Why AI CLI Tools Like Claude Code Need a Better UI

8/10/2025

The Missing Piece: Why Command-Line Tools Like Claude Code Desperately Need a Better UI

Let's be honest, as developers, we have a weird relationship with the command line. It's powerful, it's direct, & for a certain generation of us, it’s where we feel most at home. But we also have to admit that for all its power, the command-line interface (CLI) can be… well, a pain. Especially when it comes to the new wave of AI coding assistants. I’m talking about tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code, a genuinely impressive piece of technology that can do some amazing things, but whose user experience is trapped in the 1990s.

It's a classic case of incredible engineering hampered by a less-than-ideal user interface. The raw capability is there, but the day-to-day usability? That’s another story. And it’s a story I’ve been hearing a lot lately from fellow developers, & one that I’ve experienced firsthand. There’s a growing frustration that these powerful AI tools, which are supposed to make our lives easier, are often more cumbersome to use than they should be.

This isn’t just a matter of aesthetics or personal preference. It’s about efficiency, cognitive load, & ultimately, the very promise of what these AI assistants are supposed to deliver. So, let’s take a deep dive into why command-line tools like Claude Code are in desperate need of a better UI, what that might look like, & why the future of AI-assisted coding depends on it.

The Command-Line Conundrum: Power vs. Usability

The command line is, without a doubt, a pro-user’s tool. It offers a level of control & scriptability that graphical user interfaces (GUIs) often can’t match. For simple, fire-and-forget tasks, it's perfect. But for the kind of iterative, conversational, & context-heavy work that defines AI-assisted coding, the limitations of the CLI quickly become apparent.

Think about how you work with a tool like Claude Code. You’re not just issuing a single command & getting a single output. You’re having a conversation. You’re describing a feature, debugging an issue, or trying to understand a complex codebase. This is a back-and-forth process, & the CLI is just not built for that kind of fluid interaction. It’s like trying to have a heart-to-heart conversation through a mail slot.

And the frustrations are very, very real. A quick look at the community discussions around Claude Code reveals a litany of UI-related complaints. These aren't just minor gripes; they are significant hurdles that get in the way of a smooth workflow.

For starters, there are the basic keyboard shortcut inconsistencies. As one user on Builder.io pointed out, simple things like using

Shift+Enter

for a new line don't work by default. Dragging & dropping files requires holding down a specific key. Pasting an image from your clipboard is a different command than you’d expect. And stopping the tool without exiting the entire session is another non-obvious command. Each of these little frustrations adds a tiny bit of friction to the process, & over the course of a long coding session, that friction can really build up.

Then there’s the infamous permission system. As the same Builder.io user so eloquently put it, "The permission system will drive you insane." The tool constantly asks for permission to do pretty much anything, from editing a file to running a linter. This might sound like a good safety feature in theory, but in practice, it’s a major workflow killer. You’ll type a prompt, switch over to another window, & come back five minutes later to find that Claude Code has been patiently waiting for you to grant it permission to do the very thing you just asked it to do. It’s so frustrating that many users, myself included, immediately resort to running the tool with the

--dangerously-skip-permissions

flag, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a permission system in the first place.

And we haven't even gotten to the bugs yet. There are numerous reports on GitHub of the Claude Code CLI crashing within the VS Code integrated terminal, especially on Windows. Users have reported that the Claude Code icon, which is supposed to appear in the VS Code Activity Bar, is often missing. And there are even reports of the UI flickering incessantly when you paste text into the command line, effectively locking up the tool. These aren't just minor inconveniences; they are show-stopping bugs that can completely derail your coding session.

The sad reality is that for many developers, the experience of using Claude Code is one of constant workarounds & frustrating compromises. It’s a testament to the power of the underlying AI that people are willing to put up with these issues at all. But it begs the question: why should they have to?

The Rise of the GUI Wrapper: A Sign of Desperate Measures

The clearest sign that there's a problem with the user experience of a tool is when the community starts building their own solutions. And that's exactly what's happening with Claude Code. There's a growing ecosystem of third-party GUI wrappers that aim to put a more user-friendly face on the powerful but clunky command-line tool.

One of the most interesting of these is a web-based UI called, appropriately enough, Claude Code UI. As a recent YouTube video enthusiastically demonstrated, this tool takes the core functionality of the Claude Code CLI & wraps it in a clean, modern, & accessible web interface. Suddenly, you're no longer confined to the terminal. You have an interactive file tree with syntax highlighting, you can resume conversations across multiple sessions, & you can even use voice transcription to dictate your prompts.

What’s really game-changing about this approach is that because it’s web-based, you can host it on a virtual private server (VPS) & access your AI coding assistant from anywhere, on any device. Your phone, your tablet, that old laptop you keep in the closet – they all become viable coding environments. This is a level of flexibility that the official CLI simply can’t offer.

The popularity of tools like Claude Code UI is a clear indictment of the status quo. It shows that developers are desperate for a better way to interact with their AI coding assistants. They want a tool that is not just powerful, but also intuitive, flexible, & dare I say it, enjoyable to use. They want an interface that gets out of their way & lets them focus on the task at hand, which is writing code.

