Shortcuts & tray
Summon Nebula with a keyboard shortcut, keep it running in your menu bar or system tray, and pop threads out into their own windows on desktop.
Desktop keeps Nebula a keystroke away and out of your dock. Summon it with a shortcut, leave it running in the tray, and pull individual threads into windows of their own.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | Default | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Summon or dismiss Nebula | ⌘ ⇧ Space / Ctrl ⇧ Space | Any app |
| Quick Send | ⌘ ` / Ctrl ` | Any app |
| QuickLive | ⌘ ⇧ C / Ctrl ⇧ C | Any app |
| Mute microphone | ⌘ ⇧ M / Ctrl ⇧ M | Only during a call |
| Settings | ⌘ , | macOS only |
| Quit | ⌘ Q / Ctrl Q | The app |
QuickLive is the fastest way onto voice. Press it with no call running and Nebula starts a one-to-one call with you and puts you straight on the mic; press it while a call is already going and it brings that call back up. Press it again to fold the view away.
All four of the top shortcuts are re-recordable in Settings → Shortcuts. If the combination you pick is already claimed by another Nebula shortcut, it's refused outright — Nebula keeps your previous one rather than binding a key that quietly does nothing.
Mute microphone is the exception to "works from any app": Nebula only claims it while a call is live, so the combination stays free for everything else the rest of the time.
The menu bar icon
Nebula keeps an icon in your macOS menu bar — up at the top of the screen with your other menu extras — so it's reachable whether or not the main window is open. On Windows it's in the notification area at the bottom-right, and on Linux it's in whatever tray your desktop environment provides.
Clicking it opens a short menu:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Nebula | Brings the main window forward |
| Quick Send | Opens the composer, same as the hotkey |
| Settings | A submenu — Open Settings… plus a jump straight to any one section |
| Check for updates… | Always here; it becomes the download and restart control once an update is found |
| Quit Nebula | Actually exits — see below |
The Settings submenu lists all five sections — General, Computer control, Workspaces, Capsule, Shortcuts — so you can land on the one you want instead of opening the window and hunting for it.
If Nebula loses its live connection, a Live updates disconnected line appears at the top of the menu so you know the counts have gone stale.
On macOS either mouse button opens the menu. On Windows a left-click jumps straight to Nebula and a right-click opens the menu instead.
What the icon is telling you
The icon itself carries state, so you can read it without clicking.
Nothing waiting.
Results you haven't read yet. On macOS the count sits next to the icon in the menu bar; on Windows and Linux it's in the tooltip.
An agent is paused waiting on an answer. This outranks unread — if something needs you, that's what the icon shows, however many unread results are stacked up behind it.
Closing versus quitting
Closing the window hides it — Nebula keeps running, agents keep working, and the Capsule stays on screen. Quitting is deliberate: the tray menu, ⌘ Q, or the app menu.
On Linux this depends on your desktop environment running a tray host. Without one there's nowhere for the icon to live, so closing the window quits the app instead.
If you've granted Computer Control, quitting also stops agents from reaching your machine — Nebula asks first rather than letting a scheduled job fail quietly.
On macOS, ⌘ Tab to Nebula switches to whichever Space your Nebula window is on and brings it forward, instead of leaving you looking at an empty desktop. Clicking the Capsule deliberately doesn't — it's on every Space already, so it keeps you where you are.
Pop-out windows
Any tab can be pulled into its own window: right-click it in the tab strip and choose Pop out. It's useful for watching a long-running job while you work in another channel. Opening the same thing again focuses the window you already have rather than making a second one, and you can keep up to a dozen open at once.
A popped-out window carries just the thing itself — the conversation, with no sidebar and no tab strip around it. Each one is named for what it holds, so a stack of them stays tellable apart when you're cycling windows. Start a conversation before it has a name and the window picks the name up as soon as Nebula titles it.
Clicking a thread in the Capsule that belongs to a different workspace opens it this way too, so keeping an eye on one workspace doesn't drag your whole app out of another.
A live call pops out the same way, and it genuinely moves rather than reconnecting from scratch — the call carries on through the handover. It comes back muted, though, so unmute once the window appears. Closing a popped-out call hides the window instead of hanging up; you're still on the call.
If Pop out is greyed out and says it needs an app update, the shortcut is there but this build's window bridge isn't — update the desktop app.
Related
Quick Send
Send anything to Nebula from any app with one keyboard shortcut. Attach a screenshot of what you are looking at and let Nebula pick the right agent.
Desktop settings
Settings that belong to this computer — its name in Nebula, Computer Control, which workspaces it serves, the Capsule, and your keyboard shortcuts.