Getting started

Install

pip install ovos-tui-client

The OVOS installer can also install it for you. To try a pre-release, add --pre:

pip install --pre -U ovos-tui-client

A container image is published too - see Web and Docker.

Start it

ovos-tui

It connects to the messagebus at 127.0.0.1:8181. On another machine, or in another language:

ovos-tui --host 192.168.1.50 --lang da-dk

All options

Option	What it does
--host, --port	Messagebus address (default 127.0.0.1:8181).
--lang	Language of what you type, and of the tests that run (default en-us).
--log-dir DIR	Where the OVOS logs are. Normally found automatically.
--mycroft-conf FILE	The mycroft.conf the pipeline view should read. Only needed on some Docker/Podman installs.
--golden-dir DIR	Local skill checkouts to take test utterances from, before GitHub. Can be given more than once. See Testing skills.
--scripts-dir DIR	Folder with your own scripts (default ~/.config/ovos-tui-client/scripts).
--web, --web-host, --web-port, --web-public-url	Serve the TUI in a browser. See Web and Docker.

The screen

From the top:

1. Logs. Tick sources (bus, skills, audio, …) or log levels to narrow down. With nothing ticked in a row, everything in that row shows. The free-text filter and the Skills filter work the same way. Scroll up to read, and new lines won't pull you back down. Each line shows its source and the time it was logged, to the millisecond, in columns: [skills ] 14:31:05.401 ovos_core…. A traceback's continuation lines leave the time blank, so the text still lines up.
2. Conversation (left). You: in green, OVOS: in purple, and grey status lines for what the tool itself does (startup, service restarts, skill changes).
3. Activity (right). What OVOS is doing: → heard, which skill matched (▶), speaking, which common-query skills answered (✗ for those that had nothing).
4. Input at the bottom. Type and press Enter, as if you had said it. Up/Down browse what you typed before.

If you start typing while another pane has focus, the keys go to the input anyway.

Keys

Key
Ctrl+P	Command palette
F1	Help panel
F5 / F6 / F7 / F8	Focus Logs / Conversation / Activity / Input
Tab, Shift+Tab	Move focus
Esc	Close a window
Ctrl+Q	Quit

The command palette

Almost everything besides typing lives in the command palette. Press Ctrl+P and type a few letters of what you want:

Start typing…	to find
test	Test: <Skill> - All, - Choose, - Last selection, Test: All installed skills, Test: Save result…, Test: Show last result
script	Your own scripts, and Script: Stop running script while one runs
about	About: <Skill>, About: Installed skills, About: ovos-tui-client
skill	Skill: Activate / deactivate…, and one Skill: <id> (Active/Inactive) entry per skill that toggles it
example	Example phrases from the installed skills. Selecting one sends it.
service	Start, stop or restart OVOS services: its systemd user units, or system units (through sudo -n) when OVOS runs as system services
ovos	OVOS: Release channel, and OVOS: Set channel: <channel>… (the same as --set-channel) (release channels)
pipeline	The intent pipeline in the order OVOS evaluates it
log	Log filters: sources, levels, skills
clear	Clear: Logs, Conversation, Activity, All
copy, save	Copy: Logs / Conversation / Activity to the clipboard, or Save: … to file (next to the results): everything the pane shows, also what scrolled past
refresh	Refresh: Skills and services - pick up skills installed or removed since the TUI started

Results are written to the conversation pane rather than to pop-ups. The only windows are the ones where you pick or read something: the test picker and the About windows.