> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.seriora.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Working in the session

> The queue, reasoning traces, text selection, and the paper ground.

A session is a full-screen terminal. These are the things that happen on that screen after
[your first session](/get-started/quickstart) is already running.

## The paper ground

seri paints its own background, `#141413`, so the same build looks the same on every machine.
That fill **breaks terminal transparency and background blur**, because every cell is now seri's.

`SERI_TUI_BACKGROUND=terminal` keeps your terminal's own ground. Any value that is not a
six-digit hex color does the same. A hex value such as `#141413` is an explicit paint. The
renderer is built once at launch, so a change applies on the next run. `/config` edits the same
key. See [Settings](/reference/environment).

## Text selection

Mouse reporting is off. Click-drag, double-click and triple-click are your terminal's own, on
every platform, including over SSH and inside tmux. Copy and paste go through the terminal, not
through seri.

There is no click target on a live row. Keyboard chords below are what reach the session.

## While a turn is running

Elapsed time and token count sit on one status row. When the model emits a reasoning trace, that
row reads `▸ thinking` plus the same clock. A tool in flight drops the word `thinking` and keeps
the clock.

You can keep typing. Enter appends the line to a queue above the input box instead of discarding
it. Slash commands that do not start a turn, `/mode`, `/model`, `/setup`, still run immediately.

| Chord           | Does                                                                                  |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓ | select a queued line                                                                  |
| Ctrl+E          | edit the selected line in place                                                       |
| Ctrl+X          | drop it                                                                               |
| Escape          | cancel the turn that is running. The head of the queue starts when that turn unwinds. |

Ctrl-C also cancels the turn. It clears the queue rather than draining it. A second Ctrl-C is
fatal. See [Stopping a turn](/get-started/quickstart#stopping-a-turn).

The queue is not saved. Leaving the session with lines still in it drops them.

## Reasoning traces

A model that streams thought text leaves a one-line caret in the transcript after that span
settles, `▸ thought · 4s`. Most routes emit none, and then the screen looks as it always did.

Ctrl+T expands or collapses the last caret, or the live pin while a thought is still arriving.
The body is muted plain text, not markdown. Nothing in the thought is written to the session,
to compaction, or to a trajectory recording.

A later think after a tool call is a second caret.

## Keys that are not slash commands

| Chord                             | Does                                                   |
| --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Shift-Tab                         | cycle the permission mode, the same as `/mode`         |
| Ctrl+T                            | expand or collapse a reasoning trace                   |
| Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓ / Ctrl+E / Ctrl+X | the queue, above                                       |
| Ctrl-C                            | cancel the running turn, or quit if nothing is running |
| Ctrl-D                            | end the session, the same as `/exit`                   |

Type `/` to open the completion list for every command, agent and skill. See [Slash
commands](/reference/commands).