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I like #CLI and #TUI tools. I use them everyday to read my emails, edit code, manage my agenda and todo list, access some websites and gemini capsules, even chat with my local LLM...
I miss these tools when I use my phone. I sometimes use ConnectBot to access them on one of my machines via ssh, but the phone keyboard and the screen size don't give me the same satisfaction.
Have you tried to use an external #keyboard with your Android phone to play with CLI/TUI software? Is it a solution? Which keyboard?
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@adele I've tried many small or foldable bluetooth keyboard, but I never managed to actively used them, because a/ their layout is too small for my fingers/hands and I do too many mistakes and b/ the phone screen is not big enough to put the phone away and type without tiring my eyes. I wish I could though.
That's why I'm trying things like portable cyberdeck that are more usable than a phone, hopefully that will demote my phone to just being a phone and these cyberdeck being more portable micro computers
@adele my last Android phone, and last phone with a physical keyboard, was the G1 developer phone. I’d flip out the keyboard and ssh into my IRC client on the way to/from work. But latency was awful for anything interactive like text editing.
@adele any particular favorite CLI/TUI tools recently?
I recently discovered helix editor and have been enjoying that. (And already miss a lot of its keyboard navigation when I’m back in other editors.)
And I started using jj-vcs as a better git client.
When I write scripts for myself these days, I use Deno because you can easily include dependencies in a single file. I recommend https://jsr.io/@david/dax for easy shell scripting and prompting.
@NfNitLoop
I really like pimutils with vdirsyncer and ikhal. I can manage my contacts and my calendar and store data on a caldav/carddav server.
aerc, my tui email client, can access my synced contacts, too.
Depending on the device, Clicks makes a keyboard case for some, but IDK how it's character support is.
I've been eyeing building a Fairberry since it uses the old BlackBerry keyboards and is open source, so you could edit layers as needed for your use case. Waiting until I'm back on a slab.
https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
Out of stock, but same idea w/o DIY:
https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/bb9900-usb-keyboard-with-trackpad/
Some people like carrying a 35-40% kb for mobile use, but that isn't usable handheld.
And if you want a dedicated mobile terminal, there are several in various states of development:
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/attack-of-the-beepy-clones/
@McKenna I already have a sqfmi beeper, but the keyboard is too small.
I've also tried a Rii Mini i8, it is better but not ideal.
Understandable, especially if you weren't a BB user back in the day!
They take a bit of adjusting to and are pretty small.
There's sometime working on this thing, but it's not finished yet: https://www.reddit.com/r/surfaceduo/s/jkcRT6h8IV
@McKenna interesting concept
Yeah, curious to see what comes of it. Feel like there's a dearth of mobile kbs these days, unfortunately. Used to be all kinds of wild and wonderful options. Lol