Rovo Dev has a new default CLI experience

[#1]

We’re making a small change that we think will make a big difference.

From now on, when you launch Rovo Dev in the terminal, you’ll land in the Terminal User Interface (TUI) by default.

If you’ve been using acli rovodev run until now, think of the TUI as the same Rovo Dev agent you know, but in a richer, smoother terminal app experience.

What’s changing?

• The main entry point is now TUI
  Running the following commands will land you there:
  
  acli rovodev
acli rovodev run



• The older acli rovodev run UI is being treated as legacy. And to activate it you will need to run:
  
  

  acli rovodev legacy

  This will be remain available for a small cutoff period, as we give our customers time to transition to the new UI experience.
  
  

Why is TUI the new default?

The TUI was built specifically for people who live in their terminal and want Rovo Dev to feel like a first-class app there.

Not just a scrolling text prompt.

1. Much better for real-world prompts

• Full multi‑line editing and pasting (no awkward \\ gymnastics)

• Easier to paste large code blocks and refine them before sending

• Inline suggestions and history search so you’re not retyping prompts

2. A UI that stays out of your way but gives you more signal

• Structured layout: separate panels for input, output, and status

• Dedicated scrollable output area, instead of fighting your terminal scroll back

• Context and token usage visible at a glance, so you can see how “full” a conversation is

3. Faster navigation and control while you’re in flow

• Instant mode switching with Shift+Tab (e.g., ask/plan-style modes)

• Inline shortcuts like:

  • $ to run a bash command without leaving Rovo Dev

  • # to quickly search for a file in your repo

• Slash commands for session and context management:
  /sessions, /clear, /prune, /instructions, /memory, /usage, /feedback, /voice

4. Built-in support for new capabilities

As we’ve expanded the CLI, all the new “nice” things have landed in the TUI first:

• Voice input (/voice install then F9 to talk to Rovo Dev, with speech processed locally)

• Better keyboard / clipboard behavior across modern terminals

• Smoother integration with multi-session workflows, tmux, Ghostty, etc.

All of that is why the internal guidance today is:

“The TUI is the recommended way to use Rovo Dev… Once you try TUI mode, you won’t go back.”

How to try it (or update your muscle memory)

If you haven’t switched yet:

# Install / upgrade ACLI
brew tap atlassian/homebrew-acli
brew install acli # or: brew upgrade acli

# Authenticate
acli rovodev auth login

# Watch the new default experience kick in
acli rovodev run

We’d love your feedback

This change is based heavily on how people are actually using Rovo Dev day-to-day. If you run into rough edges with the TUI, or if there’s something that still makes you fall back to run, please let us know either

• Using /feedback command directly inside the TUI

• Or comment on this post with your setup and what you’re trying to do

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Hey @Jovana Dunisijevic

nice work. My first impression is quite positive about it.

I'm also quite keen to test the voice input, I've just installed an external tool this week. I've upgraded ACLI and also RovoDev downloaded the new version, but my RovoDev does not know the /voice install command.

Is there still some feature flag you need to activate or what can I do on my side to activate/troubleshoot it?

[Dubravko Posavac]

I honestly don't like it. It is laggy and looks just like the others—kilocode, opencode, etc.

Can you keep the legacy UI forever? Call it basic or something, so people can choose between the two. Also, my recommendation is to build from the legacy—adapt it, not redesign it like the rest. I honestly love it from the first Acli Rovodev run 😍

[Jovana Dunisijevic]

Hey @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ !

I am glad to hear you have a positive feedback for our new UI!

However not seeing the voice command is not good - can we check your ACLI version is  v0.13.61+ ?

You can update it with this command: brew update && brew upgrade acli

Another requirement is to have Python installed. 

Once you install the voice, restart the CLI.

Please let me know if this doesn't work so I can work with the team to troubleshoot this for you!

[Jovana Dunisijevic]

Hey @Dubravko Posavac 

Sorry to hear you're not in favour of TUI.

I appreciate your recommendation, however it's not feasible for the team to maintain both versions unfortunately.

What could make TUI be better for you if you could choose to add something? 

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

@Jovana Dunisijevic - I've just upgraded ACLI again which now uses 1.3.18-stable.

According to acli rovodev --version, I'm using Rovo Dev CLI version 202604.11.1 which should be newer than your mentioned version.

I also do have python installed.

Please let me know further troubleshooting steps.