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Terminals and PyCharm

Open a terminal

Click the >_ button on a project, or press Ctrl+T. A terminal opens in the project folder with the default environment activated: python and uv use the environment, and your variables, secrets, index settings and scripts are applied.

Choose which terminal opens in Settings › Terminal. To use a different terminal just once, pick it from Open terminal in the project menu (⋯, or right-click the project). The tray can also open a terminal for any environment, not only the default one.

Supported terminals

OS Terminals Activation
Linux GNOME Terminal, Konsole, kitty, Alacritty, WezTerm, foot, xterm Full
Windows Windows Terminal Full
Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt, Git Bash Environment on PATH only
Windows WSL None
macOS Terminal.app, iTerm2 None
  • Full: the environment is put at the front of PATH again after your shell's own startup files have run, so a .bashrc or .zshrc that changes PATH can't push it back.
  • Environment on PATH only: the variables arrive, but a startup file that changes PATH can put another Python in front.
  • None: the terminal starts in the project folder without the environment. On macOS this is because Terminal.app and iTerm2 are launched through open, which doesn't pass environment variables on. For WSL, nothing crosses into the Linux distribution. Settings and the menu say so next to each such terminal.

A terminal that isn't installed is still listed. Opening it tells you it couldn't be found.

Open in PyCharm

Click the PC button on a project, or use Open in PyCharm in the tray menu. Bombadil does three things:

  1. Sets the project interpreter to the environment, in the project's .idea folder and in PyCharm's list of Python SDKs. Modules inside the project that were pinned to another of the project's environments are switched to use the project interpreter.
  2. Passes the composed environment to PyCharm, so its terminal and run configurations see your variables, secrets and the activated environment.
  3. Opens the project folder in PyCharm.

Choose which PyCharm to use in Settings › PyCharm. By default, Bombadil finds it in the usual install locations:

  • Linux: the JetBrains Toolbox script, the PyCharm snaps, /opt/pycharm/bin/pycharm.sh, or pycharm on PATH.
  • macOS: the Toolbox script, or PyCharm (or PyCharm CE) in /Applications or ~/Applications.
  • Windows: the Toolbox script, or C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm\bin\pycharm64.exe.

Close the project in PyCharm first

PyCharm keeps its SDK list in memory and writes it back when it exits, which would undo the change. While PyCharm is running, Bombadil only reuses an SDK entry that already points at the environment. Otherwise it opens the project anyway and tells you which interpreter to select by hand. See Gotchas.