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Terminal UI Reference

Boris features a full-screen terminal interface powered by Lanterterna, a Java TUI library. The interface supports mouse interaction, keyboard shortcuts, and real-time streaming.

Interface Layout

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HEADER BAR │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ CHAT PANEL (scrollable) │ │ │ │ user: Refactor the auth module │ │ │ │ ●boris Applying edits to AuthController... │ │ [thinking] Analyzing dependencies and import statements... │ │ auth/AuthenticationManager.java edited successfully │ │ auth/SecurityConfig.java edited successfully │ │ │ │ Here are the changes I made: │ │ │ │ 1. Updated the token service... │ │ │ │ ❯ <input area> │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ STATUS BAR | Tokens: 1234/10000 | ESC:abort Tab:focus │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Components

Component Description
Header Bar Top bar of the window (Lanterna window decorations)
Chat Panel Main scrollable area showing the conversation history. Renders user messages, assistant responses, and thinking blocks.
Input Area Bottom text input for typing messages. Supports command history (up/down arrows), Enter to submit.
Hint Bar Displays available keyboard shortcuts and commands
Status Bar Shows token usage, abort status, and thinking indicator

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key / Keys Action
Enter Submit message to the model
ESC Abort the current running task (interrupts LLM call or shell command)
Tab Move focus between input area and chat panel
↑ / ↓ Navigate command history (previous/next message)
Page Up / Page Down Scroll chat panel by full page
Scroll Up / Scroll Down Scroll chat panel by 3 lines (mouse wheel)
Click + Drag Select text in the chat panel (selection highlight)

Mouse Support

The TUI captures mouse events for:

  • Scroll wheel: Scrolls the chat panel up/down by 3 lines per tick.
  • Click: Focuses the input area or selects text in the chat panel.
  • Drag: Creates text selection with visual highlight in the chat panel.
  • Click + Release: Finalizes text selection in the chat panel.

ESC cancels an active selection.

Streaming Display

When the model responds, Boris streams the output in real-time:

  1. Prefix — ●boris appears in the status bar with a thinking indicator.
  2. Thinking blocks — If the model produces thinking content, it's displayed as: <thinking> Analyzing the request... </thinking>
  3. Main response — Streamed text appears after the thinking block.
  4. Tool calls — Results of tool executions are shown inline.
  5. Completion — Status bar updates with token usage; input area is re-enabled.

The input area remains visible during streaming. If the user types a new message while the model is still responding, it's queued and sent after the current response completes.

Token Counter

The status bar displays real-time token estimation:

Tokens: 1234/10000

The denominator (contextWindow) comes from settings.json. When the limit is reached, Boris shows a warning and refuses new messages until /clear is used.

The token counter uses character length (chunk.length()) as an approximation. Actual token counts depend on the model's tokenizer.

Thinking Spinner

When a message is being processed, the status bar shows a thinking spinner animation. The spinner: - Appears when a message is submitted. - Disappears when the response completes or is aborted. - Updates to show token count after completion.

Visual Theme

Boris uses a custom dark theme based on Lanterna's dark palette:

java DefaultTheme darkTheme = new DefaultTheme(); darkTheme.setTextStyle(TextStyle.NORMAL).setTextDecoration(TextDecoration.NONE); darkTheme.setTextColor(TextColor.ANSI.Blue); // ... all colors customized

The theme applies to all UI components: chat panel, input area, status bar, and separators.

Window Behavior

  • Full screen: The window launches in full-screen mode (Window.HINT.FULL_SCREEN).
  • No decorations: Window borders are minimal (Window.HINT.NO_DECORATIONS).
  • Resize handling: On window resize, the chat transcript is re-rendered to fit the new dimensions.
  • Close: Close the window or type /exit to quit Boris.