Dashboard, desktop and terminal

Marina’s interfaces are views onto a living world. A coding task can continue while you read messages, inspect a published panel or follow another participant. The browser, desktop and terminal share server command, identity and resource contracts; their presentation differs.

Capability	Browser dashboard	Electrobun desktop	Terminal/TUI
World commands, login and context	WebSocket, inline discovery and context UI	Same dashboard source; shared participation handler over native RPC	Current WebSocket SDK and world commands
Coding tasks and verification	Coding desk and chat	Same dashboard components	Coding view, /status, /verify, /review
Messages and other participants	Chat and participant Streams	Same dashboard components	World view alongside Coding, unread indicators
Published panels	Interactive resource panels and canvas placement	Bundled dashboard renderer	Text projection and supported actions through /panel
Spatial layout and rich media	Browser canvas, tiling and media	Same UI bundle, native-webview support varies	No pixel/HTML canvas parity; inspect the same authorized resources
Deployment	Browser connects to a server	Embedded local engine or remote-server mode	Start locally or connect to a server

Published panel definitions select supported resources/renderers/actions. They are not arbitrary remote JavaScript. A panel placement does not create a new agent or change a coding session’s owner. See published panels and participant routing.

Browser and terminal together

The server builds the browser bundle from the same checkout when it starts:

bun run start

In another terminal, after bun run setup:cli:

marina connect TerminalResident

For project coding in a fullscreen terminal, use the terminal workspace.

Use separate residents for independent active clients. Reconnecting the same resident is a session handoff, not a way to create two independent workers with identical credentials.

Terminal workspace (TUI)

The terminal workspace is a fullscreen view for coding in a project folder. It keeps the coding conversation, the World conversation, pending requests and a published panel in panes around one composer. Your coding task keeps running while you read or reply in the World. It is the coding view of the dashboard, not all of it; see what it does not show.

Start it

Install the marina command once from the checkout (bun install, then bun run setup:cli). Then run one of these. Start a local Marina for this folder and open the workspace:

cd /path/to/project
marina --tui

The same, from the Marina checkout:

bun run code /path/to/project --tui

Attach to a world that is already running (missing values are prompted for):

marina attach --tui

Or name the world, the participant and the session:

marina attach ws://localhost:3300/ws --name Builder --session <id> --tui

Open straight into a use-case mode (implies --tui):

marina --mode operate

--tui works with the other coding options, such as --agent claude|codex|pi, --model and --driver crew. See Coding for those options. Without --tui you get the scrollback terminal, which has the same controls on the normal screen. The workspace needs an interactive terminal. One-shot -p, pipes and redirected output keep plain text. NO_COLOR=1 turns off colour.

The layout

Area	What it shows
Header	The tabs Coding · World · Requests · Panel, with unread counts on tabs you are not looking at
Coding pane	Your coding session: the agent’s replies, tool activity, checks and review results
World pane	Messages, tells and world command output. Reply here without leaving your task
Requests (F7)	Questions and held actions waiting for your answer. A new request never takes over your draft
Panel (F8)	A text view of a published panel, with its fields and actions
Composer	One line editor for each conversation, with the destination named above it
Footer	Folder, status and the keys

The pane marked ● receives your input. Each pane keeps its own scroll position, and each conversation keeps its own draft and history when you switch.

Modes

A mode arranges the screen for one kind of work and leaves out the rest. Switching modes never starts, stops or changes a worker: the coding session keeps running in every mode. Press F3 to cycle, type /mode <name>, or start with --mode <name>.

Mode	Shows	The composer starts in
coding (default)	The coding conversation alone. The World is cut down to one line above the composer: the latest message addressed to you (a tell, or a message naming you), with a count. F6 opens the full World and clears it	Coding
operate	A live board beside the World: Attention (requests to answer, held actions, alerts), Agents, Spend and Status. It shows the same data as the dashboard, refreshed every few seconds. Shift+PageUp / Shift+PageDown scroll the board	World, for commands such as challenge approve <token> or agent stop <name>
coordinate	Who is working on what, beside the World. Streams lists participant sessions (Claude, Codex, pi …) with the ones asking you or failing first. Tasks lists open and claimed tasks with the ones waiting for your review first. Streams needs a signed-in world account	World, for tell <name> <message> and task approve <id> <claimant>; /agents and /use reach native sessions
memory	Curating what the world knows. Dreams lists recent dreams with the proposals waiting for you first. Memory shows counts only: unresolved contradictions, stale and duplicate records, records with sources, open memory jobs. Both are scoped to what you may see	World, for memory recall <query>, memory dream adopt <id> and note conflicts
investigate	After the fact. Traces lists recent execution traces, with failed runs and failed checks first; it needs operator read, and otherwise says so. Feed shows the activity feed, newest first	World, for trace show <id>, trace find status=failed and feed list since:2h
forecast	Your newest predictions and research (the dashboard’s Predict and Research pages). Running ones come first, then answers and resolved scores, with today’s Spend below, because every prediction costs model calls. Needs a signed-in world account	World, for inquiry predict -- <question>, inquiry show <case-id> and forecast <question>

In coding, /layout split (or F2) still puts the whole World beside Coding when you want it. In every mode but coding the board sits beside the World from 80 columns; narrower, the World is shown alone.

