# 17 — TUI

## Status

```text
TUI=PRIMARY_CONTROL_SURFACE
USER_INTERFACE_LANGUAGE=ENGLISH
```

## Authority

`AGENTS.md`, `README.md`, current TUI architecture and `docs/product/product_definition.md`.

## CURRENT/FROZEN

ncurses remains on its designated/main thread. Reuse the current business-logic / TUI / layout separation and current Queue/Project lifetime boundary.

Validated sizing includes:

```text
full >=100x30
reference compact 72x20
minimum supported 60x15
```

Below minimum, render only the bounded terminal-too-small fallback.

## REQUIRED_PRODUCT_TARGET

The TUI progressively controls:

- project;
- acquisition;
- optics;
- calibration;
- quality;
- pipeline;
- Tasks;
- Governor;
- SSD/scratch;
- reconstructions;
- viewer;
- coverage;
- capture guidance;
- export;
- diagnostics/help.

Displayed actions and actual handlers must remain consistent.

Diagnostics must distinguish at least:

- scientific rejection;
- invalid input;
- missing prerequisite;
- resource wait/throttle;
- runtime failure;
- corruption;
- unsupported version/backend;
- user cancellation.

A generic unowned `failed` state is insufficient for final-product workflows.

Remaining non-English executable UI text converges to English only in explicitly scoped implementation work.

## Canonical-reference rule

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