{"slug": "flow", "name": "flow", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.193, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-12-16", "latest": "2026-10-07", "why": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/rivolink/flow", "official_url": "https://github.com/khimaros/flow", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["flow", "Flow"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799934880, "item_id": 49995930, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49995930", "by": "conesus", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Flow is gorgeous and fits this ascii art theme beautifully. I've installed it", "excerpt": "Flow is gorgeous and fits this ascii art theme beautifully. I've installed it and have lots of changes I'd like to make. Are you open to PRs or should I maintain my own fork without expectation of upstreaming anything? Examples of changes I'd like to see: 1. I want a decay on the flame, so on every state change, the flame slowly works its way back down to a base rate, say at 2 minutes. That would imply that a strong ", "context": "runs a dozen agents in one terminal window", "use_case": "animated status for coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Animated ASCII Art for Web Pages"}, {"id": 782785888, "item_id": 48924118, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48924118", "by": "khimaros", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you're looking for a more streamlined and minimalist alternative to n8n", "excerpt": "https://github.com/khimaros/flow if you're looking for a more streamlined and minimalist alternative to n8n. it also has CLI integration with piped input and output. user nodes can be written in Typescript, Python, and Rhai in addition to fully declarative nodes. UX it's more similar to ComfyUI", "context": "", "use_case": "workflow automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "CVE-2026-59208: Cross-Issuer Account Takeover in n8n"}, {"id": 774641489, "item_id": 48415093, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415093", "by": "RivoLink", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "flow for reusable skills/prompts", "excerpt": "I use Claude Code, flow for reusable skills/prompts, and leaf for reading Markdown comfortably in the terminal. - Claude Code - flow: https://github.com/RivoLink/flow - leaf: https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf - GNOME Terminal It's a pretty terminal-first workflow.", "context": "", "use_case": "reusable skills/prompts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 740787392, "item_id": 46299212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299212", "by": "nylonstrung", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor", "excerpt": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor, even though it seemed like \"yet another editor\" when I first came across it As someone who doesn't like modal options I used nano, micro, and ox in that order but Flow is a much nicer product than those 3 If you like helix it can also just us the modal editing and keybinds from it as well", "context": "prefers non-modal editors", "use_case": "TUI text editing", "switched_from": "ox", "story": "Flow \u2013 A Programmer's Text Editor"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "conesus", "context": "runs a dozen agents in one terminal window", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49995930", "date": "2026-10-07"}, {"by": "nylonstrung", "context": "prefers non-modal editors", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299212", "date": "2025-12-16"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["animated status for coding agents", "workflow automation", "type checking", "javascript type checking", "reusable skills/prompts", "tui text editing"], "compared": [{"slug": "typescript", "name": "TypeScript", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 799923472, "item_id": 49995217, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49995217", "by": "robbomacrae", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I did something similar (much smaller scale) for Claude Code/Pi to show how much it's working", "excerpt": "Thats awesome. I did something similar (much smaller scale) for Claude Code/Pi to show how much it's working https://github.com/robdmac/flow But this ASCII Art reminds me of my original desire to have something for each server I SSH into to help me keep a mental map of where I am. I'm not SSH'ing into servers anymore but if I was, I'd totally be trying to remake these scenes on the terminal!", "context": "", "use_case": "show agent working status", "switched_from": "", "story": "Animated ASCII Art for Web Pages"}, {"id": 775679025, "item_id": 48479939, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479939", "by": "RivoLink", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a lightweight AI automation framework called \"flow\"", "excerpt": "I have built : - a GUI terminal-based Markdown previewer called \"leaf\": https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf - and a lightweight AI automation framework called \"flow\": https://github.com/RivoLink/flow", "context": "", "use_case": "AI automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49993857", "title": "Animated ASCII Art for Web Pages", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921422", "title": "CVE-2026-59208: Cross-Issuer Account Takeover in n8n", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449187", "title": "Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48473662", "title": "Port React Compiler to Rust", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48444442", "title": "Are you expected to run five Python type-checkers now?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48413629", "title": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"compare": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 799934880, "item_id": 49995930, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49995930", "by": "conesus", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Flow is gorgeous and fits this ascii art theme beautifully. I've installed it", "excerpt": "Flow is gorgeous and fits this ascii art theme beautifully. I've installed it and have lots of changes I'd like to make. Are you open to PRs or should I maintain my own fork without expectation of upstreaming anything? Examples of changes I'd like to see: 1. I want a decay on the flame, so on every state change, the flame slowly works its way back down to a base rate, say at 2 minutes. That would imply that a strong ", "context": "runs a dozen agents in one terminal window", "use_case": "animated status for coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Animated ASCII Art for Web Pages"}, {"id": 782785888, "item_id": 48924118, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48924118", "by": "khimaros", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you're looking for a more streamlined and minimalist alternative to n8n", "excerpt": "https://github.com/khimaros/flow if you're looking for a more streamlined and minimalist alternative to n8n. it also has CLI integration with piped input and output. user nodes can be written in Typescript, Python, and Rhai in addition to fully declarative nodes. UX it's more similar to ComfyUI", "context": "", "use_case": "workflow automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "CVE-2026-59208: Cross-Issuer Account Takeover in n8n"}, {"id": 775587056, "item_id": 48474191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48474191", "by": "__jonas", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Flow is Facebook's old alternative to Typescript, but Typescript won the ecosystem in terms of broad adoption in the end.", "excerpt": "Are you sure? The React compiler is a fairly new addition to React, Flow is Facebook's old alternative to Typescript, but Typescript won the ecosystem in terms of broad adoption in the end. I think Flow is barely used today, I would be really surprised if they choose it for a new tool, even for a Facebook project. You may be thinking about React itself, not the new compiler? I'm sure there must be some flow in there ", "context": "", "use_case": "type checking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Port React Compiler to Rust"}, {"id": 775270608, "item_id": 48454413, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48454413", "by": "jamesfinlayson", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Flow for Javascript was okay but Typescript I've found to be much nicer", "excerpt": "I really like PHP's type hints (I think they were the first I used) though it's somewhat limited (can't type hint complex/nested structures last time I checked). Flow for Javascript was okay but Typescript I've found to be much nicer (last used flow years ago but occasionally I'd encounter bugs in Flow). Python's is okay but it feels clunky.", "context": "", "use_case": "JavaScript type checking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Are you expected to run five Python type-checkers now?"}, {"id": 774641489, "item_id": 48415093, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415093", "by": "RivoLink", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "flow for reusable skills/prompts", "excerpt": "I use Claude Code, flow for reusable skills/prompts, and leaf for reading Markdown comfortably in the terminal. - Claude Code - flow: https://github.com/RivoLink/flow - leaf: https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf - GNOME Terminal It's a pretty terminal-first workflow.", "context": "", "use_case": "reusable skills/prompts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 740787392, "item_id": 46299212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299212", "by": "nylonstrung", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor", "excerpt": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor, even though it seemed like \"yet another editor\" when I first came across it As someone who doesn't like modal options I used nano, micro, and ox in that order but Flow is a much nicer product than those 3 If you like helix it can also just us the modal editing and keybinds from it as well", "context": "prefers non-modal editors", "use_case": "TUI text editing", "switched_from": "ox", "story": "Flow \u2013 A Programmer's Text Editor"}]}