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Interactive Mode

Running robota without -p opens the terminal UI: a coding-assistant session in the current directory, built from the same Robota libraries as the SDK examples. This page walks through what you see on screen. The CLI guide is the full reference.

Starting

robota                    # Start a new session
robota "Fix the bug"      # Start with an initial prompt
robota -c                 # Continue the most recent session
robota -r session_123     # Resume a session by ID or name

When you start a new session in a Git repository you have not trusted yet, robota first lists what trusting it would load (the project's settings, hooks, plugins, skills, agent definitions, provider overrides and MCP servers) and asks Trust this folder? [y/N]. Answering no starts the session Restricted, without any of those; robota trust --yes trusts the folder later.

Slash commands

Type / to open the command menu; it filters as you type. Tab inserts the highlighted command into the input without running it, so you can add arguments. Enter runs it.

/help                Show available commands
/mode plan           Switch the permission mode (plan | default | acceptEdits | bypassPermissions | auto)
/permissions         Show or change the permission mode and permission rules
/compact [focus]     Compress the context window, keeping what the focus text names
/context             Context window usage, context references, auto-compact controls
/clear               Clear conversation history
/resume              Resume a previous session
/rename <name>       Rename the current session
/provider            Manage provider profiles
/memory              Inspect and manage project memory
/rewind              List, inspect and restore edit checkpoints
/background          List and control background tasks
/agent               Run or manage background subagent jobs
/statusline          Show, hide or reset the status line
/reload-plugins      Reload all plugin resources
/workflows           Author, list, validate and run DAG workflows

/help lists every command available in your session.

Skills and commands appear in the same menu. The CLI reads them from .robota/skills/, .claude/skills/, .claude/commands/ and .agents/skills/, in your home directory and, once the folder is trusted, in the project.

Permission prompts

In default mode, a file edit or a shell command asks first (read-only commands such as ls or git status inside the project run without asking). The prompt appears above the input box:

[Permission Required]
Tool: Bash
 command: pnpm test

> Allow [y]
  Allow Bash(pnpm *) always (this session) [s]
  Allow Bash(pnpm *) always (this project) [p]
  Deny [n]

Move with the arrow keys and press Enter, or press the letter shown. The "always" options name the pattern they grant, so you can see how far the approval reaches: Bash(pnpm *) covers every pnpm command, and a file approval covers the file's directory tree. When the project cannot store a project-wide approval, the third row reads Project-wide approval unavailable. For a short moment after the prompt appears its keys do nothing, so a key you were typing into the input box cannot answer it; Esc does not dismiss it.

Status line

The line under the input box shows the session's state, for example:

Thinking  |  Mode: plan  |  auth-refactor  |  git: main  |  Anthropic claude-sonnet-4-6  |  Context: 45% (90K/200K tokens)

From left to right:

  • Activity — Idle, Thinking, Tools (n) while tools run, Background (n) for background tasks, and queued when a prompt is waiting.
  • Mode — shown for every permission mode except default: plan, acceptEdits, bypassPermissions or auto.
  • Preset — shown when a preset other than default is active.
  • Session name and git branch, when there is one.
  • Provider and model, followed by Effort: <level> when an effort level is set.
  • Context — how full the context window is, in green below 70%, yellow from 70% and red from 90%.

/statusline off hides the line, /statusline git off hides the branch, and /statusline reset restores the defaults.

Session name

The session name appears on the input box border, in the terminal title and in the status line. Set it with robota --name <name> or /rename <name>.