Prompting and Input
The TUI prompt is the primary control surface for composing requests, steering a running turn, queueing follow-ups, and opening short-lived focused surfaces.
Prompt States
Section titled “Prompt States”The prompt marker changes with runtime state:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| editable | The prompt is ready for a new request. |
| submitted | The current input has been sent and the agent is starting work. |
| streaming | Assistant text or reasoning is arriving. |
| running tool | A local tool is active. |
| stopped | A running turn was cancelled. |
| errored | The last submit failed or the latest transcript entry is an error. |
If a submit fails before the turn starts, the draft stays in the prompt so it can be edited and retried.
Prompt History
Section titled “Prompt History”Use Up and Down to recall submitted prompts. The TUI keeps the newest 200
entries in its prompt-history buffer and persists them in .thndrs/input-history.jsonl
(append-only, capped at 1MiB).
On Unix, thndrs keeps the file readable and writable only by its owner.
When this file is not present, thndrs imports recent user prompts from existing session files once.
Running Input
Section titled “Running Input”While a turn is running, Enter does not discard input. It records the draft as
either:
| Target | Behavior |
|---|---|
| steering | Sends guidance to the active run when the provider can consume it. |
| follow-up | Queues the text as the next turn after the current run settles. |
Use Ctrl+T while running to toggle between steering and follow-up. The UI
shows only queue counts, not queued prompt text.
Commands
Section titled “Commands”Press : on an empty idle prompt to enter command mode. Command suggestions
appear above the prompt and can be accepted with Tab or completed with
Enter.
Supported command families include:
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
clear |
Clear the visible transcript. |
help |
Open help. |
bg |
List background processes. |
bg cancel <id> |
Cancel one owned background process. |
model |
Open the model picker. |
skills |
Browse loaded skills. |
context |
Inspect the bounded active context working set. |
context pin <id-or-path> |
Keep one context item visible across turn rebuilds. |
context drop <id> |
Exclude one item until it is recovered or reset. |
context recover <id> |
Re-enable an item and pin omitted detail when needed. |
| `context review <approve | reject>` |
context drop --reset |
Clear all explicit context drops. |
doctor |
Show setup, context, and budget health. |
auth status |
Show credential source/status without values. |
config path / config show |
Inspect config paths or redacted effective config. |
setup, login, logout |
Choose a provider/model or recover a credential. |
Slash command forms such as /model and /skills remain accepted for
compatibility, but : command mode is the interactive command entry path.
Context Controls
Section titled “Context Controls”/context opens a bounded ledger of the current working set. It shows stable
ids, item kinds, visibility, approximate token costs, source labels, budget
pressure, instruction discovery diagnostics, and compaction review state. It
does not show project-instruction or transcript content, and secret-shaped
values are redacted.
Use /context pin <id-or-path> for task-local evidence. Paths must refer to
files inside the workspace. /context drop <id> excludes an item from later
selection; /context recover <id> removes that exclusion and pins omitted
recoverable detail when necessary. /context drop --reset clears all explicit
drops. A failed action leaves the editable prompt unchanged.
/compact asks the selected model for a continuation summary. When the covered
range contains tool output, failures, permissions, or unresolved work, the
summary waits for /context review approve or /context review reject before
changing the active context. The original session records remain available for
recovery.
File Mentions
Section titled “File Mentions”Use Ctrl+P to open the workspace file picker. Type to fuzzy-filter files, move
with Up/Down, and press Enter to insert the selected path.
Typing @ in the prompt opens inline file mention suggestions. Tab accepts
the active suggestion and inserts the workspace path into the draft.
Focused Surfaces
Section titled “Focused Surfaces”Help, command suggestions, file/model/skill pickers, setup/recovery surfaces,
and detail panes are bounded focused surfaces inside the live shell. Esc
closes the active surface before it affects the prompt.
Ctrl+O opens the highest-priority available detail: failed tool output,
truncated tool output, latest edit/diff detail, then latest warning or error.
Mouse capture is disabled by default. Native terminal selection and scrollback remain available unless mouse support is explicitly enabled for overlay testing.