nightcrow

TUI for Agentic Coding — git diff viewer + commit log + multi-terminal panes in one terminal window.

 ~/projects/myapp   main   ↑2 ↓0
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Files           │ @@ -36,7 +36,12 @@                 │
│ M src/app.rs    │  fn collect_hunks(                  │
│ M src/diff.rs   │ -    mut on_file: impl FnMut(...),  │
│▶M src/main.rs   │ +    on_file: impl FnMut(...)       │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [1] claude  [2] aider  [3] bash                      │
│ $ cargo test                                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 j/k: scroll | /: search | v: view file | ctrl+q: quit

Install

cargo install nightcrow

Requires Rust 1.85+ (edition 2024).

Usage

# Open in current git repo
nightcrow

# Open a specific repo
nightcrow --repo ~/projects/myapp

Views

Status view (default) — lists changed files on the left, syntax-highlighted diff on the right.

Commit log view (Ctrl+L) — tig-like commit list on the left, full commit diff on the right. Commits ahead of the upstream are marked with ↑. Press Enter on a commit to drill into its individual files; Esc to go back. The list auto-refreshes when the workdir HEAD changes (commits made in the terminal pane, amends, force-pushes, branch switches).

Top header — a one-row strip at the top of the screen always shows the repo path (home-relative, e.g. ~/projects/myapp), the current branch, and ahead/behind counts (↑N ↓M) when the branch tracks an upstream.

Keyboard shortcuts

Global

Key	Action
Shift+→ / Shift+←	Cycle focus: file list → diff viewer → terminal panes → …
Ctrl+L	Toggle between status view and commit log view
Ctrl+T	Open new terminal pane
Ctrl+W	Close active terminal pane
F1 / F2	Focus file list / diff viewer
F3…F9	Jump to terminal pane 1…7
Ctrl+F	Toggle fullscreen for the focused pane (file/commit list, diff viewer, or terminal)
Ctrl+P	Cycle accent color (yellow → cyan → green → magenta → blue)
Ctrl+O	Change repo path
Ctrl+Q	Quit

File list / Commit list (left panel)

Key	Action
↑ / k, ↓ / j	Navigate items one by one
PgUp / PgDn	Jump 10 items
Ctrl+F	Zoom the list pane to full screen (toggle)
/	Incremental search (status view only)
Esc	Cancel search
Enter	Drill into commit's file list (log view)
Esc	Return to commit list from file drill-down

Diff viewer (right panel)

Key	Action
↑ / k, ↓ / j	Scroll one line
PgUp / PgDn	Scroll 20 lines
← / →	Horizontal scroll (4 columns)
v	Toggle between hunk diff and full file preview
Ctrl+F	Zoom the diff/file pane to full screen (toggle)
/	Open diff search
n / N	Next / previous search match
Esc	Clear search

Terminal panes (bottom)

Key	Action
Shift+↑ / Shift+↓	Scroll terminal output 3 lines
Shift+PgUp / Shift+PgDn	Scroll terminal output one page

While scrolled, the terminal border title shows [SCROLL — shift+pgdn: down | input: live]. Keyboard input is still forwarded to the running process; Shift+PgDn to scroll back to the bottom.

The tab bar picks up OSC 0/2 window-title escape sequences, so programs like claude, vim, ssh, or cd-aware shell prompts can rename their own tab. Panes without an emitted title fall back to a default label.

Agent-aware focus indicator

Files modified within the last hot_window_secs seconds are rendered in the accent color (bold for the first 5 seconds, normal until the window expires). When the file list is in focus and you have not navigated in the last 2 seconds, the selection auto-follows to the freshest hot file so the diff updates as the agent works. Manual navigation (j / k / arrows / PgUp / PgDn) immediately suppresses auto-follow until you go idle again.

Configurable under [agent_indicator] (see below).

Session persistence

nightcrow saves the current state on exit and restores it on the next launch for the same repo — focus position, scroll offset, active terminal pane, commit log view mode, and accent color. The state file is .nightcrow/session.json inside the repo directory.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/nightcrow/config.toml (all fields optional, defaults shown).

[layout]
upper_pct = 55       # vertical % for the diff panel (1–99)
file_list_pct = 25   # horizontal % of upper panel for the file list (1–99)

[theme]
name = "yellow"      # accent color preset: "yellow" | "cyan" | "green" | "magenta" | "blue"

[log]
enabled = true
dir = ".nightcrow/logs"   # relative to repo root
rotation = "daily"        # "daily" | "hourly" | "size"
max_size_mb = 10          # used when rotation = "size"
max_days = 7              # delete logs older than N days (0 = keep forever)
level = "info"            # "error" | "warn" | "info" | "debug" | "trace"
prompt_log = true         # record terminal prompt input line by line

[agent_indicator]
enabled = true            # color recently-touched files in the file list
hot_window_secs = 15      # seconds within which a file stays hot (3–3600)
auto_follow = true        # jump selection to the freshest hot file when idle

License

MIT