aiturk-hermes-ide/website/docs/reference/cli-symbols.md

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CLI Symbols Glossary	What every symbol in the Hermes terminal UI means — transcript markers, status-bar badges, overlay glyphs, and approval prompts.

CLI Symbols Glossary

The Hermes terminal interfaces speak a compact visual language: dots, chevrons, braille spinners, and status glyphs. This page is the decoder ring. It covers the TUI (where most of these render) and notes the pieces shared with the Classic CLI.

:::note Skins can restyle some of these Glyphs marked themeable below are brand defaults — a skin can override them (for example tool_prefix and the prompt symbol). Everything else is fixed in the renderer. :::

Transcript symbols

What you see in the conversation flow while the agent works.

Symbol	Meaning
❯	Input prompt — where you type. Themeable (skins set their own prompt symbol).
●	A tool call. The bullet precedes the tool name and its arguments.
┊	Tool-activity rail shown with tool lines. Themeable (tool_prefix).
✓ / ✗	Tool result: succeeded / failed. Appended to the end of a completed tool line.
▸ / ▾	Collapsed / expanded section chevron (thinking, tools, subagents, banner sections). Click to toggle.
▍	Streaming cursor — blinks while the model is still emitting text.
│ ├─ └─	Tree rails — connect a parent (a delegation, a journey) to its child entries; └─ marks the last child.
◈	Display-only timeline event (session notices rendered inline, not user messages).
◇	An injected reference block, e.g. ◇ Reference 1/2 — <label>.
↳	The sticky prompt — echoes the user message the agent is currently working on.
☐ / ☑ / •	Markdown task-list items (open / done) and plain list bullets.
▶	Collapsed <details> summary inside rendered markdown.

Status-bar symbols

The single line at the bottom of the TUI. Segments appear only when relevant and drop off first on narrow terminals.

Symbol	Meaning
⠋⠙⠹… (braille patterns)	Busy spinner. Thinking and tool phases use different braille animation sets.
⚕ 🌀 🤔 ✨ 🍵 🔮	Frames of the emoji busy-indicator style (/indicator emoji). The default style rotates kaomoji faces instead.
| / - \	Frames of the ascii busy-indicator style.
⏱	Per-prompt elapsed time while the turn runs, e.g. ⏱ 12s/3m 45s (turn time / session time).
⏲	The same timer, frozen after the turn completes.
cmp N	The session has been auto-compressed N times.
▶ N	N /bg tasks currently running.
⚠ YOLO	YOLO mode is on (auto-approval). Also shown in the startup banner.
⛓ N	N subagents currently active.
↩ resumes when subagent finishes	Reassurance shown while you are idle but delegated work is still in flight — the result returns on its own.
● REC	Voice mode is recording.
◉ STT	Voice recording stopped; speech-to-text is transcribing.
◉ focus	Focus view is on (reduced output). Pinned so it never drops off a narrow terminal.
♥	Affection flash — Hermes noticed you being nice to it.
⚡ / 🔋	Battery indicator (opt-in): plugged in / on battery, with percentage.
N bg	N background terminal processes tracked in this session.
N live sessions	Open TUI sessions in this process — click to open the session switcher.

Notices

Short-lived status-bar notices carry their own leading glyph, set by severity:

Symbol	Meaning
✓	Success notice.
•	Informational notice.
⚠	Warning (also used for credit warnings).
✕	Error notice.

Approval and confirmation prompts

Symbol	Meaning
⚠ approval required	A tool wants to run something that needs your explicit yes (bordered panel with the command preview).
⚠ / ?	Confirmation dialog title: dangerous action / ordinary question.
🔐	Sudo password prompt (input is masked).
🔑	Credential/secret input prompt (input is masked).

Subagents overlay (/agents)

Symbol	Meaning
●	Subagent running.
○	Queued.
✓	Completed.
■	Interrupted.
✗	Failed.
⌛	Timed out.
⚠	Errored.
⚡N	N currently-active agents in a rollup row.
▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█	Activity sparkline — recent event volume per branch.

Session switcher (Ctrl+X)

Symbol	Meaning
✓	Session idle.
…	Starting.
?	Waiting for input.
▶	Working.
✎ draft	The composer in that session holds an unsent draft.

Pickers and hubs

Symbol	Meaning
▸	Current selection row (model picker and friends).
*	The currently-active model / provider.
● / ○	Provider authenticated / not authenticated (model picker); plugin state fallback (plugins hub).
✓ / ✗	Plugin enabled / disabled (plugins hub).
↑ N more / ↓ N more	More rows above/below the visible window of a list.
┃	Scrollbar thumb on scrollable overlays.

Goals

Goal lifecycle notices (from goals) lead with their state:

Symbol	Meaning
✓	Goal complete.
↻	Goal continuing — another iteration was scheduled.
⏸	Goal paused.

See also

• TUI — status line, details modes, busy-indicator styles
• Classic CLI — shared keybindings and slash commands
• Skins & Themes — which glyphs and colors you can customize