user interactive

Interactive mode

Run steiner with no arguments to start the interactive terminal UI (TUI). For command-line flags and subcommands, see CLI reference.

Layout

• Transcript: the main pane. It shows your messages, model replies, thinking blocks, tool calls, approval prompts, sub-agent cards and the compaction banner. Click a tool call, thinking block, sub-agent card or the compaction banner to expand or collapse its detail.
• Composer: the input box at the bottom. Queued messages appear in a box above it.
• Status bar: below the composer. It shows the model, context usage, the execution mode and key hints. Context usage reads ctx -- until a model request reports usage together with a usable context window, and stays ctx -- if no usable window is reported; after that it shows used / budget tokens with a percentage.
• Sidebar: model and profile, context gauge, sandbox status, orchestration level, active skill, MCP and LSP server counts, sub-agents, performance, session start and active runtime, repository branch and modified files. When a newer release is available, the sidebar shows ↑ <version> · upgrade (see Installation). Press ctrl+b to show or hide it. It is hidden when the terminal is narrower than 100 columns.

Key bindings

Open the help overlay with ctrl+f1 for a short list of key bindings.

Composer

Key	Action
enter	Submit. During a run, queue the text as a steer (see Steering a run)
shift+enter, alt+enter, ctrl+j	Insert a newline
up / down	Recall earlier prompts when the cursor is on the first row; otherwise move the cursor
/	Open the slash overlay of commands and skills (when the composer is empty)
tab	Cycle completions for a slash command
@	Open the file picker; enter or tab inserts the selected path, esc cancels
ctrl+a / ctrl+e	Move to line start / end
ctrl+k	Delete to end of line
ctrl+w	Delete the previous word
ctrl+u	Delete to start of line
ctrl+v	Paste an image (see Images)

Session and view

Key	Action
ctrl+b	Toggle the sidebar
ctrl+t	Open the context overlay
ctrl+o	Open or close the usage dashboard (r refreshes; see Usage)
ctrl+x	Expand or collapse the latest delegation output
ctrl+g	Take queued steers back into the composer
shift+tab	Toggle between plan and build mode (see Execution modes)
alt+m	Open the model picker
alt+p	Open the profile picker
alt+e	Open or close the error log
alt+r	Apply a new random accent colour (see Appearance)
alt+a	Open or close the sub-agent picker
alt+. / alt+,	Jump to the next / previous running sub-agent
alt+/	Expand or collapse the sub-agent you jumped to
pgup / pgdn, mouse wheel	Scroll the transcript
ctrl+f1	Toggle the help overlay (esc also closes it)

Stopping and quitting

Key	While a run is active	While idle
esc	Interrupt the run	Clear the text selection
ctrl+c, ctrl+d	Interrupt the run	Open the exit dialog; press again to exit

When sub-agents are running, these keys open a stop dialog instead. Depending on what is running, it offers to stop the current turn, one delegate, all delegates, or the entire run. Use the arrow keys to move, enter to confirm and esc to go back.

If delegation worktrees remain when you exit, Steiner asks whether to clean them up first. See Sub-agent delegation.

Overlays and pickers

Scrollable overlays (usage, error log, MCP, LSP and similar reports) scroll with up/down, j/k, pgup/pgdn and home/end, and close with esc or enter. The context overlay (ctrl+t) scrolls with up/down and pgup/pgdn, and closes with esc. Pickers filter as you type, move with up/down, select with enter and close with esc.

Slash commands

Type / in an empty composer to open the overlay of commands and skills. While a run is active, enter queues the composer text as a steer, including text that starts with /. Commands that open a picker, such as /model, still open it when you complete them from the overlay.

Command	Purpose	Details
/cache-stats	Show prompt cache hit rate stats	Usage
/clear	Start a new, empty session	Sessions
/compact [focus]	Compact the conversation, optionally steering the summary	Context management
/config	Show the resolved configuration	Configuration
/errors	Show the error log (same as alt+e)	Error log
/exit	Quit Steiner
/fork	Fork the current conversation into a new session	Sessions
/implement	Pick a plan from .steiner/plans/ and run the implement skill on it	Skills
/ls [path]	List directory contents
/lsp	Show LSP server status	LSP
/mcp	Show MCP server status	MCP
/usage	Show provider subscription usage (same as ctrl+o)	Usage
/model [ref]	Switch the orchestrator model; no argument opens the picker	Provider and model setup
/profile [name]	Switch the profile for future role assignments; no argument opens the picker	Provider and model setup
/mode [plan|build]	Set the execution mode; no argument toggles it	Execution modes
/orchestration [low|standard]	Set the sub-agent orchestration level; no argument opens the picker	Sub-agent delegation
/oneshot <task>	Run an autonomous oneshot task; /oneshot --resume <id> resumes one	Oneshot
/oneshot-resume	Pick a oneshot run to resume	Oneshot
/agents	Find and jump to a sub-agent (same as alt+a)	Sub-agent delegation
/recall	Show conversation history archived by compaction	Context management
/resume	Open the session picker	Sessions
/review	Pick a plan from .steiner/plans/ and run the review skill on it	Skills
/skill [+|-]name	Enable (+name or name) or disable (-name) a skill	Skills
/skills	List available skills	Skills
/thinking	Show or hide thinking blocks	Appearance
/accent [preset]	Change the accent colour; no argument opens the picker	Appearance
/<skill> [args]	Invoke a skill directly	Skills

While a oneshot run is active in the TUI, only /exit, /thinking and /accent run as commands. Other input is queued as a steer for the running phase.

