1. The three interfaces

LatticeMind offers three ways to work, all driving the same engine. Pick the one that fits where you are working; you can switch at any time, and projects created in one interface open in the others.

Interface

Best for

How to start

CLI

The default: terminals, servers, HPC login nodes, scripted use

latticemind

Terminal dashboard

Interactive work in a terminal, with live panels; no browser needed

/dashboard on inside a session, or LATTICEMIND_UI_MODE=dashboard latticemind

Web UI

A visual, browser-based experience; cloud/notebooks

latticemind-web, or LATTICEMIND_UI_MODE=web latticemind

Note

Two different screens are called a dashboard, and they are not the same thing. The terminal dashboard runs in your terminal and needs no browser (/dashboard on, or LATTICEMIND_UI_MODE=dashboard). The Web UI dashboard is the browser page you get from latticemind-web (or LATTICEMIND_UI_MODE=web).

1.1. Starting LatticeMind

Running latticemind starts the assistant in the plain command-line interface:

latticemind

To go straight to the browser interface:

latticemind-web        # opens http://127.0.0.1:7865

Where you start from decides what is active. Started inside a project folder, LatticeMind continues that project. Started anywhere else – including the folder that holds your projects – nothing is active: the banner says so and names the most recent project, which /resume last continues (/resume <name> continues any other). A request typed with no active project starts a new one, unless it reads as a follow-up to an existing project; then LatticeMind says which project it appears to continue and asks, once, whether to continue it or start fresh. Nothing is continued without that answer.

The terminal dashboard is off by default. Open it for the current session with /dashboard on (/dashboard off closes it, and /dashboard alone reports the state), or start with it open:

LATTICEMIND_UI_MODE=dashboard latticemind

1.2. The terminal dashboard

The terminal dashboard is an interactive terminal interface implemented with the Textual terminal-interface framework and the Rich terminal-rendering Python library. You type your request in a prompt box and watch LatticeMind work in live panels — the plan, the current stage, generated files, validation findings, and results update in place. It is the most visual in-terminal interface for interactive work.

1.3. The Web UI

The Web UI runs a local web server and opens in your browser. It presents the same workflow visually: a chat/prompt area, a live activity log, and panels for generated inputs, results, plots, and the report. It is ideal for cloud and notebook platforms — see The Web UI tour for a full tour and Cloud & headless deployment for deployment behind a proxy.

latticemind-web                                  # local
latticemind-web --port 7865 --no-open   # server / cloud

1.4. The CLI

The plain CLI is a straightforward read–eval–print loop: you type prompts and commands, and output streams to the terminal. It has no live panels or browser dependency, which makes it the most robust choice on HPC login nodes, inside containers, and over SSH. All interactive commands (see Interactive commands) work here.

Tip

Whichever interface you use, the same interactive commands (/help, /examples, /cost, /remote …) and the same project folders apply. Start a project in the Web UI and resume it later from the CLI with /resume last.

1.5. Which should I use?