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TUI

Using the CoDev Code terminal user interface.

CoDev Code provides an interactive terminal interface or TUI for working on your projects with an LLM.

Running CoDev Code starts the TUI for the current directory.

codev

Or you can start it for a specific working directory.

codev /path/to/project

Once you're in the TUI, you can prompt it with a message.

Give me a quick summary of the codebase.

File references

You can reference files in your messages using @. This does a fuzzy file search in the current working directory.

You can also use @ to reference files in your messages.

How is auth handled in @packages/functions/src/api/index.ts?

The content of the file is added to the conversation automatically.

Configured references also appear in @ autocomplete. Type @alias to add the reference root as context, or type @alias/ to autocomplete files inside that reference.

Compare our setup with @docs/README.md

Bash commands

Start a message with ! to run a shell command.

!ls -la

The output of the command is added to the conversation as a tool result.

Commands

When using the CoDev Code TUI, you can type / followed by a command name to quickly execute actions. For example:

/help

Most commands also have keyboard shortcuts using ctrl+x as the default leader key. Learn more.

Here are all available slash commands:

connect

Add a provider to CoDev Code. Allows you to select from available providers and add their API keys.

/connect

compact

Compact the current session. Alias: /summarize

/compact

Keybind: ctrl+x c

details

Toggle tool execution details.

/details

editor

Open external editor for composing messages. Uses the editor set in your EDITOR environment variable. Learn more.

/editor

Keybind: ctrl+x e

exit

Exit CoDev Code. Aliases: /quit, /q

/exit

Keybind: ctrl+x q

export

Export current conversation to Markdown and open in your default editor. Uses the editor set in your EDITOR environment variable. Learn more.

/export

Keybind: ctrl+x x

help

Show the help dialog.

/help

init

Guided setup for creating or updating AGENTS.md. Learn more.

/init

models

List available models.

/models

Keybind: ctrl+x m

new

Start a new session. Alias: /clear

/new

Keybind: ctrl+x n

redo

Redo a previously undone message. Only available after using /undo.

Any file changes will also be restored.

Internally, this uses Git to manage the file changes. So your project needs to be a Git repository.

/redo

Keybind: ctrl+x r

sessions

List and switch between sessions. Aliases: /resume, /continue

/sessions

Keybind: ctrl+x l

share

Share current session.

/share

themes

List available themes.

/themes

Keybind: ctrl+x t

thinking

Toggle the visibility of thinking/reasoning blocks in the conversation. When enabled, you can see the model's reasoning process for models that support extended thinking.

This command only controls whether thinking blocks are displayed - it does not enable or disable the model's reasoning capabilities. To toggle actual reasoning capabilities, use ctrl+t to cycle through model variants.

/thinking

undo

Undo last message in the conversation. Removes the most recent user message, all subsequent responses, and any file changes.

Any file changes made will also be reverted.

Internally, this uses Git to manage the file changes. So your project needs to be a Git repository.

/undo

Keybind: ctrl+x u

unshare

Unshare current session.

/unshare

Editor setup

Both the /editor and /export commands use the editor specified in your EDITOR environment variable.

# Example for nano or vim
export EDITOR=nano
export EDITOR=vim
 
# For GUI editors, VS Code, Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf, Zed, etc.
# include --wait
export EDITOR="code --wait"

To make it permanent, add this to your shell profile; ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.

Popular editor options include:

  • code - Visual Studio Code
  • cursor - Cursor
  • windsurf - Windsurf
  • nvim - Neovim editor
  • vim - Vim editor
  • nano - Nano editor
  • notepad - Windows Notepad
  • subl - Sublime Text

Some editors like VS Code need to be started with the --wait flag.

Some editors need command-line arguments to run in blocking mode. The --wait flag makes the editor process block until closed.

Windows terminals

CoDev Code draws its interface with Unicode text and works best in Windows Terminal, the default terminal on Windows 11.

