sickbay tui

Launch the persistent developer dashboard. The TUI provides a multi-panel terminal interface that monitors your project's health in real time with file watching and auto-refresh.

Usage

sickbay tui [options]

Options

Flag	Description	Default
-p, --path <path>	Project path to monitor	Current working directory
-c, --checks <checks>	Comma-separated list of checks to run	All applicable checks
--no-watch	Disable file-watching auto-refresh	Watch enabled
--no-quotes	Suppress personality quotes in output	Quotes enabled
--refresh <seconds>	Auto-refresh interval in seconds	300

Examples

Launch the dashboard

sickbay tui --path ~/my-project

Disable file watching

sickbay tui --path ~/my-project --no-watch

Set a faster refresh interval

sickbay tui --path ~/my-project --refresh 60

Run with specific checks only

sickbay tui --path ~/my-project --checks knip,eslint,npm-audit

Dashboard Panels

The TUI displays six panels that you can navigate between:

Panel	Content
Health	Overall health score with per-category breakdown
Score	Detailed per-check scores with status indicators
Trend	Score history chart (requires sickbay init)
Git	Git-related health info — coverage, commit hygiene
Quick Wins	Top actionable fixes ranked by impact
Activity	Recent scan activity and file change events

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
?	Toggle help overlay
h	Focus Health panel
g	Focus Git panel
t	Focus Trend panel
q	Focus Quick Wins panel
a	Focus Activity panel
f	Expand the currently focused panel to full screen
Escape	Close expanded panel or help overlay
r	Trigger a manual re-scan
w	Open the web dashboard in a browser
W	Open the web dashboard with AI features enabled

File Watching

By default, the TUI watches your project directory for file changes. When a change is detected, Sickbay automatically re-runs the health checks and updates the dashboard.

The --refresh flag controls the minimum interval between auto-refreshes (default 300 seconds / 5 minutes). This prevents excessive scanning when many files change rapidly. You can also press r at any time to trigger an immediate re-scan.

To disable file watching entirely, use --no-watch. The dashboard will only update when you press r.

Monorepo Mode

When the TUI detects a monorepo, it displays a monorepo banner at the top of the screen with a mini scoreboard showing each package and its current health score. This gives you an at-a-glance view of the entire workspace without leaving the terminal.

sickbay tui --path ~/my-monorepo

Tips

• Use f to expand any panel for a detailed view, then Escape to return to the overview
• Press W (capital) to open the web dashboard with AI analysis pre-enabled
• Combine --checks with --refresh for a focused, fast-updating dashboard on the checks you care about most