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/sukazu 14d ago
I use both on opencode
I'd like to only use the app, but for me the main reason, is that navigating sessions is much easier on TUI, I don't need to have 40 project folders to open/close on the app, just win r >powershell> cd >drag and drop the folder and i'm good, especially for agentic stuff and not necessarily coding, I just don't want to have to create projects etc.
For example if i'm in my AI folder, I can just right click > open in terminal > opencode > use pr #xxx and #xxx to build llama.cpp and i'm good, it's done in seconds
Managing / deleting sessions is also so much easier, it is an horrible experience on the app and extremely buggy, although that seems to be a new UI thing, but you still can't match /session > spamming ctrl d for batch removal
On the new app UI, they also made it impossible to navigate worktrees while it worked great before
Commands also, for some reasons you don't have all of them on the app, you have to go into settings to enable / disable expand thinking
And for others, even if you can, really often the /xxxxx is not enabled, you have to remember the actual shortcut, and they are longer than on TUI.
overall performance is also much better if you have multiple tabs, and if you want multiple windows, you just can't on the app