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Interactive UI Mode

Wake features a powerful interactive terminal UI (TUI) that allows dynamic filtering and real-time log viewing across multiple Kubernetes pods. The TUI provides an immersive experience for debugging and monitoring applications in real-time.

Interactive TUI

Getting Started​

To use the interactive UI, add the --ui flag to any Wake command:

# Basic interactive mode
wake --ui

# Interactive mode with namespace selection
wake -n kube-system --ui

# Interactive mode with pod selector
wake -n apps log-generator --ui

# Interactive mode with initial filters
wake -n apps log-generator --ui -i "ERROR|WARN" -E "debug"

Key Features​

  • Real-time Log Streaming: Watch logs as they happen across multiple pods
  • Dynamic Filtering: Apply include/exclude patterns without restarting
  • Pattern History: Navigate through previously used filter patterns with arrow keys
  • Visual Feedback: Clear indication of filter changes and their effects
  • Smart Scrolling: Auto-scroll to bottom with manual scroll support
  • Multi-pod Support: View logs from multiple pods simultaneously
  • Resource Monitoring: Built-in CPU and memory monitoring (when available)
  • Help System: Built-in help accessible with the h key

Filter Management​

  • i: Edit include pattern (show only logs matching this pattern)
  • e: Edit exclude pattern (hide logs matching this pattern)
  • ↑/↓: Navigate through pattern history

Display Controls​

  • h: Toggle help screen
  • r: Refresh display
  • q / Esc: Quit application

Scrolling​

  • ↑/↓ or k/j: Scroll through logs line by line
  • Home/Ctrl+g: Go to top of logs
  • End/G: Go to bottom of logs
  • Page Up/Down: Scroll by page

Advanced Usage​

Combined with File Output​

# Save logs to file while using interactive UI
wake -n apps log-generator --ui -w logs.txt

With Resource Monitoring​

# Enable interactive UI with monitoring
wake -n production api-* --ui --monitor

Development Mode​

# Show internal Wake logs alongside application logs
wake -n apps log-generator --ui --dev

Smart Filter Management​

Wake intelligently handles filter changes in the TUI:

  • Preserved History: Changing filters doesn't remove previously displayed logs
  • Visual Boundaries: Clear markers show when filters were applied
  • Incremental Filtering: New filters only affect incoming logs
  • Pattern Memory: Previously used patterns are saved and accessible

Tips and Best Practices​

  1. Start Broad: Begin with minimal filters and narrow down as needed
  2. Use Pattern History: Press ↑/↓ in filter mode to reuse previous patterns
  3. Combine with Sampling: Use --sample N to limit the number of pods for better performance
  4. Save Important Logs: Use -w filename.txt to save filtered logs to a file
  5. Monitor Resources: Keep an eye on CPU/memory usage to identify performance issues

The interactive UI is particularly powerful when debugging complex issues across multiple microservices or when you need to correlate log patterns with resource usage.