CLI Dashboard

Live terminal dashboard for tracking development progress across all specsmd flows

Overview

The CLI Dashboard is an interactive terminal UI for monitoring your development progress in real-time. It works with all three flows (FIRE, AI-DLC, Simple) and provides live updates as your project state changes.

The CLI Dashboard is the terminal counterpart to the IDE Extension. Use it when working with terminal-based AI tools like Claude Code or OpenAI Codex.

Quick Start

npx specsmd@latest dashboard

The dashboard auto-detects your flow and starts watching for changes. Press q to quit.

Dashboard Screenshots

Git Changes Tab (Commit Diff Preview)

Active Tab (File Preview Pane)

Tabs

The dashboard has five tabs, switched with number keys 1–5:

1. Active Items (1)

   Shows currently active runs (FIRE), bolts (AI-DLC), or specs (Simple) in the selected worktree. Includes a split preview pane for inspecting files and an “other worktrees” section showing activity across branches.

2. Intents (2)

   Lists all intents in your project. Toggle between pending (n) and completed (x) intents.

3. Completed (3)

   Historical view of finished runs, bolts, or specs with intent filtering.

4. Standards & Health (4)

   Project standards files (constitution, tech-stack, coding-standards), progress stats, warnings, and error details.

5. Git Changes (5)

   Git status with staged, unstaged, untracked, and conflicted files. Select a file to preview its diff in the split pane. Shows branch tracking info with ahead/behind counts.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Global

Key	Action
1–5	Switch tab
r	Refresh
h / ?	Toggle help overlay
] / m	Switch flow (when multiple detected)
[	Switch flow backward
g / G	Next / previous section
q / Ctrl+C	Quit

Navigation & Preview

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Navigate rows
Enter	Expand / collapse folder
v / Space	Preview file in split pane
v v	Fullscreen preview
Tab	Switch focus between main and preview
o	Open file in default app
Esc	Close overlay / preview

Section Focus

Key	Tab	Jumps to
a	1	Active item
f	1	Files
b	1	Worktree switcher
u	1	Other worktrees
i	2	Intents
n / x	2	Next / completed toggle
c	3	Completed
s	4	Standards
t	4	Stats
w	4	Warnings
e	4	Errors
d	5	Git diff

Git Worktree Support

The dashboard auto-discovers git worktrees and shows activity across branches.

• Worktree switcher — press b on the Active tab to switch between worktrees
• Cross-worktree view — the “Other worktrees” section shows active runs/bolts in other branches
• Auto-selection — picks the current worktree by default, falling back to main

CLI Options

npx specsmd@latest dashboard [options]

Option	Default	Description
--flow <flow>	auto-detect	Flow to inspect: fire, aidlc, or simple
--path <dir>	current directory	Workspace path
--worktree <name>	auto-select	Initial worktree (branch name, id, or path)
--refresh-ms <n>	1000	File watch interval in ms (200–5000)
--no-watch	false	Render once and exit (non-interactive)

Examples

# Auto-detect flow, live watch
npx specsmd@latest dashboard

# Specific flow
npx specsmd@latest dashboard --flow fire

# Start on a feature branch worktree
npx specsmd@latest dashboard --worktree feature-auth

# One-time snapshot (CI/non-TTY)
npx specsmd@latest dashboard --no-watch

Icon Sets

Configure icons via the SPECSMD_ICON_SET environment variable:

Value	Style
ascii	Plain ASCII characters (default)
unicode	Unicode symbols
nerd	Nerd Font icons (requires a Nerd Font)

SPECSMD_ICON_SET=nerd npx specsmd@latest dashboard

Video Walkthrough

CLI Dashboard with Codex Desktop App

Watch the dashboard in action while building with Codex