Interactive mode

hipmmcode (or hipmmcode chat) opens the interactive REPL. By default it runs in a fullscreen managed viewport — an alternate-screen TUI with mouse support, a pinned bottom bar, and in-viewport streaming. Prefer the classic scrollback renderer? hipmmcode config set tui=inline (or /tui inline live).

hipmmcode                                      # fullscreen TUI REPL
hipmmcode chat -p deepseek-anthropic -m deepseek-v4-flash
hipmmcode chat -p xai-oauth -m grok-4.5
hipmmcode chat --legion my-team                # activate a legion for this session only
hipmmcode chat --as team-designer              # adopt an agent profile as the lead persona
hipmmcode -c                                   # continue the most recent session

The screen

• Transcript area — streaming markdown (headers, lists, bold, code, tables, clickable links) rendered line-by-line as the model responds. Tool calls render as collapsible cards.
• In-turn task tree — while the agent works, a live tree shows the current tool, todo progress, and spawned teammates, with an animated spinner.
• Background tasks bar (v0.16.0+) — consecutive background status lines (e.g. bash-7 · running…, teammate notices) collapse into a single ⏺ Background tasks (N) row. Click it or press Ctrl+O to expand the individual lines. The header no longer uses "Team" wording.
• Input box — multi-line editor with history, completion, and optional vim bindings.
• Status bar (HUD) — pinned bottom row(s): model, cwd, context pressure gauge ([████░░░░] 42% 85k/200k, model-aware), session tool counts. Style it with /hud (native rows / compact bar), or plug an external command via statusLineCommand.

Keyboard

Everyday

Key	Action
Enter	Send
Shift+Enter / Alt+Enter	Insert newline (run /terminal-setup once to enable Shift+Enter in your terminal)
Esc	Interrupt the running turn (when input is empty) · clear the draft (when not)
Ctrl+C	Interrupt turn / clear input; twice to exit
Ctrl+O	Fullscreen transcript view (scroll, expand, select); also expands/collapses the Background tasks bar when that row is focused
Ctrl+B	Send the running foreground Bash / Agent to the background (session-resident completion notice)
Ctrl+Z / Shift+Ctrl+Z	Undo / redo in the input editor
Ctrl+X Ctrl+E	Edit the draft in $VISUAL/$EDITOR (/editor does the same)
Shift+Tab	Cycle permission mode: default → acceptEdits → plan → auto → default (with mode indicator)
↑ / ↓	Input history (or move within a multi-line draft)
Ctrl+R	Reverse-i-search through input history
!cmd	Run a shell command directly (output lands in the conversation); shell is configurable via defaultShell

Completion

• Tab — list candidates for any slash command and its arguments (/model <Tab> shows provider/model pairs filtered to channels with a key).
• Ghost hint — typing /mo shows a dim del suffix; press → or End to accept. Works for command names and argument values.
• @ mentions — type @ for fuzzy completion of files and agents. @ lists both file paths and spawnable agents (name (agent) – description). Selecting an agent appends a directed-delegation hint to the model.
• Bare / — opens the searchable command palette (multi-column, arrow keys + Enter). Single keystroke execution — an exact command match runs on first Enter (/status⏎ no longer needs a second press).
• Slash menu source tags — menu rows show (user) for custom commands and (mcp) for MCP-provided commands.

Vim mode

/vim (or hipmmcode config set editorMode=vim) enables modal editing in every input surface — the inline editor, the streaming view, and the resting fullscreen composer. Esc → NORMAL, i/a/o/A/I/O → INSERT, with motions (h j k l w b e 0 $), operators (d c y), paste (p), undo (u). The status line shows the current mode. In NORMAL mode with an empty draft, Esc still interrupts a running turn.

Mid-turn team keys

While a turn is running with background teammates: Shift+↑/↓ selects a teammate in the preview, f foregrounds it, k stops it, Enter expands its transcript.

Mid-turn input queue

While a turn is still running you can type the next message. Queued lines show above the composer with a dim [Send now] chip:

Action	Effect
Click [Send now]	Abort the current turn and start the queued message immediately
Enter twice within ~800ms (empty draft, queue non-empty)	Same as Send now
↑	Recall / edit the most recent queued line into the draft

There is no separate cancel/edit chip on the row — edit via ↑, promote via Send now or double Enter.

Mouse

The fullscreen shell captures the mouse:

• Hover a collapsed tool card → highlight; click → expand/collapse.
• Drag-select — character-precise selection that auto-copies on release.
• Wheel — scroll the viewport (3-line steps); scroll back during a streaming turn.
• Cmd+click (macOS) / Ctrl+click paths in tool output — open the file in the editor when the terminal/IDE supports it (VS Code may also handle path open itself).

Attachments — images & video

Multimodal input works three ways:

1. Drag a file onto the terminal — its path is inserted and attached.
2. @-mention a path.
3. /paste (aliases /img, /image) — attach an image straight from the clipboard.

Images are analyzed on vision-capable models. Videos are analyzed on video-capable channels (e.g. Gemini, Kimi/Moonshot): the model watches the actual footage — on-screen text, UI actions, timestamps. Models without video support get a clear text placeholder instead. The inline size cap is 32 MB, configurable with HIPMMCODE_VIDEO_MAX_MB.

File paths in file:// form, with spaces, or percent-encoded are resolved cross-platform (POSIX and Windows).

Notifications & terminal integration

• notifyOnDone=true / notifyOnInputNeeded=true — beep or send a terminal notification when a turn finishes or a permission prompt opens while the window is unfocused. Channel auto-detected (iTerm2, kitty, ghostty, bell) or pinned via notifyChannel.
• terminalTitle / terminalProgress — status in the tab title (OSC 0) and a progress indicator (OSC 9;4) where supported.
• awayRecap=true (default) — a "welcome back" recap after ≥5 minutes idle.
• tips=true (default) — rotating keyboard-shortcut hints under the input.
• reduce motion — calmer animations (accessibility).

Appearance pickers

/color (alias /theme) opens a live-preview picker — the whole screen re-tints as the highlight moves, so you judge each theme in place and Enter keeps it:

hipmmcode

› /color

Themes  — previews live as you move
  default      terminal ANSI palette
❯ tokyo-night  icy blues + violet  (active)
  solarized    warm classic
  catppuccin   soft pastel
  monokai      high-contrast neon

↑/↓ preview · Enter keep · Esc revert

/hud picks the bottom status-bar style the same way (native rows / compact bar / force-native). The same picker pattern — arrow keys, (active) marker, Esc-safe — is used across /effort, /output-style, /experiments, and /expand.

Output styles

/output-style switches the response style (concise, explanatory, learning, …); custom styles are markdown files. language=<name> pins the response language.