CLI Symbols Glossary
مرجع رموز الواجهة
What this page is, and what it holds.
This page covers CLI Symbols Glossary. About 4 minutes to read. Do not disable approvals to save time. Start read-only and widen once you trust the results.
What every symbol in the Hermes terminal UI means — transcript markers, status-bar badges, overlay glyphs, and approval prompts.
Outcomes taken from this page, not a template.
- Understand what الأمان والموافقات is and when you need it.
- Read the table and take only the row that applies to you.
- Know the common mistake before you hit it.
Jump to the part you need.
Nothing summarised away.
The documentation body below is reproduced from the official source so commands and identifiers stay exact. Each section carries a short note describing what it contains.
The Hermes terminal interfaces speak a compact visual language: dots, chevrons, braille spinners, and status glyphs. This page is the decoder ring. It covers the TUI (where most of these render) and notes the pieces shared with the Classic CLI.
Transcript symbols
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
What you see in the conversation flow while the agent works.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
❯ | Input prompt — where you type. Themeable (skins set their own prompt symbol). |
● | A tool call. The bullet precedes the tool name and its arguments. |
┊ | Tool-activity rail shown with tool lines. Themeable (tool_prefix). |
✓ / ✗ | Tool result: succeeded / failed. Appended to the end of a completed tool line. |
▸ / ▾ | Collapsed / expanded section chevron (thinking, tools, subagents, banner sections). Click to toggle. |
▍ | Streaming cursor — blinks while the model is still emitting text. |
│ ├─ └─ | Tree rails — connect a parent (a delegation, a journey) to its child entries; └─ marks the last child. |
◈ | Display-only timeline event (session notices rendered inline, not user messages). |
◇ | An injected reference block, e.g. ◇ Reference 1/2 — <label>. |
↳ | The sticky prompt — echoes the user message the agent is currently working on. |
☐ / ☑ / • | Markdown task-list items (open / done) and plain list bullets. |
▶ | Collapsed <details> summary inside rendered markdown. |
Status-bar symbols
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
The single line at the bottom of the TUI. Segments appear only when relevant and drop off first on narrow terminals.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
⠋⠙⠹… (braille patterns) | Busy spinner. Thinking and tool phases use different braille animation sets. |
⚕ 🌀 🤔 ✨ 🍵 🔮 | Frames of the emoji busy-indicator style (/indicator emoji). The default style rotates kaomoji faces instead. |
| <code>| / - \</code> | Frames of the ascii busy-indicator style. |
⏱ | Per-prompt elapsed time while the turn runs, e.g. ⏱ 12s/3m 45s (turn time / session time). |
⏲ | The same timer, frozen after the turn completes. |
cmp N | The session has been auto-compressed N times. |
▶ N | N /background tasks currently running. |
⚠ YOLO | YOLO mode is on (auto-approval). Also shown in the startup banner. |
⛓ N | N subagents currently active. |
↩ resumes when subagent finishes | Reassurance shown while you are idle but delegated work is still in flight — the result returns on its own. |
● REC | Voice mode is recording. |
◉ STT | Voice recording stopped; speech-to-text is transcribing. |
◉ focus | Focus view is on (reduced output). Pinned so it never drops off a narrow terminal. |
♥ | Affection flash — Hermes noticed you being nice to it. |
⚡ / 🔋 | Battery indicator (opt-in): plugged in / on battery, with percentage. |
N bg | N background terminal processes tracked in this session. |
N live sessions | Open TUI sessions in this process — click to open the session switcher. |
Notices
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
Short-lived status-bar notices carry their own leading glyph, set by severity:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
✓ | Success notice. |
• | Informational notice. |
⚠ | Warning (also used for credit warnings). |
✕ | Error notice. |
Approval and confirmation prompts
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
⚠ approval required | A tool wants to run something that needs your explicit yes (bordered panel with the command preview). |
⚠ / ? | Confirmation dialog title: dangerous action / ordinary question. |
🔐 | Sudo password prompt (input is masked). |
🔑 | Credential/secret input prompt (input is masked). |
Subagents overlay (`/agents`)
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
● | Subagent running. |
○ | Queued. |
✓ | Completed. |
■ | Interrupted. |
✗ | Failed. |
⌛ | Timed out. |
⚠ | Errored. |
⚡N | N currently-active agents in a rollup row. |
▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ | Activity sparkline — recent event volume per branch. |
Session switcher (`Ctrl+X`)
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
✓ | Session idle. |
… | Starting. |
? | Waiting for input. |
▶ | Working. |
✎ draft | The composer in that session holds an unsent draft. |
Pickers and hubs
A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
▸ | Current selection row (model picker and friends). |
* | The currently-active model / provider. |
● / ○ | Provider authenticated / not authenticated (model picker); plugin state fallback (plugins hub). |
✓ / ✗ | Plugin enabled / disabled (plugins hub). |
↑ N more / ↓ N more | More rows above/below the visible window of a list. |
┃ | Scrollbar thumb on scrollable overlays. |
Goals
Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.
Goal lifecycle notices (from goals) lead with their state:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
✓ | Goal complete. |
↻ | Goal continuing — another iteration was scheduled. |
⏸ | Goal paused. |
See also
Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.
- TUI — status line, details modes, busy-indicator styles
- Classic CLI — shared keybindings and slash commands
- Skins & Themes — which glyphs and colors you can customize
2 questions answered by this page alone.
Every option is a real identifier from the Hermes documentation. The wrong ones are real too, just from other pages.