Keys

Key	Action
F1	Help
F2	Cycle layouts: auto, focus, split (/layout auto|focus|split)
F3	Cycle modes (/mode coding|operate|coordinate|memory|investigate|forecast)
Shift+PageUp / Shift+PageDown	Scroll a mode’s board
F6	Switch the composer between Coding and World
F7	Open pending requests
F8	Focus the published panel. Tab / Shift+Tab move between fields, Space toggles, Enter reviews
Alt+Left / Alt+Right	Switch panel views
PageUp / PageDown	Scroll the focused pane
Alt+Up / Alt+Down	Load an older or newer page of local history (/view older, /view newer)
/	Command suggestions. Up/Down to choose, Tab or Enter to insert, Enter again to send
Shift+Enter or a trailing \	Add a line to the draft. A paste stays a draft until you send it
Ctrl+C	Interrupt the worker. A second Ctrl+C exits
q or Esc	Close the diff view
Ctrl+D	Exit from an empty composer

If your terminal does not pass function keys, use /view coding|world|approvals|panel and /layout. Exiting restores your shell and does not print unsent drafts.

Slash commands

/help shows the essentials and /help all lists every control. The ones used most:

Command	Does
plain text, /task <request>	Start or continue a coding task. /task works toward a verified candidate
/plan <request>	Research and propose, without writing files
/diff, /checks, /review	See what changed, run the project’s checks, review the result. /diff opens a scrollable diff view
/status, /project	Session, workspace and model; project readiness and how it is verified
/agents, /spawn claude|codex|pi, /use, /stop	Native agents in their own Git worktrees
/continue, /resume <name-or-id>	Resume this folder’s Marina session or a recorded native session
/model [<id>], /fast, /harness	Show or switch the model and runtime
/cost, /compact	Today’s spend against the cap; compact the context now
/live [status|agents|spend|alerts|readiness|world|me]	The dashboard’s live data, drawn as a card in the focused pane
/world <command>	Run any world command, such as task list or memory recall …
/memory [save <line> | recall <query>]	Save to this folder’s memory, or recall from it
/panel …	Open, use and close published panels
/dashboard	Open the browser dashboard signed in, on the same world
/quit	Exit. A connected world keeps running

What the TUI does not show

Some dashboard views have no pane yet. You can still reach most of their data as text with /world <command> or /live, or with /dashboard:

Dashboard view	In the terminal
Participant Streams	coordinate mode, or /live streams; /agents and /use for native agents
Memory workspace, dreams	memory mode, or /live dreams, /live memory; /memory, /world memory dream log
Traces, logs, activity feed	investigate mode, or /live traces, /live feed; /world trace …, /world feed list …. Logs stay in the browser
Ops, health, spend	operate mode, or /live status, /live readiness, /live alerts, /cost
Predict and Research pages	forecast mode, or /live forecasts; marina inquiry tui is the full-screen case browser
Canvas, media, Admin settings	Browser dashboard only

marina connect is the world REPL. It uses the scrollback screen and has no fullscreen mode.

Desktop development and packaging

bun install --frozen-lockfile
cd marina-desktop
bun run sync
bun run typecheck
bun run test
bun run build:dashboard
bun run start

The desktop Vite build consumes dashboard/src, not a separately maintained UI. Its app version comes from marina-desktop/package.json; the bundled Bun version comes from .bun-version. The local chat bridge and WebSocket server use the same handler for onboarding, capability discovery, context previews, correlated commands and explicit coding session/run targets. The local host drains work before closing persistence. Native socket relays detach their listeners when closed; a late connection response cannot reopen a closed view.

Desktop packaging uses Electrobun 2.0.5 and Hutch’s generated SDK. Marina retains its Bun main process and packages the exact .bun-version runtime through a verified pre-packaging hook. The v1 FFI patch is removed. Release CI targets Apple Silicon macOS, Windows x64 and Linux x64; v2 does not distribute an Intel Mac toolchain. On Intel Macs, use the web dashboard or terminal. The Linux native smoke test uses an isolated database and checks startup, participation and graceful shutdown. See the desktop development notes for prerequisites, SDK synchronization, runtime provenance and release validation.

The shared UI source and passing protocol tests do not certify every desktop platform. Before distributing an installer, validate native startup, reconnect, Coding desk/targeted commands, context, live canvas updates, assets, shutdown/reopen, signing and updates on each target OS. The repository’s native FFI tests stub the OS window library; they do not launch an actual window. Remote mode uses the selected server’s dashboard/version. Bundled local mode uses the packaged build; rebuild it to pick up UI/backend changes. An update feed and signing must be configured for a release—they are not enabled by a source checkout.

Verify interface changes

The backend participation and coding-target tests protect the shared execution contract; desktop bridge tests exercise native RPC without opening a window. Dashboard component tests and Playwright journeys cover browser interaction. Terminal tests cover rendering, input and panel actions. Use Testing for the supported runners, and Release qualification for the full release process. Keep these checks alongside any interface-specific change.