CLI · §11

Terminal UI

A keyboard-driven terminal UI sits inside the same parc binary. It uses the same parc-core queries as the CLI — there's no separate state — so anything you can do in the TUI you can also reach from a script.

# Launching

parc          # opens the TUI when stdout is a TTY; otherwise prints `parc today`
parc tui      # always launches the TUI
parc --no-tui # forces the plain `parc today` digest, even in a TTY

The CLI auto-falls-back to the today digest when output is piped or redirected, so parc | head and parc > digest.txt both work without dropping you into a UI.

# Layout

A persistent menu strip across the top selects between three tabs. Below it sits a two-pane split: a list panel on the left, a detail panel on the right. Exactly one pane is focused at a time — its border is highlighted and navigation keys (arrows, page, etc.) act on it. A footer strip at the bottom shows the current focus and a key cheat-sheet.

Tab	Number	What it shows
Today	`1`	The same three sections as `parc today` (touched today / due / open & high priority)
List	`2`	Recent fragments, newest first
Stale	`3`	The same set as `parc stale`

The detail pane renders the selected fragment's body as styled Markdown — headings, lists, blockquotes, code, inline code, bold/italic, links, and [[id]] wiki-links are highlighted. A scrollbar appears when the body overflows the pane.

/ or 4 opens a two-pane launcher over the current view in fragment search mode. The query field stays active while the left pane lists live DSL search results and the right pane previews the selected fragment with matched terms highlighted. Ctrl-P opens the same launcher with > prefilled, switching the left pane to commands; typing after > filters commands and Enter runs the highlighted command.

# Keybindings

Key	Action
`1` / `2` / `3`	Jump to a tab
`Tab`	Cycle to the next tab
`Shift-Tab`	Toggle pane focus (list ↔ detail)
`/` / `4`	Open the launcher in fragment search mode
`Ctrl-P`	Open the launcher in command mode
`↓` / `↑`	Move within the focused pane
`PgDn` / `PgUp`	Page within the focused pane
`Home` / `End`	Top / bottom of the focused pane
`Ctrl-d` / `Ctrl-u`	Half-page scroll within the focused pane
`r`	Reload the current tab (Today / List / Stale)

# Actions on the selected fragment

Key	Action
`e`	Edit in `$EDITOR` (suspends the TUI, resumes on exit)
`t`	Toggle todo status (open ↔ done) — no-op for non-todos
`s`	Set status
`D`	Set due date
`P`	Set priority
`@`	Set assignee
`#`	Set tags
`p`	Promote to another type — opens an input prompt
`a`	Archive (toggle)
`d`	Delete — opens a `y/n` confirm dialog
`y`	Copy the full ID to the system clipboard

# Modals and general

Key	Action
`?`	Toggle the help overlay
`Esc`	Cancel a modal; close the launcher
`y` / `n`	Confirm or cancel inside a confirm dialog
`Enter`	Submit inside an input prompt
`q`	Quit
`Ctrl-C`	Quit from anywhere

In launcher search mode, all printable keystrokes append to the query. The query is parsed as the full search DSL, so type:todo #backend due:this-week filters the list as you type. Use Shift-Tab to move focus between results and preview, Enter to edit the selected result, and Esc to close the launcher.

If the launcher input starts with >, it switches to command mode. Command results include existing TUI actions such as edit, toggle status, archive, delete, promote, yank ID, quick field edits, capture, reload, help, and tab switching. Commands that need a selected fragment are hidden when nothing is selected.

# When to use it

The TUI shines for browsing and quick edits — flipping between tabs to see what you've been doing, opening search to refine, and editing or toggling todos without leaving the keyboard. For one-shot queries, scripted output, or piping into other tools, the CLI is faster: every persistent TUI tab maps directly to a parc today, parc list, or parc stale invocation, and every TUI action maps to parc edit, parc set, parc archive, parc delete, or parc promote.