Approvals

When a tool call needs approval, an approval prompt appears in the transcript. Sandboxing explains which calls need approval and what approving allows.

Key	Action
y	Approve this call once
a	Approve and allow this tool for the rest of the session (for MCP tools, that server's tool)
n, esc	Deny
arrow keys, tab	Move between the options
enter	Confirm the selected option
ctrl+c, ctrl+d	Interrupt the run

When sub-agents are running, esc, ctrl+c and ctrl+d open the stop dialog instead.

Steering a run

While a run is active, type a message and press enter to queue it as a steer. Queued messages appear in a box above the composer. Steiner delivers all queued messages together, merged into one message, the next time the agent takes input. Pending images go with the steer.

Press ctrl+g to take queued steers back before delivery. They are merged with your current draft and placed in the composer for editing.

Sessions

Steiner saves interactive sessions under ~/.config/steiner/sessions.

• /resume opens the session picker. Type to filter by title, enter loads the selected session, f forks it and esc closes the picker.
• steiner --resume prints saved sessions with their IDs, and steiner --resume <id> starts the TUI with that session. See CLI reference.
• /fork copies the current conversation into a new session and switches to it. Forking from the picker does the same for a saved session. The fork is titled Fork of: <original title>, and changes in one session do not affect the other. /recall in a fork shows only the fork's own compaction archive.
• /clear starts a new, empty session. It resets enabled skills, queued steers and pending images. The previous session stays saved.
• The sidebar's started row records the local time of the first prompt, and runtime counts how long the session has been working. /clear, /fork and /resume reset both. See Usage.

Loading, forking and clearing are refused while a run or sub-agent is still active.

Images

Press ctrl+v to paste an image. Steiner reads an image from the clipboard; if there is none, it uses clipboard text that is a path to an image file. On Wayland, clipboard images are read with wl-paste.

• Supported formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP.
• Maximum size: 5 MB per image. Images larger than 2048 px on the longest side are resized.
• Each image appears in the composer as a marker such as [img-3]. You can paste several before sending. Backspace at the end of a marker or Delete at its start removes that image. Labels are not reused.
• If the current model cannot view images and no vision sub-agent is configured, the paste is ignored with a notice. See Sub-agent delegation.

Image data is removed from the conversation once the model has responded. A text placeholder with the image ID and file path stays in the history, so the model can look at the image again later.

Images are stored under .steiner/tmp/images/<session id>/ in the project. Folders unused for 30 days are removed at startup. --exec and oneshot runs use a temporary folder that is removed on exit. /clear discards images that have not been sent.

Copying text

Select text in the transcript with the mouse; it is copied when you release the button. Double-click copies a word and triple-click copies a line. In the error log, press y to copy the whole log.

Steiner tries wl-copy (when WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set), then xclip or xsel (when DISPLAY is set). If none succeeds, it sends an OSC 52 escape sequence, which asks your terminal emulator to set the clipboard.

Over SSH, copying usually relies on OSC 52:

• Terminals with OSC 52 support, such as kitty, WezTerm, Alacritty, foot, Ghostty and recent Konsole, work without extra setup.
• VTE-based terminals, such as Terminator, GNOME Terminal, Ptyxis and Tilix, ignore OSC 52. Use X11 forwarding instead: connect with ssh -X (or set ForwardX11 yes in ~/.ssh/config), allow X11Forwarding yes on the server, and install xclip or xsel on the remote host.
• Inside tmux, add set -s set-clipboard on to your tmux config.

If copied text lands in the remote host's clipboard, WAYLAND_DISPLAY or DISPLAY is set in the remote shell. Unset it before starting Steiner.

Error log

Press alt+e or use /errors to open the error log. It lists internal errors and warnings from the session. Press y to copy it, and esc, enter or alt+e to close it.

Appearance

TUI preferences live in ~/.config/steiner/prefs.yaml, separate from the main configuration. Steiner creates the file when you change a preference from the TUI.

accent: violet
show_thinking: true
sidebar_position: left
sidebar_bg: "#050505"
content_bg: "#000000"

Field	Default	Meaning
accent	amber	Accent colour preset, or random for a different preset on each start. Set with /accent or alt+r.
show_thinking	true	Show thinking blocks in the transcript. Toggle with /thinking.
sidebar_position	left	right places the sidebar on the right; any other value places it on the left. Edit the file to change it.
sidebar_bg	#050505	Sidebar background colour. Edit the file to change it.
content_bg	#000000	Main pane background colour. Edit the file to change it.

Accent presets: amber, coral, rose, magenta, gold, violet, indigo, blue, cyan, teal, green, mint, lime, red, pink, sky, lavender, terracotta, yellow, purple. /accent with no argument opens a picker with colour swatches; /accent <preset> sets one directly.

Press alt+r for a new random accent without submitting or clearing your draft; the cursor stays where it was. The preference is saved as accent: random, so each later start also picks a random preset. Press alt+r again for another colour in the same session. A random pick can repeat the current colour.

On macOS, terminals only send alt as Meta when Option is configured to: enable "Use Option as Meta key" in Terminal (Settings > Profiles > Keyboard) or set the Option key to send Esc+ in iTerm2 (Settings > Profiles > Keys). Otherwise Option+R types a character instead of triggering the shortcut.

Background colours must be #RRGGBB. Quote them in YAML, because # starts a comment. Empty or missing values use the defaults. If the file is not valid YAML or a colour is invalid, the TUI does not start and reports the error.

Other TUI settings, such as the frame rate, are in the tui block of the main configuration.