GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech Toad: Your AI Coding Agent Deserves a Better User Interface • Will McGugan & Olimpiu Pop
May 12, 2026
Will McGugan, prolific open-source Python dev behind Rich and Textual, now building Toad, a sleek terminal frontend for AI coding agents. He explains why current AI coding UIs feel stuck in the past. The conversation highlights Toad’s ACP plugin approach, streaming markdown, prompt editing, syntax highlighting, and how AI fits into real developer workflows.
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Toad Was Born From UI Frustration
- Will McGugan built a terminal front end called Toad after being disappointed by clunky UIs on agentic coding tools.
- He used the Agent Client Protocol to plug many providers into a Textual-based interface with streaming Markdown, prompt editing, and shell integration.
Terminal UIs Can Be Modern GUI Alternatives
- Modern agent UIs often looked like 'ancient technology' despite using advanced models, leaving room for terminal UI innovation.
- Textual/Rich allow terminal apps to offer GUI-like features, enabling richer prompt editors, syntax highlighting, and nicer streaming output.
Plug Providers With The Agent Client Protocol
- Use the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) as a standardized plugin layer to connect any AI provider to your frontend.
- Implement ACP adapters instead of writing separate SDK integrations for each model provider.
