Show HN: TUI-use: Let AI agents control interactive terminal programs

Like BrowserUse, but for the terminal.

tui-use gives agents access to the parts of the terminal that bash can't reach — every REPL, installer, and TUI app built for humans.

AI agents can run shell commands, read files, and call APIs. But they stall the moment a program asks for input — because most CLI tools were built for humans, not agents.

tui-use fills that gap. Spawn any program in a PTY, observe its screen as plain text, send keystrokes — all from the command line. If a human can operate it in a terminal, an agent can too.

Use cases:

REPL sessions— Run code in Python, Node, psql, or redis-cli, inspect the output, and keep going. No more one-shot scripts when you need an interactive session.Interactive scaffolding tools— Step throughnpm create

,cargo new

,create-react-app

, and any other CLI wizard that asks questions before doing anything.Database CLIs— Connect to psql or mysql, run queries, check schemas, without needing a separate API or ORM layer.SSH + remote interactive programs— SSH into a server and keep operating interactive programs on the other end, not just run one-off commands.TUI applications— Navigate vim, lazygit, htop, fzf, and other full-screen programs that were never designed to be scripted.

Perfect for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and other AI coding agents.

🖥️ Full VT Rendering— PTY output is processed by a headless xterm emulator. ANSI escape sequences, cursor movement, and screen clearing all work correctly. Thescreen

field is always clean plain text.📸 Snapshot Model— Interacting with a terminal program is just a loop: read what's on screen, decide what to type, repeat. tui-use makes that loop explicit — no async streams, no timing guesswork, no partial output to reassemble.🔍 Highlights— Every snapshot includes ahighlights

field listing the inverse-video spans on screen — the standard way TUI programs indicate selected items. Agents can read which menu option, tab, or button is currently active without parsing text or guessing from cursor position.⌨️ Rich Key Support— Send text, Enter, Ctrl+C, arrow keys, F-keys, and more. Runtui-use keys

to see the full list.

From npm (recommended):

npm install -g tui-use

From source:

git clone https://github.com/onesuper/tui-use.git
cd tui-use
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Note: You must install the CLI (see Installation section above) before using the plugin — the plugin only provides skill definitions, the CLI provides the actual PTY functionality.