TURBO-AI v1.01 Beta

Turbo-AI is an authentic Turbo Pascal 7.0 / Borland DOS inspired Terminal UI (TUI) frontend for the Pi coding agent. It spawns Pi in RPC mode (pi --mode rpc) and drives it over its JSONL protocol, delivering an authentic early-1990s Borland IDE development experience with full mouse, hotkey, and multi-window support.

A loving homage to Turbo Pascal 7.1. Not affiliated with Borland International.

 ≡ File  Edit  Search  Run  Compile  Debug  Tools  Options  Window  Help ≡
╔═[■]══════ FILES ══════[▲]═╦═[■]═════════════════ AGENT.PAS ════════════════ 1 ═[▲]═╗
║ ▼ src                     ║ User: Implement session resume & slash commands        ║
║   commands/               ║                                                        ║
║     commands.ts           ║ Thinking: Analyzing project session storage...         ║
║   ui/                     ║                                                        ║
║     session-selector.ts   ║ [SEARCH ] ~/.pi/agent/sessions/                        ║
║     agent-panel.ts        ║ [EDIT   ] src/commands/commands.ts                     ║
║     menu-bar.ts           ║ [EDIT   ] src/main.ts                                  ║
║   main.ts                 ║ [TEST   ] npm test (59 tests passed)                   ║
║   package.json            ║                                                        ║
║                           ╠═[■]══ opencode/x-preview-f-free [high] [BUILD] ◄ 2 ═[▲]╣
║                           ║ > /resume                                              ║
╚═ 1/24 ══════════════════▲═╩═ 1:1 ════════════════════════════════════════════════▲═╝
 F1 Help  F2 Save  F3 Open  F4 Model  F5 Effort  F6 Mode  F7 Diff  F8 Test  F9 Build  F10 Menu

🚀 Key Features

🏛️ Authentic Turbo Pascal 7.0 / Turbo Vision GUI

• 16-Color DOS/VGA Palette: Classic Borland royal blue desktop, double-line frames, and 3D shadow buttons.
• Top Menu Bar (10 Menus): File, Edit, Search, Run, Compile, Debug, Tools, Options, Window, Help with red mnemonic shortcuts (Alt+F..Alt+H).
• Interactive Session Selector (SessionSelector): Browse and resume project sessions with date/time, task previews, and 1..9 fast shortcuts (F3 Open, /resume, /sessions).
• Recent Sessions History: The File menu automatically lists up to 9 recently saved/opened sessions with red numbered shortcuts (1. .. 9.).
• Complete Mouse Interaction: Click to focus windows, open menus, select tree files, click window close [■] and zoom [▲] boxes, scroll lists with mouse wheel, and drag to select & copy text.

🧠 Advanced LLM & Reasoning Workflow

• Model Switching (F4 Model): Browse all available models from Pi, or use [+] Enter custom model ID... for quick custom models.
• Custom Model Management: Add and configure arbitrary models across providers (openrouter, opencode, deepseek, google, anthropic, openai, groq, mistral, xai, together) directly from Options → Add custom model... with automatic %USERPROFILE%\.pi\agent\models.json synchronization.
• API Key Configuration (Options → Configure API keys...): Intuitive dialog to configure and securely save provider API keys to local .env.
• Reasoning Effort Control (F5 Effort): Dedicated hotkey and status toggle cycling through reasoning effort levels (low → medium → high → off), with automatic model reasoning flag enablement.
• PLAN / BUILD Modes (F6 Mode): Switch seamlessly between Architectural Planning mode ([PLAN]) and Autonomous Code Execution mode ([BUILD]).
• Visual Thinking Distinction: Model reasoning (thinking_delta) is rendered in subtle Gray (LIGHTGRAY), while the final response is rendered in crisp Bright White (WHITE) with syntax highlighting.
• Built-in Slash Commands: Process /status, /help, /compact, /clear, /model, /effort, /plan, /build, /diff, /test, /save, /open, and /resume directly from the prompt input.

📁 Codebase Navigation & Git Tools

• Project Tree Window: Live filesystem explorer with folder expand/collapse, git-dirty indicators, and instant file preview (Click / Enter).
• Unified Diff Viewer (F7 Diff): Color-coded side-by-side / unified diff viewer for git changes.
• Test & Build Integration: Direct execution of npm test (F8 Test) and npm run build (F9 Build) through Pi RPC.

⌨️ Keyboard & Mouse Shortcuts

📦 Requirements

• Node.js >= 20
• Windows 10/11, Linux, or macOS
• Terminal: Modern terminal with ANSI/VT and 16-color support (e.g. Windows Terminal, VS Code terminal, iTerm2, Alacritty).
• Pi coding agent: Installed and available on PATH (pi --version). Tested with @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent >= 0.78.0.

🛠️ Installation & Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/kvv256512-ux/turbo-ai.git
cd turbo-ai

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

# Start compiled version
npm start

Running in a specific directory:

npm start -- --dir C:/path/to/project

Running unit tests:

npm test

🏗️ Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   TURBO-AI                       │
│  10-Menu Bar │ Project Tree │ Agent Panel (DOS)  │
│  Double-buffered ANSI cell screen (DOS Palette)  │
└─────────────────────────┬────────────────────────┘
                          │ JSONL over stdio (pi --mode rpc --no-session)
                          ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      PI                          │
│  LLM orchestration │ RPC engine │ Git & Context  │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• Pure Frontend Architecture: Pi is never modified or forked; Turbo-AI drives Pi strictly via the documented JSONL RPC protocol.
• Zero Runtime Dependencies: The UI engine is a double-buffered character cell grid written directly in TypeScript with ANSI escape codes.

📄 License

MIT © 2026 Turbo-AI Contributors.
Homage to Turbo Pascal © 1983-1997 Borland International, Inc.