The interface
Panels, tabs, the sidebar, the dashboard, search, and the keyboard shortcuts worth learning first.
A project window is a sidebar, one or more panels of tabs, and the dashboard you land on when the project opens.
The sidebar
The sidebar holds the file tree and the project's tools. Its main actions are Research Map, Project Dashboard, Kosmo Agents, Deep Research, Knowledge Graph, Bibliography, Presentations, Browser, Terminal, and Git. Desktop-only and role-restricted actions appear only where they can work.
Collapse the sidebar and it becomes a rail of tool icons. Running Kosmo agents stay reachable there: hover the Kosmo icon to see them, with a badge counting what is running.
By default the sidebar spells out each action by name. Switch to compact icons under Settings → Appearance.
Panels and tabs
Every file and tool opens as a tab. Split the workspace into several panels and drag tabs between them to read a PDF beside the draft that cites it, or watch a terminal while an agent edits.
| Action | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Go to tab 1 to 8 | Cmd+1 to Cmd+8 | Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+8 |
| Go to last tab | Cmd+9 | Ctrl+9 |
| Next / previous tab | Cmd+Shift+] / Cmd+Shift+[ | Ctrl+Shift+] / Ctrl+Shift+[ |
| Close tab | Cmd+W | Ctrl+W |
| Focus next / previous panel | Cmd+Option+Right / Cmd+Option+Left | Ctrl+Alt+Right / Ctrl+Alt+Left |
The dashboard
The dashboard is the project's front page: what is due, what changed, and what is still running. Click Edit to add, remove, resize, and rearrange widgets, up to twelve per project.
The widgets are notes, a todo list, a calendar, a countdown, reminders, a Kosmo chat, a graph view, and research news from the Kosmico community. Kosmo can update most of them for you, so "add the reviewer deadlines to my countdown" is a reasonable thing to ask.
Search
Cmd+K (Windows: Ctrl+K) opens search. Cmd+P (Windows: Ctrl+P) opens the same thing.
Search covers file names and file contents, and you can narrow it to one or the other. Filter by tag to include or exclude tagged files, and switch on regular expressions, match case, or whole word for a precise pass.
Semantic search works differently: ask Kosmo for it in words. "Find where I argued the opposite of this" is a question search cannot answer and Kosmo can.
Settings
Cmd+, (Windows: Ctrl+,) opens settings. Personal settings include General, Account, Plan & usage, Appearance, Language, and Notifications. Assistant settings are AI and, on desktop, Connections. Workspace settings include Terminal on desktop, Tours, and Shortcuts.
Appearance carries the three themes, Light, Dark, and Kosmo, plus the compact layout and the sidebar's label style. Shortcuts lists every binding by category and lets you rebind them.