Desktop and TUI

CodeAlta has two apps:

CodeAlta Desktop (alta) is the app we recommend. It has session tabs you can arrange or move to windows of their own, a code editor, terminals and git changes for your projects, automations, and a single Settings window.
CodeAlta TUI (altatui) is a keyboard-first terminal UI, for when you want to stay in a terminal.

Both apps run the same agents: the same providers, tools, agent prompts, skills, MCP servers and plugins, on the same ~/.alta profile. This documentation applies to both. A third program, CodeAlta CLI (altacli), runs these agents without a window, for scripts and editors: see Command Line. Where the two apps differ, the page says so, and screenshots have a Desktop / TUI switch.

CodeAlta main workspace in CodeAlta Desktop — The same workspace in both apps: projects and sessions on the left, the session timeline, and the prompt at the bottom.

CodeAlta main workspace in CodeAlta TUI — The same workspace in both apps: projects and sessions on the left, the session timeline, and the prompt at the bottom.

Install

dotnet tool install -g CodeAlta installs CodeAlta Desktop (alta); dotnet tool install -g CodeAlta.Tui installs the TUI (altatui). You can install both. See Getting Started for the requirements and the first launch.

Compare the two apps

	Desktop	TUI
Agents
Model providers, sessions, agent prompts, skills, MCP servers, plugins	Yes	Yes
Delegated agents, prompt queue, steering, compaction	Yes	Yes
Model tiers: Complex, Standard or Quick instead of a model, with a fallback when a provider fails	Yes	Partly Through the agent
Archive sessions and restore them	Yes	Partly Through the agent
Dictate a prompt with a local speech model	Yes	No
Notes, reminders and asks	Yes	Yes
Background jobs: commands an agent starts without waiting for them	Yes Listed in the session, with their output	Partly Through the agent
Automations: prompts on a schedule, on a new issue or pull request	Yes	No
Issues and pull requests of the repository	Yes A tab, and `#` in a prompt	Partly `#` in a prompt, issues only
Work items: follow-up tasks and plans	Yes Cards in the session and a tab	Partly Through the agent
Reviews: comments on a plan, a file or the changes, sent with a verdict; review before commit	Yes	Partly A file an agent asks you to review, with line comments and a verdict; no review of changes
Bookmarks: messages and sessions to find again	Yes In the timeline and a tab	No
Worktrees: a session on its own branch, in its own folder	Yes Created, listed and removed in the app	Partly Sessions run in theirs
Agents that see and drive the app (UI tools)	Yes	No
MCP server for other applications	Yes	No
Review each tool permission request	Yes	Yes
Claude Code sessions shared with VS Code and a terminal	Yes Continue them, open them there	Partly Asks before continuing one open elsewhere, adds the turns made there
Workspace
Session tabs	Yes Reorder, split and merge panes	Partly One visible at a time
Several windows: tabs moved or dragged out of the main window, named, colored, and back on their monitor at the next start	Yes	No
Several projects open in the sidebar, favorites first	Yes	Partly No favorites
Spaces: a setup for each kind of work, with its projects, chats, tabs, resources and identity	Yes	Partly Through the agent
One search for sessions, projects, files and commands	Yes	Partly Command palette
Code editor	Yes Files, search in files, file tabs	Partly One file per tab
Open a folder in your own editor (Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Zed…) or in the file manager	Yes	No
Git changes: changed files, commits, diffs, branches	Yes	No
Terminals, which agents can use too	Yes	No
Tool call details	Yes Live terminal, highlighted files and diffs	Yes Live text output
Math: LaTeX formulas, chemistry and footnotes in messages, an equation editor in the prompt	Yes	Partly Shown as written
Images pasted in a prompt or read by an agent	Yes Thumbnails and previews	Partly In terminals that show images
Statistics: the numbers of all your sessions as dashboards, with the Statistics plugin	Yes A page in a tab	Partly The card of each turn
The sessions on a phone, through Tailscale, with the Mobile plugin	Yes	No
This guide in the app, with a search and a question for an agent	Yes A tab	Partly Through the agent
Notes of a session	Yes Movable window	Yes Sidebar panel
Plugins
Run plugins	Yes	Yes
Create, edit and reload a plugin while the app runs	Yes	No Built at start
Ask an agent to write a plugin and try it	Yes	No
Canvases: tabs that plugins provide, listed in one page and opened by you or by an agent	Yes	No
Buttons that plugins add to the window: the title bar, the navigation rail and the menus of projects and sessions	Yes	No
Plugin dialogs and content	Yes App components, HTML, Markdown, diagrams	Yes Terminal controls
Application
Settings	Yes One window, a page per area	Yes A dialog per area
Appearance	Yes Light, dark or system, 13 color schemes	Yes Terminal themes
Keeps running in the notification area	Yes	No
Update and restart from the app	Yes	No Shows the command to run
Works without a Nerd Font	Yes	No
Runs in a terminal	No	Yes
Copy the UI as an image	No	Yes `Ctrl+F12`

