thurbox TUI — UI/UX Review

Summary — 21 findings across 17 screens

Top recommendations

1. Both prior warnings are resolved this run: the repo-picker footer no longer overlaps its action pills (the hint clips with a clean gap before Done/Cancel), and the Settings panel widens to ~84 cols at ≥120-col terminals so every feature/notification description renders in full instead of clipping with “…”, with the ↻ restart marker now an accent-warning glyph instead of near-invisible gray.
2. Theme picker preview (nit, unchanged): the Accent swatches and Status glyphs read clearly, but the Border and Modal-bg preview chips are still nearly invisible (thin outline / dark-on-dark). Render all four as filled chips so the live preview communicates the whole palette.
3. Consistent long-value truncation (nit, unchanged): the info panel still wraps “not logged in (no subscription token)” across three lines, the automation editor shows a full absolute repo path, and the bottom Automations pane cuts off “… · in <time>”. Adopt one middle-truncation rule that keeps the most useful end (repo leaf, next-run time) visible.
4. Side-by-side diff layout is now captured (the prior coverage caveat is resolved): the split-column view renders one source line per row with add/del on their own side. The native code-review view remains well-realized — per-file headers with +/- counts, syntax-highlighted hunks, mirrored changed-files column, inline comment compose, and a working/branch/commit target picker.
5. No blockers or warnings remain; the open items are all polish nits.

Session list + terminal (default view) launch

nit

Footer surfaces the F-key panel alternatesusability

The bottom bar shows Help·F1, Info·F2, Files·F3, Theme·F4, Tasks·F5, Settings·^X, Quit·^Q directly, so a user whose terminal is focused (where the Ctrl panel chords pass through to the agent) still has a discoverable way to reach each panel.

Fix: No change needed — noted as a strength; it mitigates the terminal-passthrough discoverability gap.

nit

Automations pane summary is cut off at the column edgevisual

The bottom-left Automations summary renders as “daily 09:00 · spawn · in” with the actual next-run value clipped off the right edge of the narrow left column.

Fix: Middle-truncate the summary so the “in <time>” tail stays visible, or drop the cadence text when space is tight.

A different session selected Ctrl+J

nit

Selection highlight and status badge stay in syncconsistency

Moving the selection updates the solid-fill row highlight and the top-right session badge together; the selected name stays legible on the accent fill.

Fix: No change needed.

Session info panel Ctrl+B

nit

Long values wrap raggedly in the narrow Info columnvisual

The info panel stacks under the session list, so “not logged in (no subscription token)” wraps across three lines and the “Repos:” label sits on its own line with the value beneath. Readable but ragged. Density is otherwise strong (Name/Status/Agent/Repos, per-session + system CPU/RAM gauges, Automations countdown).

Fix: Let the value use the full column width (label above, value indented) or abbreviate — not urgent.

File viewer (repo tree) Ctrl+E

nit

Directory markers + a context-specific hint rowconsistency

Directories carry ▸ expand markers and the footer switches to file-viewer hints (j/k Move · h/l Collapse/Expand · Open · Search), matching the pattern of the other focusable panes.

Fix: No change needed.

Tasks panel (todo list) Ctrl+W

nit

Empty-state copy teaches the keyusability

The detail pane shows “No description — press e to add notes.”, explaining the empty state and the relevant key in one line; the full task title is shown there even though the right-column rows truncate it.

Fix: No change needed — a pattern worth reusing elsewhere.

nit

Task status carries shape + colouraccessibility

Todo/in-progress/done use distinct glyphs (☐/◐/☑) in addition to colour.

Fix: No change needed.

Automations list Ctrl+P

nit

Schedule summary is scannableusability

“nightly-triage — daily 09:00 · spawn · in 12h 20m” packs name, cadence, action type, and next-run into one line; the modal is centered with Edit/Close pills like the other overlays.

Fix: No change needed.

Global search strip Ctrl+/ + query

nit

Strong feedback: per-scope counts + grouped resultsusability

Typing “test” shows “2 tasks · 1 file [1/3]” with grouped TASKS/FILES results; matched characters highlight with underline + bold (not colour-only) in the live panels, and the unmatched task row dims.

Fix: No change needed.

Theme picker Ctrl+Y

nit

Border and Modal-bg preview chips are nearly invisiblevisual

The live preview shows Accent (filled red/green swatches) and Status glyphs (◐◆●○✗) clearly, but the Border and Modal-bg rows render as a thin outline / dark-on-dark, so two of the four preview rows read as empty.

Fix: Render Border and Modal-bg as filled chips like the Accent swatch so the whole palette previews at a glance.

