Web UI

mew includes a web UI that connects to the daemon over WebSocket. It provides a browser-based alternative to the TUI with the same agent capabilities.

Starting the web UI

mew daemon --port 127.0.0.1:9847
mew-web

Then open http://localhost:9847 in your browser. The mew-web bridge serves the built React app and relays WebSocket connections to the daemon.

For development with hot reload:

just dev-ui

This starts Vite with HMR and auto-spawns the daemon. Use --open to launch the browser automatically:

just dev-ui -- --open

What you see

The web UI has a layout similar to the TUI but optimized for browser interaction:

• Chat surface: streaming markdown with syntax-highlighted code blocks (Shiki). Tool calls appear as cards with inline output and expand/collapse.
• Model picker: shows available models with thinking variant selection. Click to switch models.
• Title strip: shows the session title and connection status.
• Session rail: lists previous sessions. Click to resume. The folder button opens a project picker — pick a recent project directory or type a path to start a new session in that directory.
• Input area: type your prompt. Cmd/Ctrl+Enter to send.
• Status footer: shows token count, model, and connection state.
• Todo panel: renders the agent’s todo list when active.
• Subagent panel: shows running and completed subagents.
• Ask-user cards: interactive question cards when the agent asks.
• Permission prompts: approve or deny tool calls inline.

Features

Feature	TUI	Web UI
Streaming markdown	ratatui-mdstream	Shiki syntax highlighting
Tool call cards	inline	inline with expand/collapse
Model picker	Ctrl+P	click model pill
Thinking variant	Ctrl+P cycle	dropdown
Session list	/sessions	sidebar rail
Subagent panel	sidebar	dedicated panel
Todo list	sidebar panel	dedicated panel
Ask-user prompts	modal	inline card
Permission prompts	modal (a/s/d)	inline buttons
Reconnect	n/a	exponential backoff (2s, 4s, 8s, cap 30s)
Theme	terminal colors	system, light, dark

Architecture

Browser → mew-web (bridge) → mew daemon (Unix socket)

Three packages in a pnpm workspace:

• mew-web-bridge (Rust): TCP+WS listener that relays browser WebSocket connections to the daemon’s Unix socket. Serves the built React app from mew-web-ui/dist/ as static assets. Auto-spawns mew daemon if not running.
• mew-web-client (TypeScript): Typed client for the wire protocol. Builds to ESM with .d.ts types. The MewClient class manages the WebSocket connection, dispatches events to typed listeners, and provides promise-based methods for request/response patterns.
• mew-web-ui (TypeScript/React): React app with TanStack Router. Vite build to dist/. Uses Zustand for state management.

The bridge serves the built React app from embedded assets at runtime. Vite hashes asset filenames, so files are served dynamically by path lookup rather than hardcoded include_bytes!.

Connection lifecycle

The web UI handles disconnection gracefully:

1. On unexpected WS close, the client retries with exponential backoff (2s, 4s, 8s, up to 30s).
2. The session ID is saved to localStorage. On reload, the client reconnects via attachSession, falling back to newSession if the session is gone.
3. When reconnected, the full message history is replayed.

Multiple browser tabs can attach to the same session. Permission and ask-user prompts go to all connected clients. Any client can respond. RequestResolved dismisses the prompt across all clients.

See Daemon Protocol for the wire-level details, and Web UI Development for the developer guide.