[whazor]

I currently have a TUI addiction. Each time I want something to be easier, I open claude-code and ask for a TUI. Now I have a git worktree manager where I can add/rebase/delete. As TUI library I use Textual which claude handles quite well, especially as it can test-run quite some Python code.

[CRConrad]

> Each time I want something to be easier, I open claude-code and ask for a TUI.

WTF has happened to software development, that anyone thinks they need "AI" for that? Any self-respecting half-way decent IDE has had parameterized templates for that since at least the mid-1990s. (They used to be called "Wizards" on Windows, or "Experts" in the Borland tools.)

Select "File", "New", "[Whatever]", answer a few questions in a (series of) dialog(s), click "Finish", and hey presto!, you had a new project, templated according to your preferences, with the UI scaffolding all finished. (Mostly GUI, of course, since that was the hot new thing back then; but could just as easily have been TUI, and I suppose some had that too.)

All done locally on your stonking new 486 266 Mhz / 16 MB. No need to burn half the planet to run some LLM "in the cloud", i.e. on someone else's machine in a datacenter somewhere. Jeebus fuck, does one have to be labelled "old curmudgeon" just for thinking there's something seriously wrong going on here nowadays?

[eulers_secret]

Tig is a nice and long-maintained git tui you might enjoy, then!

If nothing else maybe for inspiration

[rw_panic0_0]

how do you trust the code claude wrote? don't you get anxiety "what if there's an error in tui code and it would mess up my git repo"?

[freedomben]

I'm not GP, but I have backups, plus I always make sure I've committed and pushed all code I care about to the remote. I do this even when running a prompt in an agent. That goes for running most things actually, not just CC. If claude code runs a git push -f then that could really hurt, but I have enough confidence from working with the agents that they aren't going to do that that it's worth it to me to take the risk in exchange for the convenience of using the agent.

[embedding-shape]

> how do you trust the code claude wrote?

If that's something you're worried about, review the code before running it.

> don't you get anxiety "what if there's an error in tui code and it would mess up my git repo"?

I think you might want to not run untrusted programs in an environment like that, alternatively find a way of start being able to trust the program. Either approaches work, and works best depending on what you're trying to do.

[fragmede]

It's a git repo. What's sort of mess-ups are you worried about that you can't reflog your way out of (or ask claude code to fix)? It's certainly possible to lose uncommitted work, but once it's been committed, unless claude code goes and deletes .git entirely (which I've had codex do, so you'd better push it somewhere), you can't lose work.

[sclangdon]

Isn't it this case no matter who wrote the code? How do you ever run anything if you're worried about bugs?

[whazor]

I push my branches daily, so I wouldn't lose that much work. If it breaks then I ask it to fix it.

But I do quickly check the output what it does, and especially the commands it runs. Sometimes it throws all code in a single file, so I ask for 'good architecture with abstractions'.

[ithkuil]

I assume that whatever I type can be also flawed and take precautions like backups etc

[kevmo314]

I don’t even trust myself to not mess up my git repo

[kqr]

In the case of Git, I can warmly recommend Magit as a TUI. Not only does it make frequent operations easier and rare operations doable -- it also teaches you Git!

I have a draft here about one aspect of Magit I enjoy: https://entropicthoughts.com/rebasing-in-magit

[firesteelrain]

Can you explain TUI? I have never heard this before

[Bjartr]

Terminal User Interface, contrasting with a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Most often applied to programs that use the terminal as a pseudo-graphical canvas that they draw on with characters to provide an interactive page that can be navigated around with the keyboard.

Really, they're just a GUI drawn with Unicode instead of drawing primitives.

Like many restrictions, limiting oneself to just a fixed grid of colored Unicode characters for drawing lends itself to more creative solutions to problems. Some people prefer such UIs, some people don't.

[GCUMstlyHarmls]

Eg: lazygit https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit?tab=readme-ov-file#... https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi https://github.com/darrenburns/posting or I guess Vim would be a prominent example.

Peoples definitions will be on a gradient, but its somewhere between CLI (type into a terminal to use) and GUI (use your mouse in a windowing system), TUI runs in your terminal like a CLI but probably supports "graphical widgets" like buttons, bars, hotkeys, panes, etc.

[booleandilemma]

It's definitely an acronym that got popular in the last year or so, though I'm sure there are people out there who will pretend otherwise. I've been in the industry 15+ years now and never heard it before. Previously it was just UI, GUI, or CLI.

[layer8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface

[ses1984]

Terminal UI.

[Trufa]

The amount of little tools I'm creating for myself is incredible, 4.6 seems like it can properly one/two shot it now without my attention.

Did you open source that one? I was thinking of this exact same thing but wanted to think a little about how to share deps, i.e. if I do quick worktree to try a branch I don't wanna npm i that takes forever.

Also, if you share it with me, there's obviously no expectations, even it's a half backed vibecoded mess.

[unshavedyak]

I’ve been wanting similar but have instead been focused on GUI. My #1 issue with TUI is that I’ve never liked code jumps very smooth high fps fast scrolling. Between that and terminal lacking variable font sizes, I’d vastly prefer TUIs, but I just struggle to get over those two issues.

I’ve been entirely terminal based for 20 years now and those issues have just worn me down. Yet I still love terminal for its simplicity. Rock and a hard place I guess.

[SauntSolaire]

What's the point of open sourcing something you one shot with an LLM? At that point just open source the prompt you used to generate it.

[whazor]

This is how I solve the dependencies with Nix: https://gist.github.com/whazor/bca8b687e26081e77d818bc26033c...

Nix helps Claude a lot with dependencies, it can add stuff and execute the flake as well.

I will come back to you with project itself.

[elliotbnvl]

The deps question is huge, let me know if you solve it.

[hattmall]

What are some examples of useful TUI you made? I'm generally opposed to the concept

[lionkor]

That sounds like a complete waste of time and tokens to me, what is the benefit? So each time you do something, you let Claude one shot a tui? This seems like a waste of compute and your time

[htnthrow11220]

They said each time they want something to be easier, not each time they do something. And they didn’t mention it has to be one-shot. You might have read too quickly and you’ve responded to something that didn’t actually exist.

[MarsIronPI]

On the contrary. Once these tools exist they exist forever, independently of Claude or a Claude Code subscription. IMO this is the best way to use AI for personal use.

[bmacho]

Now that I think about it, if Claude can put most useful functions in a TUI and make them discoverable (show them in a list), than this could be better than asking for one-liners (and forgetting them) every single time.

Maybe I'll try using small TUI too.

[duneisagoodbook]

yeah! they should focus on more productive pursuits, like telling people online what to do with their time and resources.