Running Modes

Overview

Rusty supports three running modes to suit different workflows and environments.

TUI Mode (Default)

The default mode launches a full terminal UI built with Ratatui. This provides:

• Streaming responses with real-time display
• Interactive permission prompts
• Slash command support with tab completion
• Markdown rendering (bold, italic, code blocks, tables)
• Status bar showing model, permission mode, and token usage
• Scrollable message history
• Session save on exit
• Model registry picker via the sidebar (/settings)
• Structured task tracking with --plan-with-tasks

rusty
rusty --preset openai --api-key sk-...
rusty --plan-with-tasks

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Send message
Up/Down	Scroll history
Tab	Autocomplete slash commands
Ctrl+C	Cancel current operation
Ctrl+D	Exit

Headless Mode

Headless mode runs a single prompt and prints the response. No interactive UI is displayed. Useful for scripting, CI pipelines, and non-interactive workflows.

rusty --prompt "Explain the error handling in this codebase"
rusty --preset xiaomi --prompt "List all public API functions"

Options available in headless mode:

Flag	Description
--prompt	The prompt to send (required, triggers headless mode)
--max-turns	Maximum agent loop iterations
--max-tokens	Maximum tokens in the response
--permissions	Permission mode (use bypass for non-interactive)

The session is saved automatically after the response completes.

Stdin REPL Mode

Stdin mode provides an interactive line-by-line REPL without the TUI. Supports slash commands but does not have the full terminal UI rendering. Useful when the TUI is not available or when running in a simple terminal.

rusty --headless

Features:

• Line-by-line input
• Slash command support (/help, /model, /sessions, etc.)
• Streaming text output
• Session save on exit

Choosing a Mode

Use Case	Recommended Mode
Interactive coding session	TUI
Scripting and automation	Headless
Simple terminal or SSH session	Stdin REPL
CI/CD pipelines	Headless with --permissions bypass
Quick one-off question	Headless
Long-running development work	TUI with session resume
Planning and task tracking	TUI with --plan-with-tasks