Getting Started

Getting Started

Launching the TUI

Run models with no arguments to open the interactive terminal UI:

models

The TUI opens on the Models tab by default. You can change the default tab in your Configuration file.

Tabs

The TUI has four tabs, switched with [ (previous) and ] (next):

Tab	Description
Models	Browse AI models by provider, filter by capabilities, view pricing and metadata
Agents	Track AI coding assistants, view changelogs, add your own (A), and update them in-app (u/U)
Benchmarks	Compare model performance with charts and head-to-head tables
Status	Monitor provider health with live incident and maintenance tracking

Global keybindings

These work in every tab:

Key	Action
[ / ]	Switch tabs
?	Show context-aware help popup
q	Quit

Navigation

All scrollable lists and panels share these keybindings:

Key	Action
Down / j	Move down
Up / k	Move up
g	Jump to first item
G	Jump to last item
Ctrl+d / PageDown	Page down
Ctrl+u / PageUp	Page up
Tab / Shift+Tab	Switch panel focus
Left / Right	Switch panels

Search

Most tabs support search:

Key	Action
/	Enter search mode
Enter / Esc	Exit search mode
Esc (in normal mode)	Clear current search

When searching, the query appears in the panel title as [/query]. The Agents tab also supports n / N to jump between matches.

Panel focus

Each tab has multiple panels (e.g., provider list, model list, detail panel). The focused panel has a cyan border; unfocused panels have a dark gray border. The selected item in the focused panel shows a > caret.

Use Tab or arrow keys to move focus between panels.

Mouse

The TUI is fully keyboard-driven, but the mouse works too:

Action	Effect
Click a list row	Selects that row and focuses its panel
Click a panel	Focuses that panel (no selection change)
Click a tab in the header	Switches to that tab
Scroll wheel	Focuses the panel under the cursor, then scrolls or moves through it

Inside a popup (sort picker, column picker, glossary, tracker, or help), the scroll wheel scrolls the popup, and clicking a row selects, applies, or toggles it -- the same as pressing Enter or Space on that row. Clicking outside the popup rows is ignored, so nothing leaks to the panel behind it. Single-click only -- activation (opening docs, toggling compare) stays on the keyboard.

Help popup

Press ? in any tab to open a context-aware help popup showing all available keybindings for the current tab. Scroll with arrow keys and dismiss with ? or Esc.

CLI quick reference

Every TUI feature also has a CLI equivalent. Here are the most common commands:

# Models
models list                    # Interactive model picker
models show claude-opus-4-5    # Show model details
models providers               # List all providers

# Agents
agents status                  # Status table with versions
agents claude                  # Browse Claude Code releases
agents latest                  # Releases from the last 24h

# Benchmarks
benchmarks list                # Interactive benchmark picker
benchmarks show gpt-4o         # Show benchmark details

# Status
models status list             # Interactive provider health picker
models status show openai      # Detailed provider status
models status status           # Quick dashboard table

All commands support --json for scripting. See the individual feature pages for full CLI documentation.

Configuration

Settings are stored in ~/.config/models/config.toml. The file is created automatically when you customize tracked agents or providers. See Configuration for the full reference.

Next steps

• Models -- Learn about capability indicators, filters, and sorting
• Agents -- Set up agent tracking and version detection
• Benchmarks -- Compare models with charts and tables
• Status -- Monitor your AI providers
• Configuration -- Customize tracked agents, providers, and display settings