tui-input 0.1.3

A terminal companion that pins a persistent input bar at the bottom of your tmux pane, so you can scroll freely through long TUI agent output while composing your response.

tui-input

A terminal companion that pins a persistent input bar at the bottom of your tmux pane. Scroll freely through long TUI agent output while composing your response.

The Problem

When using TUI-based AI agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI, etc.), long outputs force you to scroll up to read, then scroll back down to type. You end up:

• Losing your place in the output
• Writing responses in a separate editor, then copy-pasting
• Fighting the terminal scroll position

The Solution

tui-input splits your terminal into two panes:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Top pane (Claude Code / Codex etc) │
│  Scroll freely through long output  │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤  ← 3-10 lines, auto-resizing
│  Type your response here...         │
│  Enter to send · Shift+Enter: newline│
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Features

• Pinned input bar — always visible at the bottom, regardless of scroll position
• Auto-resize — companion grows from 3 to 10 lines as you type multi-line input
• Bracketed paste — safe multi-line text transfer via tmux buffers
• Input history — press ↑/↓ to recall previous inputs (persisted across sessions)
• Agent-agnostic — works with any terminal program, not just AI agents
• Auto-cleanup — companion exits when the agent exits

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• tmux

Install via Homebrew

brew install maked-dev/tap/tui-input

Install via pip/uv

# Using uv (recommended)
uv tool install tui-input

# Using pip
pip install tui-input

After Installation: Add Alias

Register a shell alias so you can launch your favorite AI agent with tui-input by just typing its name.

echo "alias claude='tui-input claude'" >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc
echo "alias codex='tui-input codex'" >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

Now just type claude to launch Claude Code with the input bar attached.

Usage

# Basic usage
tui-input claude

# Any command works
tui-input "vim file.py"
tui-input htop

# With alias registered, just type the agent name
claude
codex

Key Bindings

Key	Action
Enter	Send text to top pane + clear input
Shift+Enter	Insert newline (multi-line input)
↑ (on empty)	Previous history entry
↓ (on empty)	Next history entry
Esc	Clear all input

How It Works

1. tui-input creates a tmux vertical split (or a new session if not in tmux)
2. Your command runs in the top pane
3. A Textual-based companion widget runs in the bottom pane
4. Press Enter to send text to the top pane via tmux paste-buffer
5. When the top pane command exits, the companion auto-exits

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/maked-dev/tui-input.git
cd tui-input
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint and format
uv run ruff check src/ tests/
uv run ruff format --check src/ tests/

# Type check
uv run mypy src/

License

MIT