> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cloudstic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# cloudstic tui

> Launch the interactive terminal dashboard

## Overview

The `cloudstic tui` command launches an interactive terminal dashboard for operating Cloudstic without memorizing flags. It gives you an at-a-glance view of every configured profile — source, store, auth reference, and backup health — and lets you trigger backups, checks, and profile/store edits directly from the keyboard or mouse.

<Note>
  The TUI is an interactive control surface, not a background scheduler. It reads and acts on the same `profiles.yaml` used by the rest of the CLI, and every action it performs (init, backup, check) maps to an existing Cloudstic command.
</Note>

## Basic Usage

```bash theme={null}
cloudstic tui [options]
```

Launching with no options reads the default profiles file:

```bash theme={null}
cloudstic tui
```

<Warning>
  `cloudstic tui` requires an interactive terminal. It exits immediately with an error if stdin/stdout is not a TTY (for example, when run in a script or piped).
</Warning>

## Command Flags

<ParamField path="-profiles-file" type="string" env="CLOUDSTIC_PROFILES_FILE">
  Path to the profiles YAML file to load. Defaults to the standard profiles path (`CLOUDSTIC_CONFIG_DIR`, then the OS user config directory).
</ParamField>

## What You Can Do

### Dashboard

On launch, the TUI builds a dashboard from your profiles file showing, for each profile:

* Source type and path
* Store reference
* Auth reference (if any)
* Derived store health (ready, not initialized, missing store/auth, provider mismatch, unavailable, etc.)
* Last backup status, pulled from the store's snapshot history

Store health is probed in the background, so status may briefly show as pending while connectivity/credentials/encryption unlock checks run.

### Views

Each profile can be inspected in two views:

* **Summary** — current health, readiness, and available actions
* **History** — recent snapshots for that profile's repository

### Manual Actions

With a profile selected, you can:

* **Run a backup** — if the profile's store isn't initialized yet, the same action initializes it first, then runs the backup
* **Run a check** — verify repository integrity for the selected profile (only available once the store is initialized)
* **Create** a new profile (and its store, if needed) through an interactive form
* **Edit** an existing profile
* **Delete** a profile

Profile and store forms reuse the same source types, store URI formats, and encryption options available via `cloudstic profile new` and `cloudstic store new`.

Action output streams live into an activity panel at the bottom of the screen while it runs, so you can watch backup/check progress without leaving the dashboard.

## Navigation

The TUI supports both keyboard and mouse input.

### Keyboard Shortcuts

| Key       | Action                                                                            |
| --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `j` / `↓` | Move selection down                                                               |
| `k` / `↑` | Move selection up                                                                 |
| `s`       | Switch to summary view                                                            |
| `h`       | Switch to history view                                                            |
| `b`       | Run backup (or init, if the store isn't initialized yet) for the selected profile |
| `c`       | Run a repository check for the selected profile                                   |
| `n`       | Create a new profile                                                              |
| `e`       | Edit the selected profile                                                         |
| `d`       | Delete the selected profile                                                       |
| `q`       | Quit                                                                              |

Inside a profile/store creation or edit form, use `↑`/`↓` or `Tab` to move between fields, `←`/`→` to cycle select-style fields (like source type), type to edit text fields, `Enter` to save, and `Esc` to cancel.

### Mouse

Click a profile row to select it, or click an action button in the profile panel to run that action directly — both are wired through the same action handling as the keyboard shortcuts.

## Related Commands

* [cloudstic setup workstation](/commands/setup-workstation): Guided onboarding — a good starting point before exploring the dashboard
* [cloudstic profile new](/commands/profile-new): Create a profile from the command line
* [cloudstic store new](/commands/store-new): Create a store from the command line
* [cloudstic backup](/commands/backup): Run a backup outside the TUI
* [cloudstic check](/commands/check): Verify repository integrity outside the TUI