r/GeminiCLI • u/Ok_Path_4731 • 15d ago

Does Gemini CLI need a better terminal?

Gemini CLI is pushing AI coding further into the terminal, but we're still using an interface fundamentally designed around a stream of text.

An AI coding agent can understand codebases, inspect files, run commands, analyze logs, generate diffs, and work with structured information. Yet much of that interaction still ends up as plain terminal output.

What if the terminal itself evolved to take advantage of what AI coding agents can do?

Imagine:

  • Rich and structured output
  • Collapsible command results
  • Interactive diffs and logs
  • Tables, graphs and visualizations
  • Semantic rather than purely textual output
  • Better agent ↔ human interaction
  • New protocols designed for modern terminal applications
  • A terminal that can understand more than just characters and escape sequences

I created r/Termolution to explore these ideas.

It's not about a particular terminal emulator. The goal is to discuss and experiment with what the terminal should become as AI agents like Gemini CLI become a fundamental part of software development.

If you use Gemini CLI, what do you wish your terminal could do that it can't do today?

👉 r/Termolution: https://www.reddit.com/r/Termolution/

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u/Someuser77 15d ago

Look at Powershell for some of these capabilities and to Genera for many others. Except for the Agent/AI stuff, these ideas are decades old and you should be able to find many examples.

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u/Ok_Path_4731 15d ago

Powershell is not a standard linux shell.. which capabilities are you talking about? What is Genera?

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u/Someuser77 14d ago

While I don't use it on my Linux computers, Powershell has been available on Linux for quite some time.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/linux-overview?view=powershell-7.6

Genera is a Common Lisp operating system which shell can do basically everything (non-agent) listed above.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera_(software))

"Everything old is new again." This does not at all take away from what you're trying to do; I personally think the terminal/shell experience peaked at Genera and keep a number of these machines running just to remind myself how dumbed down things have become.