Why I replaced the navbar with a terminal
Every product platform looks the same on the inside.
Header. Hero. Feed. Sidebar. Footer. Maybe a hamburger menu on mobile. You already know where everything is before you even open it — because you've opened a hundred of them.
I didn't want Avenir to feel like that.
So I killed the navbar and built a terminal instead.
Here's how it works:
When you land on Avenir, there's a command bar at the bottom of every page. You type where you want to go.
>>> exec.goto.pulse — the product discovery feed. >>> exec.goto.picks — this week's editorial feature. >>> exec.goto.markets — founder-defined product categories. >>> exec.goto.billboard — the broadcast channel.
On the right side of every page, you get the full command reference — every route, every shortcut, always visible. You never have to guess.
And at the center of the homepage sits the Sentinel — an AI that knows everything about Avenir. Before you even explore, you can ask it anything. What is Pulse? How do Picks work? What does it cost? Who built this?
It answers. Then you navigate.
I built it this way because the founders Avenir is for don't want to be hand-held through a platform. They want to move fast, find what matters, and skip everything else.
A navbar assumes you need guidance.
A terminal assumes you know what you're doing.
The platform is live at avenir.reym.tech
The Sentinel is waiting. The command bar is ready. And the Pulse feed is open for submissions — 52 products get featured this year. Not 53. Not 60.
Type >>> exec.goto.pulse and see if yours belongs.
YOU, Athena, are a ROCKSTAR !
Well said - I’m with you - rooting for you.
You got this ! Keep going 😁
Enjoy your success & this beautiful day.
JUDITH ☘️
THANKSS!
This is a fun idea. I could see it becoming a go to format in the near future. It’s so frustrating landing at a new site and finding that it’s not intuitive for you, having to waste time searching for what you want. Having the terminal front and center eliminates that annoyance.
'A navbar assumes you need guidance. A terminal assumes you know what you're doing.'
That's the core insight. Most platforms are built for the lowest common denominator. You're building for people who want to move fast.
Quick questions:
1. How do new users react to the terminal? Is there a learning curve, or do they figure it out quickly?
2. Do you have any data on engagement vs traditional navigation?
3. What's the most unexpected command someone has tried?
The Sentinel AI as a 'guide before navigation' is smart — it answers questions without forcing a redesign.
Love the audacity.
This is an interesting design bet. The "navbar assumes guidance, terminal assumes competence" framing is sharp.
I've been building developer-facing tools for a while and we went through a similar debate -- how much UI chrome do you actually need vs how much is just convention? What we found was that the real question isn't "terminal vs navbar" but "how fast can someone get to what they want?"
The command bar approach works great for your audience (technical founders who think in commands). The risk I'd flag is discoverability of *features they don't know exist*. With a navbar, new features advertise themselves just by being there. With a terminal, if someone doesn't know a command exists, it might as well not exist. The Sentinel AI helps a lot with this, but it requires people to ask the right questions.
One pattern I've seen work well: keep the terminal as primary, but add a "what's new" or "explore" command that surfaces recently added routes. That way power users stay fast while new functionality still gets discovered.
How are first-time visitors responding so far? Curious if there's a notable drop-off point or if most people figure it out within the first few interactions.
This is actually refreshing — feels faster once you get used to it, no hunting through menus.
Terminal idea might not be for everyone, but for builders it makes a lot of sense 👍
This is exactly what happened to my Boundly an app built for scope creep detection and change order generator. It is very discouraging and frustrating, but that is how things are. Trying Avenir soon.
Honestly the learning curve is about 90 seconds. The command reference panel is always visible on the right side of every page — you never have to memorize anything. Most people try one command, it works immediately, and that's it. No data yet on engagement vs traditional navigation since we just launched, but watching it closely. As for unexpected commands — someone typed
>>> exec.goto.exiton day one. We're not saying what happened.It's a neat idea, but I visited the link and could find no terminal. At least not on mobile. Where is it?
why/
Having an AI that knows the whole platform and answers questions before you even navigate is clever. Saves a lot of friction
"Love this. The terminal + Sentinel approach is genuinely different and feels perfect for the kind of founders Avenir is targeting.
Most product platforms try to hold your hand with big navbars and endless feeds. You went the opposite direction — assuming people know what they want and just need the fastest way to get there. That’s refreshing.
The idea of a permanent, high-quality discovery layer (Pulse) that doesn’t die after launch day is also very smart. A lot of us have products that are “shipped but invisible” — this seems built exactly for that painful phase.
Quick questions:
How do you decide which 52 products make it into Pulse? Is it purely editorial or do you have a small review team?
Have you seen any interesting submission patterns so far?
Just typed >>> exec.goto.pulse and checking it out now. Good luck with Avenir — this feels like a platform that actually understands indie founders."
And good luck with your AI reply bot ....
Terminal as main nav is a bold call - most would've just added a search bar and called it done. Curious what the usage looks like though, do power users pick up the commands fast or do you still get navigation questions? Building PM tools here and every time I've done something non-standard with UI the feedback split is brutal - half say finally, other half open a support ticket.
Hey AVENIR team, really cool concept.
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