Which one to use

Use CodeAlta Desktop for daily work: it shows more at once, and it has features that the TUI does not have. Use CodeAlta TUI when you want to stay in a terminal.

What is shared

Everything under ~/.alta/ is common to both apps:

config.toml, model providers and their credentials;
the project catalog, its spaces and all sessions, with their timelines, notes and pasted images;
agent prompts, system prompts and skills;
MCP server configuration and plugins.

A session started in one app can be continued in the other. Only one CodeAlta runs on a profile at a time: close one app before starting the other.

Appearance is not shared: the desktop app keeps its theme, color scheme, open tabs and window layout in its own application data, and the TUI keeps its theme and navigator settings in ~/.alta/ui-state.yaml.

What the desktop app adds

Panes and windows

Drag a session tab along the tab strip to reorder it, to the edge of a pane to split the window, or to the center of another pane to merge; the tab menu also has Split right and Split below. Each pane has its own prompt, and tabs of different projects stay open together. A tab can also move to a window of its own, for example on a second monitor: see Windows.

CodeAlta Desktop with a parent session and its two child sessions in three panes — A parent session and its two child sessions share the window.

CodeAlta Desktop with two sessions side by side — Two sessions side by side.

CodeAlta Desktop with two sessions stacked — Two sessions from different projects, stacked.

Code editor

The </> button of a project in the sidebar, or Ctrl+E Ctrl+E, opens the code editor of the project: its files, a search in files, and the open files as tabs. You can create, rename, move and delete files there. See Code editor.

Ctrl+E opens one file with the files hidden. The editor is a tab like a session, so it can stay beside the session that works on the file.

CodeAlta Desktop with a session on the left and a source file in the code editor on the right — A session and a file of the project, side by side.

Terminals

The terminal button of a project in the sidebar, or Ctrl+` , opens a terminal in the folder of the project. It keeps running when its tab is closed, and agents can use it too. See Terminal.

CodeAlta Desktop with a session at the top and a terminal under it — A terminal under a session, and the terminals of the project in the sidebar.

Automations

An automation sends a prompt by itself: every morning, every Friday, or when an issue or a pull request is opened. Each run starts a new session. See Automations.

Worktrees

A session can work in its own git worktree, on its own branch, so that several sessions change the same project at the same time. See Worktrees.

UI tools

An agent can take a screenshot of the window, read what it shows, click and type. Other applications do the same through the MCP server of CodeAlta Desktop. See UI tools and MCP server.

Review changes

The Changes tab of a project lists the changed files and recent commits, with the diff of the selected file. Open it from the + / − numbers of the Workspace chip above the prompt, or the changes button of a project in the sidebar. See Changes.

Review in its header comments on the lines of the diffs as in a pull request and sends your comments to a session with a verdict. With Review before commit, agents wait for your approval before they commit. See Reviews.

