Interactive TUI

By default deepcode launches into an interactive terminal UI (TUI). This page covers how to pick a renderer and view mode, what each part of the status bar means, the core key bindings, and what one full interaction turn looks like.

Two renderers: inline / fullscreen

The tui field in settings.json accepts only two values: "inline" or "fullscreen". If it's unset, a decision chain runs, and the default outcome is fullscreen:

1. Background session (/background) → always fullscreen.
2. Non-interactive terminal (no TTY, e.g. a pipe/CI) → headless, never enters the TUI.
3. --inline passed on the command line → inline.
4. settings.tui is set → use that value directly.
5. Legacy field settings.inline === true (backward compat) → inline.
6. None of the above → default fullscreen.

To pin one renderer permanently, set tui directly:

// ~/.deepcode/settings.json
{ "tui": "inline" }

Or pass --inline for a single run without touching the config file. Both renderers share the same main loop, tools, and permission system — the only difference is terminal presentation: fullscreen is an alt-screen full view with scrollable history, inline is plain sequential terminal output.

View mode: default / focus

The viewMode field accepts "default" or "focus". Set to "focus", the focus view opens on startup and is locked — detailed tool-call output is collapsed, leaving only the conclusions for a cleaner screen; while locked, it cannot be toggled off with a command.

// ~/.deepcode/settings.json
{ "viewMode": "focus" }

Two related commands:

• /tui <inline|fullscreen> — switches the renderer. Writes the new value to settings.tui and restarts the child process once; the current session history is restored as-is, only the presentation changes.
• /focus — toggles the focus view on/off. Only available under the fullscreen renderer; if locked by viewMode: "focus", /focus has no effect and tells you to remove that field from settings.json and restart.

TIP

/focus won't open under the inline renderer — run /tui fullscreen first (which restarts and restores the session), then use /focus.

Reading the status bar

A multi-line status bar sits below the input box. From top to bottom, in clusters:

Row 1 — model / mode / directory

[deepseek-v4-pro | accept | think:medium] | my-project git:(main)

Inside the brackets: current model, permission mode (rendered as default/auto/accept/plan/⏵⏵DONT-ASK/yolo in the status bar, see permission modes), and the thinking effort level appended when thinking is on. Outside the brackets: the current directory name and git branch (if any). When the focus view is on, a · focus badge is appended at the end of the line.

Row 2 — context / cache / cost

Context 12k / 971k [██░░░░░░░░] · cache 62% (−¥0.0180) · ¥0.0320

• Context used/window plus a 10-cell mini progress bar: it turns red at ≥95% usage, yellow at ≥80%, and the theme accent color otherwise.
• cache N% (−¥x) only appears when this turn hit the prefix cache (hitRate > 0), showing hit rate and money saved.
• A budget used/target segment is inserted when a token budget is configured.
• The trailing ¥cost is the cumulative session spend, always shown in the same color; once cumulative cost crosses the costWarnCNY threshold, deepcode additionally shows a one-time warning notice (a toast-style message, not a status-bar color change).
• If a custom statusLineCommand is configured, its stdout is appended as a separate line under this cluster.

Row 3 cluster — memory / tool counts / hint

3 DEEPCODE.md
✓ Bash ×8 | ✓ Read ×4 | ✓ Edit ×2
/ commands · @ reference a file · ! run shell

The number of DEEPCODE.md instruction files in effect (shown only if > 0), a per-name count of tools successfully run this session (shown only if any), and a hint line that's always present.

Core key bindings

The bindings below come from the built-in /keybindings command — run /keybindings in the TUI anytime to see them:

Group	Key	Behavior
Input	Esc	While generating: interrupt the current turn. While idle: clear the input box
Input	Enter	Submit (the completion menu takes over Enter when open)
Input	trailing \ + Enter	Continue the line, accumulating multi-line input
Input	↑ / ↓	Browse input history (the completion menu takes over arrow keys when open)
Input	Backspace / Delete	Delete a character
Input	Tab	Navigate/confirm in the completion menu
Scroll (fullscreen only)	PageUp / PageDown	Scroll history up/down a page
Scroll (fullscreen only)	Ctrl+G	Jump to bottom and resume auto-follow
Scroll	Mouse / trackpad wheel	Scroll up/down
Exit	Ctrl+C ×2 (within 2s)	Exit (waits for memory to flush first)
Trigger	/	Open the slash command menu
Trigger	@	Open the file reference menu
Trigger	!	Run a shell command directly
Selection	Shift + drag	Native terminal text selection (the wheel is captured by the app, so Shift is needed to reach the system selection)

Two more bindings aren't in /keybindings, but are confirmed in source:

• Shift+Tab — cycles the permission mode (default → auto → acceptEdits → plan → dontAsk → default), see permission modes. If your terminal doesn't recognize Shift+Tab, fall back to the /plan, /accept, /dontask commands.
• Double-tap Esc (within 600ms, only while idle and the input box is empty) — opens the /rewind selection screen.

What one interaction turn looks like

Once you're in the TUI, just describe the task — deepcode plans, calls tools, and runs the tests itself, then settles with one cost line at the end:

› add unit tests for utils and make them pass

  Grep  search for utils-related files
  Read  src/utils.ts
  Edit  src/utils.test.ts
  Bash  npm test

  Added unit tests for the 4 functions in utils.ts, npm test passes (12 passed).

  ¥0.03 · 3 turns · 8.2k tokens

Press Esc anytime during generation to interrupt, or just type and hit Enter — it queues as the next steering input; if a tool call is in flight at that moment, it also attaches a soft interrupt automatically.

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Next: Commands and shortcuts, Permission modes.