Capsule, Quick Chat and shortcuts
Keep Nebula a keystroke away on desktop with the floating Capsule, Quick Chat, QuickLive calls, the tray menu, and global and in-app keyboard shortcuts.
Keep Nebula a keystroke away on your desktop. The Capsule floats over your other apps, Quick Chat sends a request without switching windows, and QuickLive starts a call.
NebulaLiveThe Capsule
The Capsule is a small pill at the top of your screen, or in a corner you choose, that shows what's going on across your workspaces. It shows a count for each kind of activity: approvals waiting on you, work running, mentions and unread chats, unread tasks, and people online. A count only appears when it isn't zero.
Hover over it and the pill opens out into the activity card. Feed is one list of every channel and task in the workspace: what's waiting on you comes first, then what's unread, then what's running, then everything else. People shows who's online, with a button to message or call each person. The card's top row, where the pill was, has a Nebula button that opens the app, a Live / Off switch that connects you to Nebula or disconnects you, and a Start a call button.
When you're on a call that isn't already on screen, the Capsule turns into a one-line call card. It shows the call's name and channel, who's talking, how long the call has run, and buttons to mute or leave. Click the card to bring the call back up wherever it's open. It hides while the call is showing in the app or its own window.
Tune it
Everything lives in Settings → Preferences → Capsule. Under Notifications, choose Capsule, System to use your computer's own notifications instead, or Off. Hide when idle is on by default: with nothing asking, running or waiting to be read, the Capsule disappears until something arrives. You can also set its Position, its Size, and whether Tasks counts All tasks or only Mine.
Under What gets announced, set each kind of event to Pop up, Quiet or Off. Quiet keeps an event in the activity list without interrupting you.
| Event | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Incoming calls | Rings on top of everything else until you answer |
| Alerts | Failed tasks and jobs, approvals waiting on you, and account notices |
| Chats, replies and finished tasks | Messages in your channels, answers in threads you're in, and tasks wrapping up |
| People coming online | Who just showed up in the workspace |
Quick Chat
Quick Chat opens a small message box over whatever app you're in, sends one message, and gets out of your way. It has no shortcut until you set one: open Quick Chat from the tray menu, or record a key for it in Settings → Preferences → Shortcuts.
NebulaMessage Nebula…
It always opens on your Nebula, with Message Nebula… in the box. Press Tab to send to a channel instead. Your Nebula and your channels are listed, but not DMs. Attachments and @mentions work as usual. Once the message sends, the window closes, and the reply arrives in the main app. A message that asks for a task is handled the same way as in the main app: Nebula hands it to an agent on that channel's team, or tells you none fits. Press Esc once to leave the box, and again to close the window.
QuickLive
QuickLive gets you into a call fast. Press ⌥⇧C or Alt+Shift+C, or choose Go Live from the tray menu. It opens a card that asks what you want before anything rings.
Push to talk holds a quiet line to Nebula for this session. No call is created and nothing rings; you hold the push-to-talk key to speak. Start a call opens a real call with Nebula in its own window.
Start a call starts a call in that channel. Everyone in the channel can join.
The shortcut, and the tray's Open Call, jump straight to the call you're on.
The tray menu
Nebula's icon in the menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows and Linux) opens a menu. On Windows, a left-click opens the app and a right-click opens the menu. On Linux, the menu needs a desktop with a system tray.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Nebula | Opens the main window |
| Quick Chat | Opens Quick Chat |
| Go Live | Opens QuickLive. On a call it reads Open Call |
| Mute / Leave Call | Only while you're on a call |
| Settings | Jumps to Settings, or straight to Computer use, Capsule or Shortcuts |
| Quit Nebula | Quits the app |
Global shortcuts
These work even when Nebula is hidden. Change any of them in Settings → Preferences → Shortcuts: click Record, then press the new combination. Each one needs ⌘, Ctrl or Alt.
| Settings label | Mac | Windows and Linux | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summon Nebula | ⌥⇧Space | Alt+Shift+Space | Shows or hides the Nebula window |
| Quick chat with your home agent | Off by default | Off by default | Opens Quick Chat. Record a key to turn it on |
| QuickLive | ⌥⇧C | Alt+Shift+C | Opens QuickLive, or the call you're on |
| Mute on a call | ⌥⇧M | Alt+Shift+M | Mutes or unmutes your mic. Works only while you're on a call |
| Push to talk | Off by default | Off by default | Opens your mic on the quiet line to Nebula. Record a key to turn it on |
Push to talk works only while you're holding a quiet line to Nebula, which you start with Push to talk in QuickLive. Set Talk mode to Hold to talk for as long as you press the key, or Toggle to switch the mic on and off with each press. On a Mac, push to talk needs Accessibility access, and Settings links you to the right pane.
Shortcut not working? Another app may already use it. Record a new one in Settings → Preferences → Shortcuts.
On Linux desktops that run Wayland, global shortcuts don't work. Run nebula-desktop again to bring the window forward.
Keys inside the app
Once the Nebula window is in front, you can move around without the mouse. These keys are fixed, and the ones without ⌘ or Ctrl work only while you're not typing in a message box.
| Key | Mac | Windows and Linux | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back and forward | ⌘[ / ⌘] | Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] | Retraces where the window has been, even while you're typing |
| Back | Mouse back button | Alt+← or the mouse back button | Goes back one step |
| Jump anywhere | ⌘K | Ctrl+K | Opens Go to to find Home, a workspace, a channel, a person or a task |
| Workspaces | ⌘⇧O | Ctrl+Shift+O | Shows every workspace you're signed in to, with unread counts, to switch to another. It's also the workspace name at the top of the sidebar |
| Walk the sidebar | Shift+↑ / Shift+↓ | Shift+↑ / Shift+↓ | Steps through every row in the sidebar, including Home and DMs |
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
⌘1 … ⌘9 (Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+9) | Opens the channel's tab in that position |
Shift+← / Shift+→, or h / l | Previous or next tab |
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab | Next or previous tab, even while you're typing. It's Ctrl on a Mac too, since ⌘Tab switches apps |
k / j | Previous or next channel |
↑ / ↓ | Move between messages |
→ | Open the selected message's thread |
← | Back out of the thread |
Enter or i | Start typing a message |
Esc | Close the open pane or thread |
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
↑ / ↓ | Select the previous or next card |
Enter | Open the selected one |
Space | Mark it read |
Esc | Clear the selection |
A thread open beside the chat moves into its own tab with Open as a tab, and a thread tab can pop out into its own window with Pop out thread.
Cloud browser extensions
Upload your own Manifest V3 extension for the cloud browser through Settings → Account → Browser extensions. See Browser extensions for how to add and remove one.
Related
Put Nebula to work
Get Nebula on your computer or phone, then create your first channel and set its goal.
Computer use from the CLI
Turn on computer use from your terminal - make any machine a Nebula local device, choose whether agents can run commands, and manage the daemon.
Browser extensions
Search the Chrome Web Store and install extensions in the cloud browser Nebula uses for tasks. Turn them on or off, manage the defaults or add a ZIP.