Your first session

1. New session (Ctrl+N). Newen greets you over an empty message box: Describe a task or ask a question.

2. Pick the folder. The folder chip under the box lists your recent folders and Open folder…. Newen starts in the folder you launched it from (newen ~/code/app opens on that one).

3. Pick the agent. With more than one agent installed, an agent chip sits next to the folder: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or Hermes. Then the model (Ctrl+Shift+I), the effort and the permission mode (Ctrl+Shift+M). Models are grouped by provider; the agent’s default is marked (default).

4. Write and send with Enter. The answer streams in; each tool shows as a row you can open: what was read, edited, searched and run.

5. Answer permissions inline. When the agent wants to use a tool, a card waits in the conversation: Allow once (Ctrl+Enter), Always allow (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) or Deny. The sidebar marks the session Needs your input.

6. Keep talking while it works. Enter steers the current turn; Ctrl+Enter queues the message for after it. Stop interrupts the turn.

7. Review. Each request ends with a card of the files it changed, with Undo. Open every change with Ctrl+Shift+D, the files with Ctrl+Shift+E, the terminal with Ctrl+` and the browser with Ctrl+Shift+B.

Tip

Type / in the message box for every command (/model, /diff, /storage…), and @ to mention a file or another session. See Slash commands.

Sessions come back after a restart: Newen keeps its own copy of the conversation and resumes the agent’s session with the CLI’s own resume on your next message. See Sessions.