TUI — Terminal Interface

abtars tui attaches a terminal face to the always-on bridge — like tmux attach for your agent. It runs over a Unix socket (~/.abtars/tui.sock) so the headless daemon never touches a terminal; the foreground client owns the PTY and renders via Pi's TUI library.

Requirements

• Bridge running with TUI_ENABLED=true (or --tui flag)
• @earendil-works/pi-tui installed (abtars deps install)
• A terminal that supports raw mode (SSH works, tmux works)

Usage

abtars tui                    # resume active session, or create Main (A)
abtars tui --session 2        # switch to existing TUI session #2
abtars tui --new C            # create a new C-type session
abtars tui --orc              # attach to the Orc session (query-only)

--session, --new, and --orc are mutually exclusive.

Attach Modes

Mode	Effect
resume (default)	Reattaches to your active TUI session, or creates a new Main (A) session
--session N	Switches to an existing TUI session by index
--new [TYPE]	Creates a fresh session (A, B, or C; defaults to A)
--orc	Attaches to the persistent Orc session — query-only, no interruption

Orc Mode

--orc sends queries to the Orc session. If Orc is busy, your input is rejected with a message (never preempts). You receive the full response when Orc is idle.

Detachment

• Ctrl-C / Ctrl-D — clean detach, exit 0
• New attach from another terminal — supersedes the current connection; old client sees a clean detach message and exits 0
• Bridge dies — socket closes, client restores terminal, exits 0

All detach paths restore the terminal to its original state.

Steering

From any attach mode, prefix your input with /steer to send a cooperative steering instruction to the current session:

/steer focus on the test file first

Steer is queued and consumed when the busy session reaches a safe boundary. You receive an acknowledgement (Steer queued) and a lifecycle update when consumed.

Session Selector

The TUI maintains one active session at a time. Switch with --session N or create new ones with --new. Each session has independent context — switching preserves the prior session's state.

What you see

• Status line — model, provider, token usage, context utilization, reasoning level
• Message log — scrollable conversation history with Markdown rendering
• Editor — text input area at the bottom
• System messages — session events, steer acknowledgements, activity updates (Orc mode)