Why a terminal metaphor?

A terminal UI creates a clear narrative: input, response, and iteration. It also reflects how I actually work day to day, which makes the interface personal instead of decorative.

Architecture choices

I kept the interaction model and rendering logic separate so each part remains small and testable:

• hooks/terminal handles state transitions and keyboard interactions.
• lib/terminal focuses on command registration and command execution.
• components/terminal handles rendering only.

What worked well

• The command registry pattern made adding commands straightforward.
• A clear visual token system kept the UI consistent across pages.
• Boot-sequence state persisted in sessionStorage prevented repeated friction.

One practical lesson

I avoided over-animating the shell. Small transitions are enough when content and response speed are already doing the heavy UX work.

const execute = (command: string) => {
  const [name, ...args] = command.trim().split(/\s+/)
  runCommand(name.toLowerCase(), args, context)
}

That single dispatch path became the backbone for everything interactive.