New-session / repo picker Ctrl+N

nit

Footer key-hints no longer collide with the action pills (prior warning resolved)visual

The earlier overlap (“Ta█Done█t Cancel”) is gone: the hint row now clips to the space left of the Done/Cancel pills with a one-column gap, so both read cleanly. The fix is shared in render_hint_action_footer, which reserves the right-aligned button strip its own space.

Fix: No change needed — confirms the footer-collision fix. (The clip can cut the last hint mid-word; eliding at a word boundary would be a small polish follow-up.)

nit

Clear empty state points at the next actionusability

“No bookmarks — add via path input below” explains the empty list and directs the user to the Add Repo Path input.

Fix: No change needed.

Keybindings help + editor Ctrl+G / F1

nit

Comprehensive, sectioned, scrollable, rebind-readyusability

Bindings are grouped (Navigation / Sessions / Project / UI) with a scrollbar, a clear selected row, and a footer for the live-rebind workflow (j/k move · r rebind · d reset · Reset all).

Fix: No change needed; slightly heavier section headers would speed scanning.

Settings panel Ctrl+, / F6

nit

Descriptions render in full and the restart marker is legible (prior warning resolved)visual

On a ≥120-col terminal the modal widens to ~84 cols, so every description renders in full (“Native code-review view (diff + comments)”, “Mouse: clicks, wheel, drag-select, hover”, “Soft-delete sessions with an undo window”, “Min seconds between notifications per session”) instead of clipping with “…”. The ↻ restart marker now uses the same bold accent-warning colour as the restart note, so it stands out against the dim values.

Fix: No change needed — confirms the truncation + marker-contrast fix. The compact 66-col layout still applies on narrow terminals (where some descriptions necessarily clip).

Automation editor (multi-line prompt) Ctrl+P then Enter

nit

Multi-line prompt renders inline; consistent footervisual

The wrapping prompt field shows its content within the field and the footer carries Save/Cancel pills + ^E enable, consistent with the other editors. The repo value is a long absolute sandbox path that fills the column.

Fix: Middle-truncate a long repo path so the repo leaf stays visible.

Task editor (in-pane) Ctrl+W then Enter

nit

Editor vocabulary matches the automation editorconsistency

Field navigation and footer hints (Tab/↑↓ move · ←→ adjust · Enter/^S save · Esc cancel) mirror the automation editor, and the ‹ todo › status stepper matches the Settings scalars.

Fix: No change needed; the full-screen pane is mostly empty below the three fields — fine as headroom for a growing multi-line description.

Code-review view (branch diff + changed-files column) Ctrl+X / F7

nit

Dense, GitHub-style diff that reads at a glancevisual

Each file has a header with status + path + per-file counts (A src/greet.rs +3 -0), hunks are syntax-highlighted with gutter +/- signs and a subtle row tint, line numbers show on both sides, and the header names the target (“All branch changes (master..HEAD) +11 -2”). The Agent/Review/Shell tab bar and the right-hand changed-files column reuse the app’s border/accent treatment.

Fix: No change needed — a strong, theme-aware view.

nit

Footer buttons are labelled with their keysusability

Comment·c, Send→Agent·e, Close·esc, Find·/, File·f, Summary·s make the shortcuts discoverable, and the changed-files column carries its own nav legend (↑↓ move · ↵ open · r …).

Fix: No change needed.

Code review: inline comment compose + classification c

nit

Comment composes in context, not in a separate modalconsistency

The compose box floats inline at the selected diff line with a classification badge ([Praise]/issue/suggestion/note) and an inline hint (Tab: cycle type · Ctrl+S: save · Esc: cancel); the footer swaps to Save·^S / Cancel·esc / Class·tab, matching the editor pattern elsewhere.

Fix: The inline-hint header clips its trailing “Esc: cancel” at the diff width — minor; the same hint is fully shown in the footer pills, so no information is lost.

Code review: side-by-side diff layout v

nit

Side-by-side split-column layout (prior coverage caveat resolved)visual

Toggling with v renders the split-column layout: removed lines on the left, added on the right, with context mirrored on both sides and per-file headers retained. Long right-column lines clip at the column edge, as expected for a split view.

Fix: No change needed; true paired side-by-side (one logical change per row) is a named v1 follow-up.

Code review: target picker (working / branch / commit) t

nit

Target picker covers the three useful scopesusability

The picker lists Working changes (uncommitted), All branch changes (master..HEAD), and each commit in range (2213f9c feat: add greeting + checked arithmetic), with the active target highlighted — the orchestrator-native equivalent of tuicr’s -w/-r/commit targets.

Fix: No change needed.