| name | hud-first |
| description | Use when designing AI features and the real opportunity may be perception support, not delegated conversational work. |
● main ↑3 │ build ✓ 2.1s ▁▂▂▃▄▅▆ │ tests 412/413 ✗ │ lint ✓ │ types ⚠2
That row is the skill. One line, six fields, no prompt, no dialog. You see system state through it, not at it. Lineage: Weiser (calm tech), Engelbart (IA), Tufte (data-ink, sparklines, small multiples).
Copilot vs. HUD
| Copilot (anti-pattern) | HUD (target) |
|---|
| You talk to it | You see through it |
| Demands attention | Lives in periphery |
| Delegates judgment | Extends perception |
| Context-switch tax | Flow-state preserving |
| "Do this for me" | "Now I notice more" |
Reframing protocol
-
Name the copilot reflex. What chat would you open? What prompt would you type?
-
Extract the information need. What does the assistant need to know to answer? That is what you need to perceive.
-
Compose from the primitive palette:
- sparkline row —
▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ in ≤8 cells, encoding a series (≤4 Hz)
- gutter cell — column-1 marker per line:
! * ● ◐ · (event:save)
- status-line field —
key value pair, separated by │ on a single row (≤1 Hz)
- dim/bold/inverse run — weight = salience; inverse = current/selected (event:focus)
- badge glyph — single-cell state:
✓ ✗ · ⚠ ● ○ ◐ ↑ ↓ (event:state)
- color-band column — fixed-width column, hue encodes category (event:classify)
- box-drawing frame —
─ │ ┌ ┐ └ ┘ ├ ┤, only when a frame earns its cells (static)
- prompt-line indicator — one trailing field appended to the shell prompt (≤30 Hz)
- small-multiples / row-repeat — meta-primitive: layout, not glyph; does not consume the ≤3 budget. Same instrument repeats across N rows with shared column alignment and shared scales, so cross-row scan is structurally licensed.
Budget: ≤3 primitives per row, ≤8 sparkline cells per primitive, one line per instrument. Beyond 3, the row is a dashboard, not a HUD.
When you catch yourself wanting a GUI affordance, reach for the terminal substitute:
- hover → inverse cursor row (
j/k moves the highlight)
- popover / tooltip → expand-on-key, or one appended status-line field
- gradient → dim/normal/bold triplet, or a 3-step 256-color ramp via color-band
- modal dialog → full-line takeover, single-key dismiss
- animation → ≤4 Hz refresh on a single sparkline cell
- drag →
j/k to move, enter to commit
-
Pass both terminal tests:
- Spellcheck test — the marker appears in the line of work itself, not in a popup, dialog, side pane, or separate command. Pass:
!43 │ if user.role == "admin":. Fail: a cx-review subcommand that prints a report.
- Sparkline test (Tufte) — the signal renders with
▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ (or a similar fixed-glyph row) in ≤8 cells inside an existing line; when sparklines stack, they share a labeled baseline. Pass: tests 412/413 ✗ ▁▂▃▇. Fail: a separate ASCII bar-chart screen, or four stacked sparklines each rescaling to their own min/max.
Worked example: test-runner HUD
PKG STRIP N/N LATENCY (▁=0 █=600ms) TREND
auth/login ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓· 19/20 ▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▂ 142ms
auth/oauth ✓✓✓✓✓✓✗✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ 19/20 ▁▂▂▂▂▃▃▃ 211ms
billing/charge ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ 20/20 ▁▁▁▁▂▂▂▂ 88ms
billing/refund ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ 20/20 ▃▄▅▅▆▆▇▇ 503ms ⚠
↑ small-multiples in action: each row applies the same gutter-strip + shared-baseline sparkline + badge instrument to one PKG, so the eye scans vertically. The strip is strict 3-state (✓ ✗ · = pass / fail / skip); trend warnings ride in their own badge column, so 20/20 still means 20/20. The flaky test (✗ in the strip) and the slow-creep (sparkline standing visibly taller than its neighbors, ⚠ in TREND) are legible without prose annotations — the data already speaks.
Copilot reflex: "summarize the test run." HUD instruments: gutter-strip + sparkline + badge, row-repeated across packages.
Same protocol, four domains
| domain | copilot reflex | HUD instrument (terminal-native) |
|---|
| code review | "review this PR for bugs" | !42 ● if x == True: ▆cx |
| inbox | "summarize my email" | ▌ ●●● 02:14 CEO Re: Q3 review ▇▆▃▁ |
| debugging | "find the bug" | i=37 arr[0..n) hits ▁▁▂▃▇▂▁ ✗ at i=23 |
| writing | "rewrite this paragraph" | ~/essay $ █ passive ▃ │ readab ▇▆ │ "just"×4 │ 318w |
Inbox row leads with a ▌ color-band column (hue = folder); the writing row appends indicators to the shell prompt line. Each row picks ≤3 primitives and stays inside the existing line — the test-runner block above is the small-multiples form (one instrument, many parameters); this table is the protocol's transfer (one protocol, four instruments).
When copilot is fine
Routine, one-shot, you genuinely don't want to learn it (autopilot for straight-and-level). For expert work — judgment, debugging, prose — instrument, don't delegate.
