Create and save a connection with File → New session. To open it later, find it in the Sessions pane and double-click its name, or select it and choose File → Connect selected. Expand its folder if necessary and clear the filter if it is hiding entries. Edit → Go to Session Manager brings the pane into view.

Choose File → Quick Connect for an immediate SSH2/SFTP/Telnet/raw/serial/local connection. File → New session walks through protocol, endpoint and name/folder. Saved entries are in the Sessions pane. Double-click an entry, or select entries/folders and choose Connect selected.

For SSH, supply the hostname, port, username and optionally a private key in Session Properties. Authentication and unknown/changed host-key messages appear in the terminal. Accept a key only after checking its fingerprint. The host-key database belongs to the current application profile. Tools → Manage host keys lets you inspect/import/export it.

SSH settings include jump hosts, agent forwarding, compression, algorithm preferences and local/remote/dynamic forwards. Forward lines use L|127.0.0.1:8080:target:80, R|127.0.0.1:8080:target:80 or D|127.0.0.1:1080. Forwarding only requests no shell. Trusted advanced OpenSSH options use one Key=Value line each.

Local shells use a PTY on Linux and ConPTY on Windows. Serial connections use device paths or COM names and configurable baud/format/flow/break settings. Telnet negotiates terminal type and window size. Raw TCP passes bytes without protocol framing.

Right-click entries to edit, rename, cut/copy/paste or delete. Live filtering narrows the tree; a trailing / includes matching folders. Global Settings controls application behaviour. Default Session sets initial preferences for new sessions and offers explicit propagation of changed fields. Multi-selection editing changes only modified fields.

Options → Session properties edits the active session. Several transport settings take effect on reconnect; appearance/input options can apply immediately. Save active ad hoc settings with File → Save current session. If automatic saving is disabled, use Options → Save settings now to commit changes before exit. Global, session and invocation options use separate scopes.

Imports accept native JSON/XML and simple comma/tab text rows (name,host,protocol,port,username,folder). Use tabs for values containing commas. Import is previewed before applying and asks how to handle conflicting session names. Export does not contain passwords or private-key bytes.

The terminal supports colour, Unicode, primary/alternate screens, cursor modes, line drawing, selection and scrollback. In Session properties → Terminal → Appearance, foreground, background and cursor colours each have a swatch and Choose colour… button. Select from the visual palette; entering a colour code is optional. Use Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+V to copy/paste. Ctrl+C remains a remote interrupt unless Windows-style copy hotkeys are explicitly enabled. Shift+PageUp/PageDown scroll locally. Hold Shift to select locally when a remote application uses mouse tracking. Ctrl+mouse wheel changes font size.

Use the toolbar phrase box for temporary highlights, or configure permanent pattern/colour/regex rows under Terminal → Highlighting. Search with Ctrl+F. Clear screen, scrollback and reset are separate Edit commands. Hex View displays recent received bytes. Multi-line paste asks for confirmation at the configured threshold. Cancelling sends nothing; Edit → Cancel pending paste/send stops queued paced input.

Lock a session from File; choose a local unlock password. Locked sessions stay connected but hide their screen and reject scripted reads and broadcast input. Unlock restores the same session.

Drag tabs to reorder within a group. Window menu commands create horizontal/vertical groups, collapse them, or move a tab to the next group. Right-click tabs for reconnect, clone, rename/reset, save and properties. Active Sessions lists open connections and supports selected disconnect/close/lock actions.

The Command window's destination selector is explicit: active, all, visible, or selected groups. Send submits text to exactly that scope; locked/disconnected tabs are skipped. Mark a group with Window → Send commands to this group. Group recipients have a leading asterisk in their tab labels.

Commands have labels, descriptions, folder, colour and a typed action. Tools → New command/button adds one. Commands can send text, run Python scripts, launch a trusted local application, connect a saved session, or invoke supported terminal menu actions. Literal send strings recognise \r, \n, \t and \e.

Save a named snapshot from File to retain session settings and tab-group layout. Manage snapshots to open, rename, duplicate or delete them. Snapshots are not remote process checkpoints.

Help → About Lantern Terminal displays the active configuration directory. Close the application when you can disconnect, then copy that directory to a backup location. The –config command-line option selects a different directory.

Use Tools → Export settings… and Tools → Import settings… to move session settings. Exports omit passwords and private-key bytes. Keys, local file paths and installed shell/device names may need updating on the destination computer. Workspace snapshots retain settings and tab layout; they do not keep remote processes alive or record a remote machine's state.

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