TUI Interface

TAU's terminal interface is built with Ratatui for 60fps rendering and full keyboard control.

Launch

# Start TUI (default)
tau

# Start with specific provider/model
tau --provider anthropic --model claude-sonnet-4-5

# Start in a specific directory
tau --directory /path/to/project

Layout

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Left Sidebar]  │  [Main Chat Area]                                  │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│ │ Files       │ │  │ > tau "Add authentication to the API"        │  │
│ │ ▸ src/      │ │  │                                              │  │
│ │   main.rs   │ │  │ ● Analyzing codebase (4,203 files)...        │  │
│ │   lib.rs    │ │  │ ● Found 12 API endpoints                     │  │
│ │ ▸ tests/    │ │  │ ✓ Created src/middleware/auth.rs             │  │
│ │   Cargo.toml│ │  │                                              │  │
│ ├─────────────┤ │  │   src/middleware/auth.rs                     │  │
│ │ Usage       │ │  │   ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ │  │
│ │ 12.5K tokens│ │  │   │ pub fn verify_token(req: Request)      │ │  │
│ │ $0.024      │ │  │   │   let token = req.headers().get()...   │ │  │
│ │             │ │  │   └────────────────────────────────────────┘ │  │
│ └─────────────┘ │  │                                              │  │
│                 │  │ ✓ Applied to 12 files                        │  │
│                 │  │ ✓ cargo nextest: All tests passing           │  │
│                 │  └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [B]  [V]  [T]              claude-opus-4     12,450 tokens   $0.024  │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
`Enter`	Send message
`Shift+Enter`	New line in input
`Tab`	Switch between Build/Plan mode
`Ctrl+C`	Cancel current operation
`Ctrl+L`	Clear screen
`Ctrl+N`	New session
`Ctrl+O`	Open session picker
`Ctrl+S`	Save session
`@`	Fuzzy search files to add to context
`/`	Open command palette
`↑/↓`	Scroll chat history
`Esc`	Close dialog/cancel

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/init	Initialize project, create TAU.md
/new	Create new session
/files	Open file picker
/model [name]	Switch model
/undo	Undo last agent changes
/redo	Redo undone changes
/clear	Clear chat history
/share	Share conversation link
/theme [name]	Switch theme
/help	Show help

Status Bar Indicators

The status bar shows active tool indicators:

[B]

Browser active

[W]

Web search

[V]

Vision active

[T]

Tasks MCP

Left Sidebar

Files — Project file tree (collapsible directories)
Usage — Real-time token count and cost

Themes

# Switch theme
/theme windsurf
/theme monokini
/theme light

# Or in config.toml
[tui]
theme = "windsurf"

Build vs Plan Mode

Press Tab to switch modes:

Build Mode

Agent can make changes to files. Full tool access enabled.

Plan Mode

Agent can only suggest changes. No file modifications allowed. Good for planning before execution.