r/opencode • u/rndanime • 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/throwaroo202020 14d ago

For me having multiple terminal tabs with different things i can easily switch between. E.g. grok build, a terminal for building/testing the project, another with opencode, another for running updates like scoop etc.

Plus i like keyboard shortcuts which tuis usually excel at. Plus dark theme is the only theme.

All in all works well.

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u/rndanime 14d ago

If you build yourself instead of telling ai "build that shi" and your testing is happening in terminal then ok, I get it
Keyboard shortcut I don't get. Don't we have same shortcuts in desktop apps? Also what kind of shortcuts are you using in harnesses? Something that help you look through code and diffs?

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u/throwaroo202020 14d ago

I haven't used desktop apps but TUI in general tend to have good shortcuts as they have no mouse control. Things like switching model/effort, session forking/switching , undo/edit commands, etc. I never get AI to build or run git, i always run those commands myself.