Terminal
After you run anda, the terminal UI connects to the local daemon. When a conversation completes successfully, it is submitted to Brain in the background for long-term memory formation.
Input Controls
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter | Send the current message |
| Shift+Enter / Ctrl+J | Insert a newline |
| Ctrl+U | Clear the input box |
| Ctrl+A / Ctrl+E | Move to the beginning or end of input |
| Esc | View status |
| Ctrl+C | Exit |
Input preserves spaces in text and code. Cursor movement and deletion treat combined emoji as one character. Status checks, conversation polling and Brain requests run in the background, so slow responses leave the UI responsive and Ctrl+C available. Opening the UI preserves existing terminal scrollback. /new clears the screen and scrollback for the new conversation. Reconnecting keeps your draft, and replaces the transcript only when it restores an active conversation. In a terminal that implements the Program Status Protocol (OSC 7501), the tab or session list shows whether Anda is working, waiting for your approval, answer or sign-in, done, or failed; other terminals ignore it.
After editing model providers in ~/.anda/config.yaml, refresh models from Anda Desktop or the browser side panel, or run:
anda models reload
After changing daemon settings that still require a restart, type:
/reload
Slash Commands
| Command | When to use it |
|---|---|
/goal message | Put a goal into the long-horizon loop until the checker decides it is complete or needs more work. |
/loop message | Run a prompt or slash command repeatedly. Describe an interval in natural language if desired, or omit it to let the model self-pace. |
/side message or /btw message | Start a side task for research, inspection, or work that should not interrupt the main conversation. |
/skill skill-name message | Ask a specific runtime skill to handle the request. |
/steer message | Interrupt the next tool call and steer the current response with new instructions. |
/stop message | Interrupt the current task, cancel its background work and pending approvals, and clear the active goal. Keep the conversation idle for the next message; an optional message gives the reason. |
/cancel message | Cancel the active conversation session; the message can include a reason. |
Examples:
/goal Finish this release checklist until tests and the changelog are confirmed.
/loop every 5 minutes /side Check the deploy queue and summarize blockers.
/side Check whether this dependency upgrade has compatibility risk.
/skill git-assistant Draft a commit message from the current diff.
/steer Stop refactoring and only fix the build error first.
Command Approvals
Risky shell commands and MCP server connections raise an approval card before they run.
| Situation | How to answer |
|---|---|
| Input box empty | Press y to approve, n to deny. |
| Input box has text | Type y/yes or n/no and press Enter, or press Ctrl+U to clear the input and use the single-key shortcuts again. |
The footer always shows which of the two is currently active. An unanswered card expires after 10 minutes, and the tool call then fails.
Approval cards show the full command, details and choices, wrapping to the terminal width. Status changes append a result to the transcript. Submission errors take priority over shortcut help; a failed text-choice submission keeps the draft for editing and retrying.
Cron jobs and autonomous goal mode (/goal ...) always run with full access, because nobody is present to answer a card and the task would otherwise stall until the card expires.
Common CLI Commands
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
anda | Open the interactive terminal UI. |
anda --full-access | Open the terminal UI with shell and MCP approval cards disabled for that session. |
anda update | Update a release installed by the install script. |
anda status | Show whether the background daemon is running. |
anda start | Start the background daemon. |
anda stop | Stop the background daemon. |
anda restart | Restart the background daemon. |
anda models reload | Reload model providers from config.yaml without restarting the daemon. |
anda mcp list | List MCP servers with their status, tools and last error; anda mcp --help shows how to add, change and sign in to them. |
anda autostart status | Show whether login autostart is registered. |
anda agent run --prompt "..." | Send one request and wait for the complete result without opening the UI. |
anda voice --record-secs 8 | Start voice input; requires transcription configuration. |
Voice playback also requires tts.enabled: true and an audio player on PATH (ffplay, macOS afplay, or SoX play), checked before the first recording. If you only want spoken input and text output, add --no-playback. A failed turn is reported and the next recording starts.
Provide exactly one of --prompt and --prompt-file. --wait-timeout-secs 120 bounds submission and completion polling together; 0 (the default) disables the overall timeout. A timeout stops the CLI wait, while the daemon task may continue.
Voice mode waits for the current answer to finish before recording the next turn. Ctrl-C also stops synthesis and playback.
anda update and anda update --skills keep a newer local version and its bundled artifacts. Use --force to explicitly install the latest release even if it is older.
Read the inbox with anda memory inbox. Follow the printed anda memory inbox --cursor <next_cursor> command for another page. With --json, the cursor is in result.next_cursor.