Interactive TUI

Interactive TUI

clido includes a full terminal user interface built with Ratatui. It provides a chat-style interaction model with real-time tool progress, session management, and permission prompts.

Launching the TUI

Run clido with no arguments from a terminal (TTY):

clido

To start with an existing session:

clido --continue          # resume the most recent session for this directory
clido --resume abc123     # resume a specific session by ID prefix

Layout

╭─ clido ──────────────────────────────── claude-3-5-sonnet ──────────────────╮
│                                                                               │
│  [assistant]                                                                  │
│  I've read src/main.rs. The issue is on line 42 — the match arm is           │
│  missing a wildcard case. I'll fix it now.                                    │
│                                                                               │
│  [tool: Edit]  src/main.rs                                                    │
│  + 42:    _ => Err(ParseError::Unknown),                                      │
│                                                                               │
│  [tool: Bash]  cargo check                                                    │
│  ✓ Finished in 1.2s                                                           │
│                                                                               │
│  Done. The wildcard arm has been added and the project compiles cleanly.      │
│                                                                               │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ session:a1b2c3  $0.0034  1,240 tok  4 turns           [running] Edit         │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ > _                                                                           │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Area	Description
Chat pane (top)	Scrollable conversation history. Assistant messages, tool calls, and tool results appear here in order.
Status strip (middle)	Session ID prefix, accumulated cost, token count, turn count, and current tool activity.
Input field (bottom)	Single-line text input. Press Enter to send. Pasted text is inserted and waits for manual Enter.

Key bindings

Normal mode (agent idle)

Key	Action
Enter	Send the message in the input field
Ctrl+C	Quit
Ctrl+/	Interrupt current run without sending a new message
Ctrl+Y	Copy the last assistant message via OSC 52
Up / Down	Scroll chat history (or history navigation when typing)
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll chat history by page
Ctrl+U	Clear the input field

While agent is running

Key	Action
Ctrl+Enter	Cancel current run and send the current input immediately
Ctrl+/	Cancel current run without sending a follow-up prompt
Any text	Queue a message to send after the agent finishes

Permission prompt (modal)

Key	Action
y / Enter	Allow this tool call
n / Escape	Deny this tool call
a	Allow all remaining calls in this session

Session picker

Key	Action
Up / Down	Move selection
Enter	Open selected session
Escape	Close picker
/ + text	Filter sessions by ID or preview text

Error modal

Key	Action
Enter / Escape	Dismiss

Slash commands

Type a slash command in the input field and press Enter:

Command	Description	Example
/help	Show all slash commands	/help
/sessions	Open the session picker	/sessions
/clear	Clear the chat display (session is preserved)	/clear
/plan	Show the current planner task graph (if --planner is active)	/plan
/memory	Search long-term memory	/memory refactor patterns
/cost	Print accumulated cost and token usage	/cost
/model	Show or switch active model	/model gpt-4.1
/workdir	Show or set workdir used by tools	/workdir ~/src/project
/stop	Interrupt current run without sending	/stop
/copy	Copy last assistant message (OSC 52)	/copy
/enhance <prompt>	Enhance prompt, review before sending	/enhance fix the auth bug
/notify [on|off]	Toggle desktop notifications	/notify on
/quit	Quit clido	/quit

Permission prompts

When the agent calls a state-changing tool (e.g. Bash, Write, Edit) and the permission mode is default, clido pauses and shows a prompt:

╭─ Permission Required ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│                                                                               │
│  Tool: Bash                                                                   │
│  Input:                                                                       │
│    command: "rm -rf ./build"                                                  │
│                                                                               │
│  Allow this tool call?                                                        │
│  [y] Yes   [n] No   [a] Allow all                                             │
│                                                                               │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

• y / Enter — allow this single call
• n / Escape — deny; the agent receives an error and may try an alternative
• a — allow all remaining tool calls in the session (equivalent to --permission-mode accept-all)

::: tip Skipping prompts Pass --permission-mode accept-all to skip all permission prompts. Use --permission-mode plan to prevent the agent from calling any tools at all (plan-only mode). :::

Session picker

Open the session picker with /sessions:

╭─ Sessions ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│  > a1b2c3  2026-03-21  ~/projects/app  "Refactor the parser module"  $0.023  │
│    d4e5f6  2026-03-20  ~/projects/app  "Add unit tests for lexer"    $0.041  │
│    789abc  2026-03-19  ~/projects/lib  "Fix memory leak in pool"     $0.019  │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Press Enter to resume the selected session. The chat history is loaded and you can continue the conversation.

Status strip

The status strip at the bottom of the chat pane shows:

Field	Example	Description
Session ID	session:a1b2c3	First 6 characters of the session ID
Cost	$0.0034	Accumulated cost for this session
Tokens	1,240 tok	Total tokens used (input + output)
Turns	4 turns	Number of agent turns completed
Activity	[running] Edit	Current tool name while agent is active

When the agent is idle the activity field is blank.

Scroll behaviour

The chat pane scrolls automatically to the bottom as new content arrives. If you scroll up manually, auto-scroll is paused. Scroll back to the bottom to re-enable auto-scroll.

Input history

The TUI remembers your last 50 inputs per session. Press Up when the input field is empty to cycle through previous messages.

Queueing messages

You can type a message while the agent is running. The message is queued and sent automatically when the current agent turn completes. The queued message is shown with a subtle indicator in the status strip.

Clipboard notes

/copy and Ctrl+Y use OSC 52 clipboard integration. Support depends on your terminal and SSH setup.

• Works in most modern local terminals.
• Over SSH, clipboard support may require explicit terminal settings.
• If OSC 52 is blocked, clido shows a copy error and your clipboard is unchanged.

Text selection

Shift+drag in the chat area to select text character-by-character. The selection is highlighted in real time. On mouse release, the selected text is automatically copied to your clipboard and a brief toast confirmation appears near the cursor.

This works even though clido enables mouse capture for scrolling — Shift bypasses terminal mouse capture so the app can handle selection itself.