Melt

Settings ▸ Melt decides which commands open as a full-screen session in Mel and whether Ctrl+Enter in an SSH session starts an agent on the remote machine. The page was called Sessions before.

Interactive commands

Built in: ssh, the coding-agent CLIs Mel hosts, and full-screen programs (vim, less, top, tmux…). Two lists change that:

• Added commands — more commands to open as a full-screen session.
• Denylisted commands — commands that should stay as normal blocks.

Each entry is a command name or a regular expression.

Subshells, containers and REPLs

A program that starts another shell or a prompt of its own, such as docker exec -it, poetry shell, nix-shell, python or psql, isn't on Mel's built-in list. To give it a real interactive terminal, add it to Added commands, for example docker exec -it, python3? or psql. It then opens full screen, with your keys going straight to it, and collapses into one finished block when you exit.

Inside such a session Mel doesn't split the output into blocks or show chips; those come back when you return to your own shell. The same is true of ssh (see SSH & remote).

Patterns match the program at the start of the line as a whole word: python matches python app.py, not echo python. An entry on Denylisted commands always wins.

SSH

Melt SSH sessions

On by default. When you're inside an interactive ssh session, pressing Ctrl+Enter (⌘↵ on a Mac) starts an agent conversation whose tools run on the remote host — reading files, listing directories, searching, and running commands all execute over your existing ssh connection, with nothing installed on the remote machine.

With this toggle on:

• Run ssh user@host as usual — the session renders as a full interactive terminal.
• Press Ctrl+Enter at any point to melt it. The conversation landing shows the remote target (for example user@host:~), and every agent tool call from then on is routed through ssh to that host.
• Model calls still go through the Mel relay as normal; only the *tools* move to the remote side. See Privacy for exactly what leaves your machine.

Turn the toggle off if you never want Ctrl+Enter inside an SSH session to start a remote agent — for example, if the remote application you're using binds that key itself.

Where it persists

Like everything in Settings, the change applies immediately and is saved to ~/.mel/settings.json (field: ssh_melt). See the Settings overview for the full persistence picture.

Related controls elsewhere

A few session-shaped settings live on other pages by topic:

• Maximum blocks per session and the new-session help block are on Features.
• Agent input behavior inside conversations (shell autodetect, hints) is on AI.
• Block rendering (dividers, compact headers, pane dimming) is on Appearance.

FAQ

How do I make a command open as a full interactive terminal? Add its name or a pattern to Added commands on Settings ▸ Melt.

Why does a program show as a block instead of full screen? It isn't on Mel's built-in list. Add it to Added commands, or remove it from Denylisted commands.

Can I stop Ctrl+Enter melting my SSH session? Yes. Turn off Melt SSH sessions.