionality
- [x] Set up database connection

## Bugs

- [ ] Fix login redirect

Items appear in the TODOs panel, grouped by section. Click to jump to that line. Check off items directly in the file.

If no TODO.md exists, click "Create TODO.md" in the TODOs panel to generate a template.

Tips

Efficient Navigation

1. Use Alt+1/2/3 to quickly switch between Claude, Editor, and Terminal
2. Click items in Problems or TODOs to jump directly to source
3. Use compact mode (Alt+C) when you need more space for Claude

Git Workflow

1. Make changes to your code
2. Review changes in the Git tab
3. Click "Commit" to have Claude create a well-formatted commit
4. Use "Push" when ready to share

Working with Claude

• Claude sees your project context automatically
• Use the git action buttons for consistent commit messages
• Click files in the sidebar to show Claude what you're working on

Troubleshooting

Claude Code not starting

Ensure Claude Code CLI is installed and authenticated:

claude --version
claude auth status

Theme not applying

Check that the theme name in settings matches exactly. Theme names are case-sensitive.

Skills not working

Skills are installed to .claude/skills/ in your project. If a skill fails:

1. Check that the skill folder exists
2. Verify SKILL.md is present
3. Try removing and re-triggering the action

Panels not updating

Try refreshing with the relevant shortcut or clicking the refresh button. File changes should update automatically via file watching.