I think if you look purely at the numbers, the real reason TUIs are popular is claude code, everything else is background noise compared to it.

What originally got me excited to build TUIs was the concept of delivering apps over the wire via SSH. SSH apps resemble a browser in that way: no local installs required.

It's a major reason why I enjoy hacking on https://pico.sh -- deploying the TUI requires zero user involvement.

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_jackdk_ 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think that's true, because it appears to me that the upswing in new TUI programs predates Claude Code's takeoff.

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heavyset_go 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is the case. The advent of libraries like Rich and others certainly helped, along with the trend of Rust TUIs for system programming/lack of good GUI options.

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criley2 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Claude Code uses Ink, a react library in javascript for UI. The upswing is probably stuff like this making it super easy to write a TUI.

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_jackdk_ 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What a fascinating modern age we live in.

	▲	3 hours ago \| parent [-]
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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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copperx 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I think if you look purely at the numbers, the real reason TUIs are popular is claude code

Do you mean that TUIs are popular because everyone is now trying to imitate Claude Code? or because TUIs are now easier to develop when Claude Code exists?

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ctippett 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm still motivated to adopt a TUI application in lieu of a pure CLI or GUI because of the ability to use it over SSH.

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agumonkey 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Claude code amplified the trend hundred fold but there was already a significant increase of TUI since the days of go fzf, rust ratatui and python rich.

My bet would be a desire to do away with heavy browser based UI and the curiosity of trying to test the limits of terminal based rendering.

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orbital-decay 8 hours ago | parent [-]

TUI is popular because a) there are no native GUI frameworks for simple tools that are easy, fast, and simple to develop in at the same time, and b) low fidelity lets you pretend being a UI/UX developer without really being one. The rest is abysmal. It's not automatable at all (the article is wrong on that point), less readable (monospace/no images), very limited (try making a DAW in it...), relies on a ton of ancient cruft in Unix-related terminals, it's not really portable etc etc.

	▲	agumonkey 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'd argue that UX these days jumped the shark and that TUI constraints brings back some desirable simplicity, although I agree that they like automation.. but I would bet a few dollars that it's far from impossible (and a fun challenge). People are creative, I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a fun miniDAW in a TUI.

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1123581321 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's why I started creating TUI apps. The cli was increasingly becoming a main view for daily work. I was using shortcuts to put the terminal side by side with other desktop apps or browser windows for context, but it was nicer to just write something that could sit in a tmux or zellij session next to claude or opencode.

It's also nice to have a little less to worry about as a desktop application developer, to be honest. The display is less nice (low text density especially) in exchange.

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8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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insane_dreamer 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Disagree; TUIs were already gaining steam before that.

I think the main driver was frameworks, available for a range of languages, that make it easy to create nice-looking TUIs (ratatui, textual, ink, etc.)

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hsn915 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The TUI version of ClaudeCode is not even that good compared even to the VSCode plugin.

	▲	dnnddidiej 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		How come?

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justinhj 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's not really a tui. At least that's not the reason for its success. It's a place where a human can talk to an agent with a common language (human language) and use the computer together in an environment that works for both of us. Text commands and text results.