TUI & Autonomy

TUI

intendant includes a ratatui-based terminal UI that launches automatically when both stdin and stdout are terminals. The TUI provides real-time monitoring and control of the agent loop.

Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ StatusBar: provider │ model │ turn │ budget  │  1 line
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ActionPanel: phase + spinner + key hints    │  2 lines
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                             │
│ LogPanel: scrollable, color-coded entries   │  fills remaining
│                                             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ApprovalPanel / InputPanel (conditional)    │  3-4 lines
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Panels

Status bar: Provider, model, turn count, budget percentage, autonomy level
Action panel: Current phase with spinner — Thinking, RunningAgent, Orchestrating, WaitingApproval, WaitingHuman, WaitingFollowUp, Idle, Done
Log panel: Scrollable chronological log with color-coded levels (Info, Warning, Error, Debug)
Approval panel: Shown when an action needs user approval — command preview + category, y/s/a/n keys
Input panel: Shown when askHuman is triggered — tui-textarea for response
Follow-up panel: Shown when agent completes a round and awaits follow-up input
Help overlay: Key bindings reference (? key)
Inspect overlay: Detailed view of selected log entry

Key Bindings

Key	Action
`q` / `Ctrl-C`	Quit
`v`	Toggle verbose mode (cycle through quiet/normal/verbose/debug)
`?`	Help overlay
`+` / `-`	Cycle autonomy level
`Up`/`Down`/`PgUp`/`PgDn`	Scroll log
`Home` / `End`	Jump to top/bottom of log
`1`-`3`	Toggle panels (status, action, log)
`y` / `Enter`	Approve pending action
`s`	Skip pending action
`a`	Auto-approve all remaining
`n`	Deny and stop

Markdown Rendering

Model responses containing markdown are rendered with syntax highlighting in the log panel:

Headers (# through ####) in blue
Bold (**text**) with bright styling
Italic (*text*) in lavender
Inline code (`code`) in green
Fenced code blocks (```) in green
List items (- and * ) with yellow bullets
Horizontal rules (---) as dim lines

When a model is generating a response, text deltas are forwarded to the TUI in real-time via AppEvent::ModelResponseDelta and accumulated in a streaming buffer. The buffer is cleared when the full response arrives. This gives immediate feedback during long model responses.

Theme

The TUI uses a Catppuccin Mocha-inspired color scheme with budget-aware color thresholds (green → yellow → red as context fills up).

Autonomy System

The autonomy system controls which actions require human approval. It operates on three layers:

Layer 1 — Global Level

Set via CLI --autonomy flag, toggleable in TUI with +/-:

Level	Behavior
Low	Ask before every command execution
Medium	Ask before writes, network, destructive (default)
High	Only ask for unavoidable human input
Full	Never ask (fully autonomous)

Layer 2 — Per-Category Rules

From intendant.toml [approval] section. Overrides the global level for specific action categories. Rules: auto (always approve), ask (require approval), deny (always deny).

Layer 3 — Per-Action Approval

When approval is needed, the agent loop pauses and the TUI shows the command preview. The user can approve, skip, deny, or switch to auto-approve mode.

Action Classification

Commands are classified into categories by inspecting the command JSON:

Category	Examples
FileRead	`inspectPath`, `recallMemory`
FileWrite	`editFile`, `writeFile`, `storeMemory`
FileDelete	Commands with `rm`, `rmdir`
CommandExec	`execAsAgent`, `execPty`
NetworkRequest	Commands with `curl`, `wget`, `ssh`, `git`
Destructive	Commands with `rm -rf`, `kill`, `dd`, `mkfs`, `sudo`
HumanInput	`askHuman`

Shell commands are further classified by inspecting the command string for destructive patterns, network tools, and file writes (redirects, tee, mv, cp). The sudo prefix is detected as Destructive and the actual command after sudo is also classified.

Web Dashboard

The --web flag starts a web server that serves a modern 4-tab dashboard at / with Activity, Usage, Terminal, and Displays tabs. The Terminal tab provides the same ratatui interface as the native TUI via xterm.js, while the other tabs add event logging, cost tracking, and remote display viewing.

# Default port 8765
./target/release/intendant --web

# Custom port
./target/release/intendant --web 9000

The --web flag implies --mcp, so no initial task is required — the agent starts idle and accepts tasks dynamically. Open http://<host>:8765/ in a browser.

The dashboard also supports optional live voice interaction via Gemini Live or OpenAI Realtime, with active/passive multi-browser support and session continuity across reconnects.

See Web Dashboard for full documentation and Integrations — Web Gateway for the WebSocket protocol.

Intendant Documentation