TUI

Use Cline's terminal UI (TUI) for interactive coding workflows in your terminal.

What is the TUI?

The TUI is Cline's interactive terminal interface. It is designed for conversational, in-terminal work: ask questions, review plans, approve actions, and iterate quickly.

Prerequisites

Install the CLI:

npm install -g cline

Launch the TUI

# default interactive launch
cline

# explicit TUI mode
cline -i

Core TUI Actions

Tab to toggle Plan/Act
Shift+Tab to toggle auto-approve all
Ctrl+C to abort a running turn; press again to exit
Ctrl+D to exit when the prompt is empty and idle
Ctrl+L to clear the chat view or current conversation
/settings, /model, /account, /mcp, /compact, /undo, /clear, /history, /help, /quit
@file mentions for workspace context

The status area shows the active model, context usage, cost, workspace/branch, git diff stats, Plan/Act state, and whether auto-approve all is enabled.

When to Use TUI vs Headless

Use TUI when you want collaboration and approvals.
Use headless (--json, piped stdin/stdout, CI scripts) for automation.

See: CLI Headless Mode