Show HN: TUI-use: Let AI agents control interactive terminal programs

Summary

Like BrowserUse, but for the terminal. tui-use gives agents access to the parts of the terminal that bash can't reach — every REPL, installer, and TUI app built for humans. AI agents can run shell commands, read files, and call APIs. But they stall the moment a program asks for input — because most CLI tools were built for humans, not agents. tui-use fills that gap. Spawn any program in a PTY, observe its screen as plain text, send keystrokes — all from the command line. If a human can operate it in a terminal, an agent can too. Use cases: REPL sessions — Run code in Python, Node, psql, or redis-cli, inspect the output, and keep going. No more one-shot scripts when you need an interactive session. Interactive scaffolding tools — Step through npm create, cargo new, create-react-app, and any other CLI wizard that asks questions before doing anything. Database CLIs — Connect to psql or mysql, run queries, check schemas, without needing a separate API or ORM layer. SSH + remote interactive programs — SSH into a server and keep operating interactive programs on the other end, not just run one-off commands. TUI applications — Navigate vim, lazygit, htop, fzf, and other full-screen programs that were never designed to be scripted. Perfect for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and other AI coding agents. 🖥️ Full VT Rendering — PTY output is processed by a headless xterm emulator. ANSI escape sequences, cursor movement, and screen clearing all work correctly. The screen field is always clean plain text. 📸 Snapshot Model — Interacting with a terminal program is just a loop: read what's on screen, decide what to type, repeat. tui-use makes that loop explicit — no async streams, no timing guesswork, no partial output to reassemble. 🔍 Highlights — Every snapshot includes a highlights field listing the inverse-video spans on screen — the standard way TUI programs indicate selected items. Agents can read which menu option, tab, or button is currently active without ...