And it’s not just about a pretty interface. A good GUI can provide a level of contextual awareness that is simply impossible to achieve in a command-line environment. You can see your file tree, your open tabs, & your conversation history all in one place. You can click to apply changes, rather than having to type out a confirmation. You can see a diff of the proposed changes before you accept them. These are not just quality-of-life improvements; they are fundamental enhancements to the coding workflow.

The Business Case for a Better UI: It's Not Just About Happy Developers

Now, you might be thinking, "This is all well & good for individual developers, but why should a company like Anthropic care about this?" The answer is simple: because a better user experience is good for business.

Think about it from a customer acquisition & retention perspective. When a new developer is trying out Claude Code for the first time, what is their initial experience going to be? Are they going to be wowed by the power of the AI, or are they going to be frustrated by the clunky interface & the constant permission prompts? First impressions matter, & a frustrating user experience is a great way to lose a potential customer before they’ve even had a chance to see what your product can really do.

And for existing customers, a poor user experience is a constant source of friction. It’s a daily reminder that the tool they are using is not as good as it could be. And in a competitive market with new AI coding assistants popping up all the time, that’s a dangerous position to be in. If a competitor comes along with a tool that is just as powerful as Claude Code but has a much better user interface, which one do you think developers are going to choose?

This is where a company like Arsturn comes into the picture. Arsturn helps businesses create custom AI chatbots trained on their own data to provide instant customer support, answer questions, & engage with website visitors 24/7. Now, you might be thinking, "What does a customer service chatbot have to do with a developer tool?" The answer is that the underlying principle is the same: it’s all about creating a better user experience through a more intuitive, conversational interface.

Imagine if, instead of a clunky command-line interface, Claude Code had a slick, chat-based UI powered by a platform like Arsturn. You could have a natural, back-and-forth conversation with the AI, just like you would with a human colleague. You could ask it to explain a complex piece of code, & it could respond with a clear, easy-to-understand explanation, complete with code snippets & links to relevant documentation. You could ask it to refactor a function, & it could show you a side-by-side diff of the changes before you apply them.

This is not just a fantasy; it’s the future of AI-assisted coding. And the companies that embrace this future are the ones that are going to win.

What a Better UI for Claude Code Could Look Like

So, what would a better UI for a tool like Claude Code actually look like? Here are a few ideas:

A Hybrid Approach: The command line is not going away, nor should it. It’s too powerful & too useful for certain tasks. The ideal solution is a hybrid approach that combines the power of the CLI with the usability of a GUI. Imagine a tool that has a beautiful, intuitive graphical interface for most tasks, but also allows you to drop down into a command-line mode when you need to do something more advanced. This would give you the best of both worlds: the ease of use of a GUI for your day-to-day work, & the power & flexibility of the CLI when you need it.
A Truly Conversational Interface: The future of AI is conversational, & our tools should reflect that. Instead of a series of rigid commands & prompts, we should be able to have a natural, back-and-forth conversation with our AI assistants. This means the AI needs to be able to understand context, remember previous interactions, & ask clarifying questions when it doesn’t understand something. A platform like Arsturn, which is designed to help businesses build conversational AI experiences, could be a great foundation for this kind of interface.
Deep IDE Integration: An AI coding assistant should feel like a natural extension of your IDE, not a separate tool that you have to switch back & forth to. This means deep integration with popular IDEs like VS Code, JetBrains, & others. The AI should be able to see your code, your open files, & your project structure. It should be able to highlight potential errors in real-time, offer intelligent code completions, & even suggest refactorings. The bug reports on GitHub about the VS Code integration with Claude Code show just how important this is to developers.
A Focus on Visualization: A picture is worth a thousand words, & this is especially true when it comes to code. A good UI for an AI coding assistant should make it easy to visualize complex code structures, understand data flows, & see the impact of changes. This could include things like interactive diagrams, code maps, & before-and-after diffs.
A More Intelligent Permission System: The permission system in Claude Code is a major pain point for users. A better approach would be a more intelligent system that learns from your behavior. For example, if you always grant permission for the AI to run the linter, it should eventually stop asking & just do it. Or, it could have a "trusted" mode where you can give it blanket permission to perform certain types of actions within a specific project.

The Bottom Line: It's Time for a Change

The rise of AI coding assistants has the potential to be one of the most significant shifts in software development since the invention of the compiler. But for that potential to be fully realized, we need to move beyond the limitations of the command-line interface. We need tools that are not just powerful, but also intuitive, user-friendly, & dare I say it, a joy to use.

The fact that developers are already building their own GUI wrappers for tools like Claude Code is a clear sign that there is a huge unmet need in the market. It’s a cry for help from a community that is tired of fighting with their tools & just wants to get their work done.

The good news is that the technology to build these better interfaces already exists. Companies like Arsturn are already helping businesses build sophisticated conversational AI experiences for their customers. There’s no reason why the same principles can’t be applied to developer tools.

It’s time for the makers of AI coding assistants to take user experience seriously. It’s time to move beyond the command line & embrace the future of conversational AI. The developers who use these tools every day will thank you for it. And your bottom line will thank you for it, too.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know what you think.