The legacy console window — what opens on Windows 10 when you launch PowerShell or cmd directly — may use a raster font. Raster fonts can only draw characters from the legacy OEM code page, so accented and non-Latin text such as Vietnamese or CJK shows up as ? on screen, in both your prompts and the model's responses, even though the underlying text is correct.

CoDev Code detects this at startup and shows a warning: "This console cannot display Unicode". If you see it, do one of the following:

  • Run CoDev Code in Windows Terminal. Install it from the Microsoft Store and set it as the default terminal application.
  • Or switch the console font to a TrueType font: right-click the window's title bar, select Properties > Font, and pick a font such as Consolas or Cascadia Mono.

This only affects how the console displays text — your session data is not corrupted, and the same conversation renders correctly once the font or terminal is fixed.

Configure

You can customize TUI behavior through tui.json (or tui.jsonc).

tui.json
{
  "theme": "opencode",
  "leader_timeout": 2000,
  "keybinds": {
    "leader": "ctrl+x",
    "command_list": "ctrl+p"
  },
  "scroll_speed": 3,
  "scroll_acceleration": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "diff_style": "auto",
  "cursor": {
    "style": "block",
    "blinking": true
  },
  "mouse": true,
  "attention": {
    "enabled": true,
    "notifications": true,
    "sound": true,
    "volume": 0.4,
    "sound_pack": "opencode.default",
    "sounds": {
      "error": "./sounds/error.mp3"
    }
  }
}

This is separate from codev.json, which configures server/runtime behavior.

keybinds is merged with built-in defaults, so you only need to configure the shortcuts you want to change.

Options

  • theme - Sets your UI theme. Learn more.
  • keybinds - Customizes keyboard shortcuts. Learn more.
  • leader_timeout - Controls how long CoDev Code waits after the leader key. Defaults to 2000.
  • scroll_acceleration.enabled - Enable macOS-style scroll acceleration for smooth, natural scrolling. When enabled, scroll speed increases with rapid scrolling gestures and stays precise for slower movements. This setting takes precedence over scroll_speed and overrides it when enabled.
  • scroll_speed - Controls how fast the TUI scrolls when using scroll commands (minimum: 0.001, supports decimal values). Defaults to 3. Note: This is ignored if scroll_acceleration.enabled is set to true.
  • diff_style - Controls diff rendering. "auto" adapts to terminal width, "stacked" always shows a single-column layout.
  • cursor - Controls the terminal cursor in TUI input fields. style defaults to "block", can be "underline", "line", or "default"; blinking defaults to true. When style is "default", the terminal default cursor is restored, so blinking has no effect.
  • mouse - Enable or disable mouse capture in the TUI (default: true). When disabled, the terminal's native mouse selection/scrolling behavior is preserved.
  • attention - Configures TUI desktop notifications and sounds. Disabled by default.

Use CODEV_TUI_CONFIG to load a custom TUI config path.

Attention

The TUI can request attention for questions, permissions, session errors, and completed sessions. Enable it with attention.enabled; built-in events play sounds when triggered, and non-subagent events request desktop notifications only when the terminal is blurred.

  • enabled - Enable all attention notifications and sounds. Defaults to false.
  • notifications - Allow terminal-mediated desktop notifications when attention is enabled. Defaults to true.
  • sound - Allow attention sounds when attention is enabled. Defaults to true.
  • volume - Default sound volume from 0 to 1. Defaults to 0.4.
  • sound_pack - Sound pack ID to use. Defaults to opencode.default.
  • sounds - Override sound files for default, question, permission, error, done, or subagent_done. Paths can be absolute, file:// URLs, or relative to tui.json.

Customization

You can customize various aspects of the TUI view using the command palette (ctrl+p). These settings persist across restarts.

Username display

Toggle whether your username appears in chat messages. Access this through:

  • Command palette: Search for "username" or "hide username"
  • The setting persists automatically and will be remembered across TUI sessions