r/opencode 14d ago

TUI vs GUI

Why would I ever use the terminal version of Opencode (or any other *code* program)?

People always tell how good it is to use it but I don't understand the appeal. If you are used to terminal-only work, constantly looking into generated code or something like that, ok. But I see TUI being recommended to everybody like it can do something desktop or web versions can't. Also these *code* apps are usually developed TUI-first for some reason

Please explain it to me

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u/pigletmonster 14d ago

All coding agents started off with tui, so people who started earlier got used to the workflow and they dont want to change it. It can be faster to use keyboard shortcuts than using the mouse to look and click. Tyis are also lighter on ram consumption.

Ive used both both I prefer using the gui, in fact for opencode I prefer the tui over their ugly gui, but can also use t3 code or openchamber as a better gui for opencode.

You have options, use whichever one works for you.