Product contract¶
One-sentence promise¶
Mellow is a beautiful, simple, AI-ready terminal editor that a first-time user can use without learning editor modes or obscure commands.
North-star first session¶
A user should be able to run:
mellow config.yaml
and immediately understand how to type, move, save and quit without documentation.
What Mellow is¶
- a native terminal editor
- friendly to beginners
- fast for experts
- usable locally and over SSH
- offline-complete for core editing
- progressively enhanced by terminal capabilities
- AI-ready, but not AI-dependent
What Mellow is not¶
- an Electron IDE rendered into a terminal-like theme
- a Vim clone with a chatbot
- an AI agent that happens to contain a textarea
- dependent on Nerd Fonts, a graphical compositor, TrueColor, or cloud connectivity
- a full IDE on day one
Experience hierarchy¶
- Editing canvas
- Current file/context
- Status and safety feedback
- Discoverable commands
- Optional AI assistance
The editing canvas must always dominate the screen.