TUI Design System

Voice Complex

This skill governs TERMINAL RENDERING — structural, not tonal. Shared aesthetic: voice-bedrock (.claude/rules/voice-bedrock.md). For product voice in command output prose: product-voice skill. For browser visual output: dark-mode skill. For ASCII diagrams in explanations: visual-explain skill.

When to invoke

User says: "TUI", "terminal output", "box drawing", "command output formatting", "sigils", "section markers", or is designing/modifying any slash command's terminal output. Not this: browser rendering → dark-mode · external prose → egregore-voice

1. Brand Elements

Command Headers

/activity is the flagship — it gets the full branded header with org name:

{ORG_NAME} EGREGORE ✦ ACTIVITY DASHBOARD

Read org name from jq -r '.org_name' egregore.json. The ✦ star is reserved exclusively for the activity dashboard and Egregore-wide branding.

Other commands get sigil + command name only — no org name:

Command	Header	Sigil Meaning
/activity	{ORG_NAME} EGREGORE ✦ ACTIVITY DASHBOARD	The star — awareness, the full field
/ask	? ASK	The question — direct, clear inquiry
/reflect	◎ REFLECTION	The eye — looking inward, seeing clearly
/deep-reflect	◈ DEEP REFLECT	The faceted eye — looking inward with structure
/handoff	⇌ HANDOFF	The bridge — passing context between minds
/quest	⚑ QUEST	The flag — planting direction in unknown territory
/todo	□ TODO	The checkbox — actionable items, personal intent
/archive	◇ ARCHIVE	The diamond — crystallized pattern, refined and preserved
/eval	⊕ EVAL	The crosshair — measuring, comparing, calibrating

Section Markers

Used within all TUI boxes to prefix items by category:

• ● Action items / things needing attention
• ✓ Completed / received / done items
• → Navigation pointers (what to do next, entry points)
• ◦ Informational items (sessions, quests, neutral data)
• ⚑ Quests
• ⇌ Handoffs (in activity action items)
• ◎ Reflections
• □ Todos (in activity dashboard)
• ★ Priority marker (todo items with priority >= 2)
• ◉ Artifacts (in handoff summaries)

2. Box Drawing Rules

Line Patterns (CRITICAL)

LLMs cannot count character widths. Do NOT draw boxes freehand. Instead, produce exactly 4 line patterns. All commands use 72-char outer width (N = 70 fill characters).

1. Top: ┌ + 70×─ + ┐
2. Separator: ├ + 70×─ + ┤
3. Content: │ + 2 spaces + text + pad to 68 text chars + │
4. Bottom: └ + 70×─ + ┘

Characters: ┌ top-left, ─ horizontal, ┐ top-right, │ vertical, ├ left-tee, ┤ right-tee, └ bottom-left, ┘ bottom-right.

Separator lines are always identical — copy-paste the same 72-char string every time. Content lines have ONLY the outer │ as borders. Pad every content line with trailing spaces so the closing │ lands at position 72.

Header separator: always use ├───┤ between header row and content.

Section dividers: use ├───┤ between logical groups. No sub-boxes — never use ┌─┐/└─┘ inside the outer frame. LLMs cannot reliably align nested borders.

Layout

All commands use full-width, single-column, stacked sections. No column splits — they cause truncation and render poorly. Content flows top-to-bottom with section headers separating groups.

3. Width Standards

• All commands: ~72 characters outer width
• All content lines must have matching left and right │ borders

4. Content Formatting

Session Lines (Compact)

Feb 07  Topic description

Date is always Mon DD format, right-padded to 6 chars. Topic follows after 2 spaces.

Team Session Lines

Feb 07  oz: Topic description

Person name prefixed with colon separator.

Numbered Action Items

[1] Description of actionable thing
[2] ⇌ Handoff from ali: blog styling (yesterday)

Numbers in brackets. Use section markers after the bracket for typed items.

Status Confirmations

✓ Saved to knowledge/decisions/2026-02-08-...
✓ Memory index updated
✓ Auto-saved

Progress Steps

[1/5] ✓ Conversation file
[2/5] ✓ Index updated
[3/5] ✓ Session saved to memory
[4/5] ✓ Pushed + PR created
[5/5] ✓ Oz notified

Linked Items

◦ Quest: research-agent
◦ Project: egregore

Entry Points

→ memory/knowledge/decisions/2026-02-07-defensibility-...
→ memory/knowledge/decisions/2026-02-07-business-model.md

Truncation

• Topics longer than 35 chars in column layouts get ... suffix
• File paths: shorten to last 2 segments when possible
• Never break mid-word

5. Section Visibility Rules

• Empty sections are omitted entirely — no placeholder text, no "none yet", no empty boxes
• Single action item still gets the action items box — consistency over minimalism
• Section headers only appear when their section has content

6. Edge Cases

Scenario	Handling
No sessions yet	Show Projects section instead (first-timer experience)
Neo4j down	File-based fallback, simpler layout, no columns
Single action item	Still show action items box
No team activity	Omit TEAM section
Very long org name	Truncate at 20 chars in activity header
No quests	Omit quests section
No PRs	Omit PRs section
No action items + no answers	Omit both sections, go straight to columns

7. Anti-Patterns

• Avoid sub-boxes entirely — use ├───┤ flat dividers instead (LLMs can't count widths for nested borders)
• Never use tables with │ column separator AND sub-boxes in the same section (pick one)
• Never show empty section headers — omit the entire section
• Never use raw file paths in TUI output — use → pointer with shortened path
• Never break box characters across lines — each line must have valid left/right borders
• Never use the ✦ star outside /activity header
• Never include org name in non-activity command headers
• Never use emoji in TUI boxes (sigils and markers only)

8. Structured questions

When a command's TUI includes interactive follow-up (like /activity numbered items):

1. Display the full TUI box first
2. Add footer text inside the box: Type a number to act, or keep working.
3. Ask with a structured question when available and permitted in this session; otherwise ask in plain text. Use options matching the numbered items
4. Include a "Skip" option for non-action

9. Color and Emphasis

Terminal output is monospace plain text. Emphasis is structural only:

• Section headers: ALL CAPS
• Sigils and markers provide visual weight
• Sub-boxes create grouping
• Indentation creates hierarchy
• No bold, italic, or color codes in the markdown instruction files