TUI Installation

The Perceptron TUI is an optional, keyboard-driven terminal frontend. For the primary browser experience, see Getting Started instead. The TUI is useful if you prefer the terminal, want an integrated EVM wallet, or need the local domain-tunnel client (the web app manages reservations but cannot establish the local tunnel itself).

Prerequisites

To use the Perceptron TUI, you’ll need a modern terminal emulator like:

Install Perceptron TUI

The easiest way to install the Perceptron TUI is through the shell script installer.

curl -fsSL https://perceptron.cloud/install.sh | bash

This downloads pre-built binaries for your OS and architecture, and installs to ~/.perceptron/bin/:

The installer prompts to add ~/.perceptron/bin/ to your $PATH if not already configured.

Supported platforms:

Launch Perceptron TUI

pct

Invoke the pct command in your terminal emulator to launch the Perceptron interface.

On first launch you will be prompted to generate or import an existing BIP-39 seed phrase, and set a passphrase to encrypt the seed phrase on disk. Your seed phrase never leaves your computer, is stored locally, and encrypted at rest.

Your wallet address becomes your unique identifier or “username”.

The TUI dashboard appears with your balances, service status, and metrics. You can navigate the menu sidebar on the left with your keyboard arrow keys, or h-j-k-l to explore different pages of the interface.

Buy Credits

All Perceptron services are billed from prepaid credits purchased with USDT.

To purchase credits from the TUI:

  1. Navigate to the Wallet page on the menu sidebar panel
  2. Send some USDT to your wallet address displayed on the Wallet page (ensure your desired Blockchain network is supported and selected in the Settings page)
  3. Press b on your keyboard to open the purchase modal
  4. Enter your desired amount in USDT (e.g. $10)
  5. Press enter to purchase
  6. Wait for blockchain confirmation (a few seconds)

Credits appear in your balance on the Wallet page and can immediately be used to access all perceptron services.

Get an API Key

  1. Navigate to the Keys page on the menu sidebar panel
  2. Press the n key to create a new API key
  3. Choose a desired label for the API key and press enter
  4. Press the c key to copy the API key to your clipboard

You can manage multiple API keys on the Keys page, and track your usage on the Metrics page.

Make Your First API Call

curl https://perceptron.cloud/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PERCEPTRON_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "model": "moonshotai/kimi-k2.6",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "What is the capital of Japan?"
    }
  ],
  "reasoning": {
    "enabled": true
  }
}'

The Perceptron API exposes a collection of endpoints for its multiple services. You can list the available endpoints on the /api/endpoints endpoint, or read the full API Reference.

Next Steps