any-tui

A small terminal client for the chats in your any spaces. It lists every chat in every space, streams new messages live, and lets you read, search, reply and talk to your anybao agent from a terminal — including over ssh from a phone.

It feels like an IRC client where it can: /me, /dm and /msg, s/typo/fix/, highlight words, nick colours and member icons, a compact one-line-per-message layout. Beyond that: direct messages, whispers (a private note on a group message, for one person), search across one chat or every space, each chat's files and links, attachments opened or saved on Linux and macOS, and how every space is syncing — through sync nodes, the local network, or directly peer-to-peer.

It talks only to the local any server's REST API (http://127.0.0.1:7001/v1 by default). No SDK, no direct store access.

╭ chats (2) ─────────────────────╮╭ tui-test/General ────────────────────────────────╮
│tui-test                 lan p2p││  ── beginning of chat ──                         │
│▌ General                       ││★ Ann  21 Sep 00:11                               │
│   ✦ bao: hello from qwen       ││▌ hello from any-tui check                        │
│                                ││▌ 🔒 Bob → you: is this still true?               │
│Bob                      lan p2p││▌ 🔒 you → Bob: yes, still true                   │
│  General                    (2)││  second message via curl (live SSE check)        │
│   ★ Ann: 🔒 yes, still true    ││  third message typed in the TUI                  │
│                                ││                                                  │
│bob-test                 lan p2p││★ Ann  21 Sep 00:25                               │
│  General                       ││  fourth: after the id-in-owners filter           │
│   no messages                  ││                                                  │
│                                ││★ Ann  21 Sep 00:38                               │
│bao                             ││  hello from qwen                                 │
│  General                       │╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╰────────────────────────────────╯  i  compose   r  reply   ?  help
 NORMAL   new: +1  ↑1/7         ✓ 3 nodes · 1 lan · 1 p2p  7 msgs · 0 files · 0 links

Quick start

You need a running, authorized any server. Build it from the any repository and start it on an empty data dir:

any run                                    # http://127.0.0.1:7001, unauthorized

A fresh data dir has no account: GET /v1/health reports "account": "" and every other route answers 401 auth.required. Authorize once with curl (or any auth login from the any CLI):

API=http://127.0.0.1:7001/v1

# new account — the mnemonic is returned ONCE, save it: it IS the account
curl -s -X POST $API/auth -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{}' | jq

# or restore an existing one (add "index": 0 for an anytype-derived account)
curl -s -X POST $API/auth -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"mnemonic": "word word word …"}'

curl -s $API/health | jq .account         # non-empty now

The account boots in place, no restart. A standalone server will not switch accounts once one is up: stop it and run it on another data dir instead.

Then run the TUI. With Nix, straight from the flake:

nix run . -- --no-auto-read                # args after `--` go to any-tui
nix run github:anyproto/any-tui            # or without a checkout
nix build && ./result/bin/any-tui          # or build it once

or with cargo:

cargo build --release                      # or: nix develop -c cargo build --release
./target/release/any-tui                   # --api <url> to point elsewhere

A space shows up as soon as it has its general chat installed, which any client that creates spaces does (POST /v1/catalog/general-chat/setup {"spaceId": …}, idempotent). The TUI never creates spaces or chats on its own; the one exception is a DM you open with /dm, which sets up that 1-1 space and its chat.

Talking to an agent

anybao is a personal agent that lives in your spaces; anyrt serve is the process that runs it. Point it at the same any server and it creates a bao space with a chat, which the TUI then lists like any other. From the anybao checkout:

uv sync && make kernel && make runtime     # builds runtime/target/release/anyrt
echo 'llm.key.anthropic=sk-ant-…' > .connectors.env   # gitignored; seeded on every boot
./runtime/target/release/anyrt serve --addr http://127.0.0.1:7001

Wait for anyrt serving space=… chat=… in its log (the first boot also joins the published agent repos, so give it a moment). Now open bao/General in the TUI, i, type, Enter; the reply lands over SSE a few seconds later, rendered with a ✦ marker and the agent's name rather than your own. Other providers (OpenRouter, Ollama, …) are one config row each — see anybao's docs/llm-models.md. If the key is missing, bao posts a credential-request bubble into the chat; the TUI shows it as 📎 credential_request and cannot fill it in, so put the key in .connectors.env and restart serve.

