TUI Overview

When running llmist agent in an interactive terminal, you get access to a rich Terminal User Interface (TUI) that helps you monitor and interact with the agent’s execution.

Features

Interactive Blocks

Each LLM call and gadget execution is displayed as a collapsible block:

LLM calls show the streaming response in real-time
Gadget executions show parameters, status, and results
Expand/collapse any block to see full details

Real-time Status Bar

The status bar at the bottom shows:

Metric	Description
Tokens	Input/output tokens used
Cost	Estimated cost in USD
Time	Elapsed time for current operation
Model	Current model being used

Raw Request/Response Viewer

Debug LLM interactions by viewing:

Raw JSON request sent to the provider
Full response payload received

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
`↑` / `k`	Select previous block
`↓` / `j`	Select next block
`Enter`	Toggle expand/collapse selected block
`r`	View raw request
`R`	View raw response
`Ctrl+B`	Toggle browse/input mode
`Ctrl+C` (×2)	Quit agent

Browse vs Input Mode

The TUI has two modes:

Input Mode (default) - Type messages to send to the agent
Browse Mode - Navigate through execution history

Toggle between modes with Ctrl+B. In browse mode, you can:

Navigate blocks with arrow keys or j/k
Expand blocks to see full content
Inspect raw LLM payloads

Non-Interactive Mode

When running without a TTY (e.g., in scripts or CI), the TUI is disabled and output is streamed directly to stdout:

# Runs without TUI
echo "How many floppies for DOOM.ZIP?" | bunx @llmist/cli agent -g ./floppy.ts

# Use --quiet to suppress all output except gadget results
bunx @llmist/cli agent "Check my high score" -g ./arcade.ts --quiet

# Runs without TUI
echo "How many floppies for DOOM.ZIP?" | npx @llmist/cli agent -g ./floppy.ts

# Use --quiet to suppress all output except gadget results
npx @llmist/cli agent "Check my high score" -g ./arcade.ts --quiet