Slash commands

Slash commands are recognised when the chat composer starts with /. Aethon ships ten built-ins (/clear, /help, /theme, /model, /reset, /terminal, /extensions, /sidebar, /layout, /project); extensions register additional commands via aethon.registerSlashCommand. Unknown /<word> falls through to pi (the model), so model-side commands like /think harder keep working.

Built-in commands

Command	Action
/clear	Clear the visible chat history. The pi session continues — only the rendered messages are cleared.
/help	List all registered slash commands (built-in + extension) with their descriptions.
/theme [<id>]	Open the theme picker (no argument) or activate a specific theme directly (/theme paper).
/model [<name>]	Open the model picker or activate a specific model directly (/model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6).
/reset	Hard-reset the active tab's pi session — clears history and discards on-disk session state. The next message starts a fresh conversation.
/terminal	Toggle the bottom terminal panel. Equivalent to `Cmd+``.
/extensions	List every loaded extension. With install <npm-package|git-url> (or add), runs npm install --prefix ~/.aethon/skills and reloads the agent so the new package is picked up.
/sidebar	Toggle the sidebar. Equivalent to Cmd+B.
/layout <id>	Switch layouts. The only built-in id today is workstation; extensions register additional ones via aethon.registerLayout.
/project [id|path]	Open or switch the active project directory. No argument shows a folder picker; an id or path switches to that project for new tabs.

Extension commands

The /extensions output lists every loaded extension; /help lists every registered command (built-in plus extension-registered) with its description. Reach extension commands the same way: /<name> [args…].

A skill registers a command in two halves: a metadata record and a paired event handler.

aethon.registerSlashCommand({
  name: "team-deploy",
  description: "Deploy the active branch to staging.",
  usage: "/team-deploy [staging|prod]",
});

aethon.onEvent(
  { componentType: "slash-command", descendantId: "team-deploy" },
  async (event, ctx) => {
    const args = event.data?.args ?? "";
    /* …implementation… */
    ctx.pi.notify("Deploying…");
  },
);

The registerSlashCommand call records metadata so the slash-command picker, palette, and /help know about it. The paired aethon.onEvent handler runs when the user invokes /team-deploy — it receives the event with data.args set to whatever followed the command name. Use ctx.pi.notify / ctx.pi.prompt to push messages or fire LLM turns.

Built-in command names are reserved (clear, help, theme, model, reset, terminal, sidebar, layout, extensions, project); registering one is rejected with a notice.

Installing extensions

/extensions lists what's loaded; /extensions install <npm-package|git-url> installs new ones (add works as an alias). Examples:

/extensions install @my-org/aethon-team-skills
/extensions install github:my-org/aethon-skills
/extensions install https://github.com/my-org/aethon-skills.git

The Tauri shell runs the equivalent of npm install --prefix ~/.aethon/skills <spec> and restarts the agent sidecar so the new package is loaded on the next request. Tarballs, GitHub shorthands, and git URLs are accepted; shell-like option / whitespace input is rejected.

Tips

• /help is the source of truth for what commands are currently loaded (built-ins + extension-registered). /extensions is the source of truth for which extension packages are loaded.
• Type / and pause to surface the slash-command picker — it ranks built-ins and extension-registered commands and accepts arrow-key navigation. The command palette (Cmd+Shift+P) covers the same ground with a fuzzy search.
• Extensions can register slash command aliases by registering multiple metadata records that share a handler — pair multiple registerSlashCommand calls with a single onEvent whose match uses a wildcard descendantId.

Where to next

• Skills & extensions — registering commands.
• Command palette — the other path to every command.
• Runtime API — aethon.registerSlashCommand signature.