Running bao on OpenRouter (GLM 5.3, Qwen 3.8 Max)

No Anthropic key needed: one OpenRouter key and three llm.tier.* rows. The committed anybao.toml is the prod default, so keep your copy in the gitignored configs/ dir and put the key beside it — anyrt reads the .connectors.env next to whichever config file it loads:

mkdir -p configs && cp anybao.toml configs/anybao.toml
echo 'llm.key.openrouter=sk-or-…' > configs/.connectors.env
cat >> configs/anybao.toml <<'TOML'

[config]   # hard seeds: written into the bao space on every serve start
"llm.tier.codegen"  = { provider = "openai-compat", model = "qwen/qwen3.8-max", base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key_ref = "llm.key.openrouter" }
"llm.tier.classify" = { provider = "openai-compat", model = "qwen/qwen3.8-max", base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key_ref = "llm.key.openrouter" }
"llm.tier.vision"   = { provider = "openai-compat", model = "qwen/qwen3.8-max", base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key_ref = "llm.key.openrouter" }
TOML
./runtime/target/release/anyrt serve --config-file configs/anybao.toml

For GLM 5.3 use z-ai/glm-5.3 in codegen and classify, and z-ai/glm-5v-turbo in vision (GLM 5.3 itself is text-only). Any-ui's Settings ▸ Model writes the same rows, but the [config] table wins on every restart, so drop it if you want to switch models from the UI. The .connectors.env sibling file must sit in the same directory as the config file passed with --config-file.

Watching bao work

While a run is live the bottom bar shows what bao is doing, fed by the runtime's presence beats on the any event bus — the same bao.status beats any-ui's status bar reads: bao's own status line when it has set one, else the code of the cell it is running right now, else the run title, with the tool-call count in brackets:

 NORMAL   ✦ rows = c.query_objects("tui-test", filter={"any.… (3)   no unread elsewhere

✦ bao alone means idle, ✦ bao offline that no serve has beaten for 30s, ✦ no active bao that only standby devices are up. Nothing shows until the first beat (≤10s after serve starts). The cell preview updates on every tool call, on every device of the account — the beats ride any-sync, so a serve on another machine shows up the same way.

To see the whole flow — every effect, HTTP call and model turn, as it happens — follow the run from a second terminal:

anyrt trace follow --program toolcaller        # newest chat run, live; exits when it completes
anyrt trace ls --program toolcaller            # past runs: status, duration, turns
anyrt trace show run_<id>                      # one run in full;  --stats for tokens and cost

All three take --addr (default http://127.0.0.1:7001) and --space (default bao). Runs are in the any local store, so they follow the account across devices like everything else.

Keys

Navigation is vim-flavoured; ? shows this list in the app, q quits.

key	action
j / k	move; in the list each chat opens as you land on it
Enter or l / Esc or h	step into the open chat / back to the list
Space	fuzzy-find any chat (stg finds sync team: general)
Ctrl-n / Ctrl-p	next / previous chat without leaving the message pane
n	jump to the next chat with unread, wherever it is
Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u, g / G	half a screen down / up; oldest (loads history) / newest
Ctrl-v / Alt-v, PgDn / PgUp	a screenful down / up — in the messages, the chat list, search, the files/links list, the picker and help
i, then Enter	compose, send (Alt-Enter for a newline)
r	reply to the message under the cursor
e	edit your message under the cursor (Enter saves, Esc cancels)
y	copy the message under the cursor (pbcopy, wl-copy, xclip / xsel; OSC 52 over SSH or without them — in tmux that needs set-clipboard on)
@Name<Tab>	complete a mention from the space's roster
/	search messages — see Search
R	mark the chat read now
D	open a DM with the author of the message under the cursor
W	whisper about the message under the cursor; on a whisper in a DM, Enter jumps to the message it's about
o / s	open / save the attachments of the message under the cursor
F / L	the chat's files / links, each with the message it came in (Tab switches, Enter jumps to the message, o/s open or save)
z	hide / show the chat list
C	compact, IRC-log layout: one line per message and per chat (also /compact)
Tab	switch pane
Ctrl-L	repaint the screen

The composer and the picker query support readline editing (Ctrl-a/Ctrl-e, Alt-b/Alt-f, Ctrl-w, Ctrl-u/Ctrl-k, …). In the composer ↑ / ↓ recall lines you sent before.

