Terminal interactions - Photon

Input and output are decoupled, so you can type while the agent is responding and the agent can push messages whenever it wants.

What you get

Feature	How
Multiple chats	`Ctrl+N` opens a new chat. `Ctrl+J` and `Ctrl+K` switch between them. Each chat is its own Spectrum space.
Reactions	Press `r` on a message to react. It arrives in your code as a `reaction` content message.
Replies	Press `e` to reply inline. It arrives with a `replyTo: { messageId }` extra on the message.
File attachments	Drag-and-drop into the terminal. Messages arrive with name, MIME type, and buffer.
Inline images	Rendered with the Kitty graphics protocol when supported, with a half-block fallback.
Typing indicators	`space.startTyping()` and `space.stopTyping()` show a live indicator.
Console capture	`console.log`, `info`, `warn`, `error`, and `debug` from your agent are forwarded into a pinned `__system__` chat instead of garbling the UI.

Reactions and replies

Reactions ride the same app.messages stream as text. They arrive as a reaction content message:

for await (const [space, message] of app.messages) {
  if (message.content.type === "reaction") {
    console.log(`${message.sender?.id ?? "unknown"} reacted ${message.content.emoji}`);
    continue;
  }
  if (message.content.type === "text") {
    await message.react("👀");
    await space.send(`echo: ${message.content.text}`);
  }
}

Threaded replies arrive as a normal message with a replyTo field:

const replyTo = (message as { replyTo?: { messageId: string } }).replyTo;
if (replyTo) {
  await message.reply(`acknowledged your reply to ${replyTo.messageId}`);
}

⌘I