claude-tui

Terminal UI IDE wrapper for Claude Code CLI.

Runs Claude Code inside a polished TUI with a file tree, file viewer with syntax highlighting, and a live diff navigator — while keeping all native Claude behavior (permissions, slash commands, interactive prompts).

Features

• Native Claude Code — runs in a real PTY, everything works exactly as in your terminal
• File tree — browse your project with git status indicators (M/A/D/?)
• File viewer — syntax highlighting for 20+ languages
• Diff navigator — auto-detects file changes via watchdog, per-file diff view
• Session picker — browse and resume past sessions across all projects
• Command palette — ctrl+p for quick actions
• Copy support — native text selection works, plus ctrl+shift+c to copy terminal content
• All Claude flags — pass any flag directly (--model, --add-dir, -c, etc.)

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• macOS or Linux (uses PTY — not available on Windows)
• Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated
• git (optional, for diff and git status features)

Install

# Recommended: install globally with pipx
pipx install claude-tui

# Or from source
git clone https://github.com/crlxs/claude-tui.git
cd claude-tui
pipx install .

For development:

git clone https://github.com/crlxs/claude-tui.git
cd claude-tui
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Usage

# Start in current directory
claude-tui

# Start in a specific directory
claude-tui --cwd ~/my-project

# Browse and resume past sessions
claude-tui --resume

# Pass any Claude Code flag
claude-tui --model sonnet
claude-tui -c                              # continue last session
claude-tui --dangerously-skip-permissions  # skip permission checks
claude-tui --add-dir ~/other-project       # add extra directory access

Keyboard shortcuts

All other keys are forwarded to Claude Code.

Architecture

claude-tui
├── app.py              → Textual app: layout, tabs, keybindings, command palette
├── terminal_widget.py  → PTY terminal emulator (pyte + ptyprocess)
├── diff_tracker.py     → Git diff tracking with watchdog filesystem events
├── session_picker.py   → Session loader from ~/.claude/history.jsonl
├── session_screen.py   → Session picker UI (project → session → resume)
└── cli.py              → CLI entry point, flag passthrough to Claude

Limitations

• Terminal rendering: Uses pyte (VT100 emulator) which doesn't support some modern terminal features (kitty keyboard protocol, synchronized updates). Most Claude Code output renders correctly; some decorative characters may look slightly different.
• Windows: Not supported — requires PTY (ptyprocess), which is Unix-only.
• Mouse: Mouse tracking is disabled to allow native text selection. All navigation is keyboard-driven.

License

MIT