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  "articleBody": "**[Stop Making TUIs](https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/08/20/stop-making-tuis/)**. Thomas Ptacek advocates for building real native user interfaces for even the smallest of personal tools, because coding agents have reduced the cost of getting a usable-enough GUI up and running to almost nothing.\n\nI wrote about my vibe-coded bandwidth and GPU monitoring macOS task bar apps [back in March](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/27/vibe-coding-swiftui/), and I'm still using both of those on a daily basis.\n\nI'm not habitually knocking out real UIs for my other projects yet, but I'm running out of excuses!\n\nThomas:\n\n> If you haven’t tried your hand at turning one of your 500 throwaway CLIs into a native app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Go build a native UI. It’ll probably change the way you think.\n",
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  "content_html": "<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/08/20/stop-making-tuis/\">Stop Making TUIs</a></strong>. Thomas Ptacek advocates for building real native user interfaces for even the smallest of personal tools, because coding agents have reduced the cost of getting a usable-enough GUI up and running to almost nothing.</p>\n<p>I wrote about my vibe-coded bandwidth and GPU monitoring macOS task bar apps <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/27/vibe-coding-swiftui/\">back in March</a>, and I'm still using both of those on a daily basis.</p>\n<p>I'm not habitually knocking out real UIs for my other projects yet, but I'm running out of excuses!</p>\n<p>Thomas:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>If you haven’t tried your hand at turning one of your 500 throwaway CLIs into a native app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Go build a native UI. It’ll probably change the way you think.</p>\n</blockquote>\n",
  "content_markdown": "**[Stop Making TUIs](https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/08/20/stop-making-tuis/)**. Thomas Ptacek advocates for building real native user interfaces for even the smallest of personal tools, because coding agents have reduced the cost of getting a usable-enough GUI up and running to almost nothing.\n\nI wrote about my vibe-coded bandwidth and GPU monitoring macOS task bar apps [back in March](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/27/vibe-coding-swiftui/), and I'm still using both of those on a daily basis.\n\nI'm not habitually knocking out real UIs for my other projects yet, but I'm running out of excuses!\n\nThomas:\n\n> If you haven’t tried your hand at turning one of your 500 throwaway CLIs into a native app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Go build a native UI. It’ll probably change the way you think.\n",
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  "description": "Stop Making TUIs Thomas Ptacek advocates for building real native user interfaces for even the smallest of personal tools, because coding agents have reduced the cost of getting a usable-enough GUI up and running to almost nothing. I wrote…",
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  "summary": "Stop Making TUIs Thomas Ptacek advocates for building real native user interfaces for even the smallest of personal tools, because coding agents have reduced the cost of getting a usable-enough GUI up and running to almost nothing. I wrote about my vibe-coded bandwidth and GPU monitoring macOS task bar apps back in March, and I'm still using both of those on a daily basis. I'm not habitually knocking out real UIs for my other projects yet, but I'm running out of excuses! Thomas: If you haven’t tried your hand at turning one of your 500 throwaway CLIs into a native app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Go build a native UI. It’ll probably change the way you think. Tags: thomas-ptacek, ai, generative-ai, llms, vibe-coding, coding-agents",
  "tags": [
    "ai",
    "coding-agents",
    "generative-ai",
    "llms",
    "thomas-ptacek",
    "vibe-coding"
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  "title": "Stop Making TUIs",
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