Clients

FlowLayer supports both the official terminal client and custom clients that speak the same session protocol.

Use this section when you need to choose the right client surface:

• Client / TUI
• Build a Custom Client

Official TUI

The official FlowLayer terminal client is flowlayer-client-tui.

It connects to a running FlowLayer server session to observe runtime state and send runtime commands.

The server remains the source of truth for orchestration state, logs, and lifecycle.

Connection

flowlayer-client-tui supports two connection modes:

1. Explicit flags:

flowlayer-client-tui -addr 127.0.0.1:6999 -token dev-token

2. Config-driven mode with -config <path>:
   • reads session.addr
   • reads session.token

Server and client config fields are different:

• server listens on session.bind
• TUI connects using session.addr

See Server and TUI Modes.

Session lifecycle over /ws

For each connection:

1. TUI opens WebSocket on /ws with Authorization: Bearer <token>.
2. Server sends hello.
3. Server sends snapshot.
4. TUI keeps consuming live events (service_status, log).
5. TUI can send runtime commands on the same socket.

Lifecycle details are specified in WebSocket Lifecycle and Events.

For the full operator UI walkthrough, command surface, and runtime model, see Client / TUI.

Confirmed capabilities

• Navigate services from the services panel.
• View logs in the logs panel.
• Start, stop, or restart a selected service (start_service, stop_service, restart_service).
• Start all or stop all services from the all-logs context (start_all, stop_all).

Related command contracts are documented in Actions and Logs.

Limits and boundaries

• Not a source of truth for service state.
• Not an orchestrator.
• Not durable log storage.
• Depends on a running FlowLayer server session.

The TUI keeps local UI state only; runtime truth comes from server protocol messages.

Custom clients

Custom clients use the same authenticated session protocol and envelope model as the official TUI.

Continue with Build a Custom Client for the minimal protocol flow and payload expectations.