Terminal UI is hard. Most CLI tools don’t even try. Gitlawb Zero just tried — and nailed it.
PR #400 adds a search/filter provider picker to Zero’s setup wizard. If you haven’t seen it, imagine choosing from 20+ LLM providers in a terminal interface that actually feels good to use.
What It Looks Like
When you run zero for the first time (or reconfigure), you’re presented with a searchable list of providers. Type “open” and it filters to OpenAI, OpenRouter, and compatible endpoints. Type “loc” and it shows Ollama, LM Studio, and local models.
The picker shows provider names, endpoint URLs, and whether they’re configured. Navigation is keyboard-native — arrow keys, vim bindings, and tab completion all work.
The Provider List
Zero supports every major provider out of the box:
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq
- OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI
- Qwen, Kimi, GitHub Models
- Ollama, LM Studio (local)
- Any OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible endpoint
The picker categorizes them: Cloud, Local, Community, Custom. You can filter by category or search across everything.
Why Terminal UX Matters
Most coding agents make you set up providers in config files. JSON, YAML, TOML — you edit a file, remember the correct key names, and hope it works.
Zero’s picker is the opposite of configuration. It’s exploration. See what’s available, pick what you want, move on. The agent handles the rest.
This is the kind of attention to onboarding that separates tools people try from tools people adopt. Hermes has a similar setup flow. OpenCode and Kilo still require manual config. Mimo inherits OpenCode’s approach. Oh My Pi uses config files too.
Zero’s provider picker sets a new bar.