TUI vs GUI
AI coding tools come in two shapes, and a productive vibe coder reaches for both. / TUI agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Aider) run in the terminal: fast, scriptable, and composable, great for automation and letting the AI work autonomously across many files. GUI / editor tools (Cursor, Windsurf, IDE extensions) live in a visual editor: discoverable, with inline diffs, click-to-accept, and a gentle on-ramp — easier for reviewing changes.
| TUI / terminal | GUI / editor | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Very fast, low overhead | Slower, more UI |
| Scriptable | Yes — pipe, chain, automate | Limited |
| Visual diffs | Plain text | Rich, inline |
| Discoverability | Low (know the commands) | High (clickable) |
| Best for | Automation, autonomy, power users | Review, onboarding, visual work |
You don't have to pick one forever. The combination is the point: drive the bulk of the work through a fast TUI , then drop into a GUI for visual review or fine-grained edits. A common workflow is to let a terminal agent make the broad changes across many files, then open the GUI's side-by-side diff to actually read and approve what it did — speed for the doing, clarity for the checking. Choose a comfortable primary, and remember the skills in this book transfer between them.