CodeAlta Desktop with the Changes tab of a project and a side-by-side diff — The changes of a project, with the diff of the selected file.

Projects at hand

Several projects can stay open in the sidebar, each with its sessions, and CodeAlta shows them the same way at the next start. Favorite projects are listed first. See Projects sidebar.

Spaces

A space is a setup for one kind of work, such as Work or Personal: its projects and chats, the providers, MCP servers, skills, agent prompts and plugins of its sessions, and the Git, GitHub, Jira and command line identity they work under. The window shows one space at a time and tells you when a session waits for you in another. CodeAlta TUI has no spaces: it lists every project. See Spaces.

One Settings window

The TUI opens a dialog for each area. The desktop app has them as pages of one window: Appearance (the opening page), General, Windows, Speech, Spaces (a page for each space), Sessions, Permissions, Providers, Models, Agent prompts, Skills, Plugins, MCP Servers, Configuration file, Application Logs and About.

CodeAlta Desktop Settings window showing the Appearance page with the list of pages on the left — Settings pages on the left, the selected page on the right.

Floating windows

Tool details, file diffs, context usage, session info, the session browser and the Notes of a session open as windows you can move and resize over the workspace. The window of a tool call follows it while it runs: a command shows its output in a terminal, a file its lines or its diff, and a patch a tab per file. See Tool calls.

Runs in the background

Closing the main window can keep CodeAlta running in the notification area, with its sessions. CodeAlta asks whether to keep running or to exit, and remembers the answer with Remember my choice; Settings > General > Startup and closing > When the window is closed changes it.

The tray icon opens the window again or exits. Exiting while sessions run asks first.
On Windows, the taskbar button shows progress while a session runs or queued prompts are sent.
On macOS, CodeAlta started from the Applications folder, Launchpad, Spotlight or the Dock stays in the Dock, without a menu bar icon; its Dock icon opens the window again.
While CodeAlta runs, the computer does not go to sleep on its own (the display still turns off), so automations and reminders keep going. Keep computer awake when CodeAlta is running, in the same place, turns it off.

On macOS the menu bar has the standard items: Quit CodeAlta (⌘Q), Hide (⌘H), Minimize (⌘M), Close (⌘W), and the Edit menu. ⌘W closes the window as its close button does; ⌘Q exits.

Started by another program

A program that starts CodeAlta Desktop and exits it by itself, such as a bot that restarts it after an update, starts it with alta --automated, or sets CODEALTA_AUTOMATED=1 in its environment. Closing the window, alta --exit, Exit in the notification area and, on macOS and Linux, SIGTERM or SIGINT then ask nothing and never keep CodeAlta running in the background:

CodeAlta exits once no session is at work. Until then a notice says so, with Exit now, which stops the sessions.
Files with unsaved edits are not saved.
Terminals that run a command do not hold the exit.

Updates from the app

The desktop app checks for new versions at startup and every ten minutes, also from the notification area. A new version shows a notice with Update and restart in the bottom-right corner until you dismiss it; Settings > About keeps the update available afterwards. The TUI shows the dotnet tool update command to run.

On macOS, the desktop app warns at startup when it runs on a .NET runtime older than 10.0.13, which can make it crash hours later. Download .NET opens the .NET 10 download page: install the latest .NET 10 runtime, then start CodeAlta again.

Same feature, another name

	Desktop	TUI
Command	`alta`	`altatui`
Sessions of no project	Chats, first in the sidebar	Global sessions
Queue every prompt, also when idle	Enqueue until idle in the Send options	AlwaysQueue checkbox

Desktop limitations

The --no-plugins and --plugin-safe-mode options belong to the TUI. Set CODEALTA_DISABLE_PLUGINS=1 to start the desktop app without plugins.

A plugin written with terminal controls only shows its plain text or Markdown form on the desktop. See Plugin development.