Unread shows as a count after the chat, (2) — (@2) in red when something unread mentions you, (★2) in violet for a highlight word, capped at (999+) — the same in the list, the picker and the status bar.

The status bar holds, left to right: the mode, your away marker, a waiting DM request or invite (✉), a running download, bao's presence, unread in other chats — and at the right end how the open chat's space is syncing and its size: ✓ 3 nodes · 1 lan · 3 p2p · 1 own 238 msgs · 26 files · 34 links. ✓ is synced (⟳ 3/5 while syncing, ✗ offline); then the live paths — sync nodes, other people's devices on the local network (lan) or directly over the internet (p2p, any's iroh layer), and your own other devices (own), which sync every space you have. Only peers that sync that space count. The chat list carries the same per space: a lan / p2p badge on the space (or DM) header while someone else's device syncs it directly, ✗ when it's offline. /devices lists your own devices.

Below 80 columns the app shows one pane at a time — list or chat — and the open chat's title becomes a ‹ Esc breadcrumb. --layout single|split|auto overrides the width check. The bottom bar always lists unread activity in the chats you are not looking at.

Commands

The composer takes IRC-style commands — i opens it even with no chat open, for /dm, /join, /accept and the like. An unknown /word is refused rather than sent, and //text sends a literal leading slash; /usr/bin-like text goes out as-is.

command	does
/me waves	an action, shown as * Name waves (sent as the literal /me … text, so other clients show it verbatim)
/shrug, /tableflip, /unflip [text]	the text plus a face
s/old/new/ (…/g for all)	edit your newest message in this chat
/dm @name or /dm <identity>	open (or start) a direct chat; bare /dm = the author under the cursor, same as D
/msg @name text	send into that DM without leaving the current chat
/w @name text	whisper about the message under the cursor — see Whispers (W starts one to its author)
/accept [name]	accept an incoming DM request or space invite (the status bar shows ✉ while one waits)
/join <chat> (/j)	open the best fuzzy match, like Space
/hl [word], /unhl word	list / add / remove highlight words: others' messages containing one get the word lit up (violet) and the chat's count reads (★2)
/away [emoji], /back	show an away marker (default 💤) in your status bar
/compact (C)	toggle an IRC-log layout: one HH:MM Name text line per message with per-day dividers, and one line per chat in the list (🧉 Gustavo p2p (2))
/icons [safe|off|full]	how icons and emoji are drawn — see Emoji and odd terminals; bare, the next mode
/nick <name> (/name)	rename yourself (keeps your description and icon); bare, it shows your current name and short id
/devices	your account's devices: this one, which are online (and over what) or when last seen, which one runs bao
/help	the command list

A message that opens with a bracketed tag, IRC-style — [Narrator] And then… — shows the tag as a bold label in its own colour (the same tag always gets the same one). Markdown links like [text](url) don't count.

Every name carries the first 7 characters of its identity, tolya 🌴 (A7hQ66M), so two people who picked the same name stay apart. Nicks get a stable colour hashed from the identity, and the member's profile icon in front when a terminal can draw it — an emoji (🧉 Gustavo) or a common icon-pack glyph as a Unicode stand-in (★ Ann); picture avatars aren't shown. Spaces get theirs the same way in the chat list, in the icon's colour (🪐 Anytwo Assembly, ↗ Any Team), and a DM shows the other person's icon. Highlights, away, compact, icons and the recall history persist in the daemon's device-local store (/v1/local, collection any_tui) — they don't sync to your other devices, and /away is not visible to anyone else yet.

