glimpse-open

name	glimpse-open
description	Persistent Glimpse window. Use for long-lived UI, dashboard, inspector, multi-step form, shell event loop, update/send/wait.

Glimpse Open Mode

glimpse open = persistent window. Returns windowId. Later commands use -w <windowId-or-name>.

Use when

• UI stay open after command returns.
• Agent/script needs many user interactions over time.
• Need update same window: set-html, send, navigate, eval.
• Need event loop: wait, read, peek, events.

One-shot input? Use glimpse-prompt skill.

Minimal persistent window

open_json=$(glimpse open --name my-tool --replace --width 420 --height 320 --title "My Tool" --html '<h1>Hello</h1>')
window_id=$(printf '%s' "$open_json" | sed -n 's/.*"windowId":"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')

Use --name = stable human handle. Use --replace during dev -> avoid name conflict.

Page -> agent events

Local/inline HTML gets bridge automatically. Page sends JSON-serializable events:

<button id="save">Save</button>
<script>
  document.querySelector('#save').addEventListener('click', () => {
    window.glimpse?.send?.({ type: 'form.saved', value: 'example' });
  });
</script>

Wait unfiltered if loop must also detect close:

while true; do
  event_json=$(glimpse wait -w "$window_id")

  if [[ "$event_json" == *'"type":"window.closed"'* ]]; then
    break
  fi

  if [[ "$event_json" == *'"type":"form.saved"'* ]]; then
    echo "$event_json"
  fi
done

wait consumes one queued event. read = non-blocking consume. peek/events = inspect queued events, no consume.

Agent -> page messages

Send structured messages:

glimpse send -w "$window_id" --type app.update --data '{"status":"Working"}'
glimpse send -w "$window_id" --type app.log --text "Finished step 1"

Page handles via bridge listener API if available. No listener? Use explicit local eval.

Update / navigate / close

glimpse set-html -w "$window_id" --html '<h1>Updated</h1>'
glimpse navigate -w "$window_id" --url http://localhost:3000
glimpse eval -w "$window_id" 'document.body.dataset.ready = "true"'
glimpse close -w "$window_id"

Remote URL: add --allow-remote. Remote page needs CLI bridge? add --allow-bridge only then.

Event design

• Prefer discrete user-action events: { type: 'counter.changed', action, count }.
• Use repeated state snapshots only for slow/lossy consumers + latest-state reconciliation.
• Always include top-level type string.
• App events must not use reserved system prefixes: window.*, html.*, glimpse.*.