Emoji and odd terminals

Terminals, tmux and mosh each keep their own table of character widths, and they disagree on emoji newer than Unicode 9 (2016) and on composed ones (🤦‍♀️, ❤️, skin tones): the cursor drifts, text lands a column off, and stray characters stay on screen. The TUI can't learn what the far end decided, so it avoids sending what they disagree on. /icons picks how:

mode	icons	emoji
safe (default)	shown, unless the icon is a newer emoji	older ones as they are, composed ones reduced to their base, newer ones as ◌
off	hidden	as text: the common reactions two columns wide (👍 +1, ❤ <3, 😂 :D), the rest ◌ — a pure IRC look with C
full	shown	everything as sent — fine on a local terminal without tmux or mosh

Ctrl-L repaints the whole screen if anything is left over.

Direct messages

A DM is a 1-1 space shared by the two of you, and it sits in the chat list like any other space, named after the other person. /dm @name (anyone the server knows a name for, not just this space's members), /dm <identity>, or D on someone's message opens it — starting it if it doesn't exist yet. Until they accept, it's listed as @ plus their short id, since their name only becomes readable then. On the receiving side a request shows as ✉ DM from Ann (/accept) in the status bar until /accept opens it; being added to a space shows the same way (✉ invite: …). /msg @name text sends into a DM without leaving the chat you're in.

Whispers

A whisper is a private side-note on a message in a group chat, for one person. Put the cursor on the message and press W (or type /w @name text). It is sent into your DM with that person as the message link plus your text, so nobody else in the group can see it, and any-ui shows it as an ordinary DM with a link. In the TUI both of you see it under the original message, on a dark red band headed 🔒 WHISPER · only you and Ann can see this; in the DM it opens with the same red 🔒 whisper about … line, and Enter on it jumps back to the message.

Replies to your own messages stand out too: the quote reads ↪ reply to you: … in bold yellow. Other messages that mention you are marked @you (on the line itself in compact mode).

Search

/ turns the message pane into a search view. The border shows where and how you're searching as two switches: this chat │ this space │ all spaces (Tab widens, Shift-Tab narrows) and hybrid │ fts (Ctrl-t; hybrid mixes keyword and semantic ranking, fts matches the words exactly; Ctrl-g turns on semantic-only). Results update as you type, best match at the bottom by the prompt like fzf; Ctrl-o flips to newest-first. Matched words are highlighted, long messages are cut to the lines around the match (the one under the cursor opens up), and from:@name keeps one person's messages. Enter jumps to the message in its chat, Ctrl-r jumps and replies. The index only knows content written after it was enabled, and semantic ranking needs the server's embedder — the status bar says when it wasn't used.

Attachments

A message's files show as 📎 name · size, one per line. o downloads them into a cache and opens each with your default app (xdg-open on Linux, open on macOS); s saves them to your Downloads folder — never overwriting, a clash becomes name (1).ext — and shows them in the file manager (Finder, or whichever answers the freedesktop FileManager1 call; else the folder opens). Progress shows on the attachment line and in the status bar. Web-link attachments open in the browser. Sending files isn't supported yet.

Read state

Opening a chat marks it read once its newest message has been on screen for 1.5s. The API has no un-read endpoint, so this is one-way. Pass --no-auto-read to read without ever touching read state, for example when another client should keep its badges.

Flags

flag
--api <url>	server base URL, default http://127.0.0.1:7001/v1
--no-auto-read	never mark anything read
--layout auto|split|single	pane layout, default auto
--version	print the version

More

• docs/api-notes.md — how the client maps onto the any API (chat discovery, _ver.id paging, mentions, read state, SSE contract, search, DMs and whispers, files, sync status, the local store) and the layout of the code.
• scripts/api-drift.sh [url] — diffs a running server's OpenAPI spec against the one pinned in api/openapi.json; --update re-pins.
• cargo test — unit tests for the pure logic: record and link parsing (mentions, whispers, URLs, icons, sync status), the fuzzy matcher, the command parser and the attachment file handling.

License

MIT.