Interactive Menu

QuickBox Pro ships a full-screen, text-based interactive menu that runs entirely inside your terminal. Instead of typing a command and remembering its flags, you launch the menu, pick a category, and it walks you through the rest — selecting the user, the application, and the operation with arrow keys.

The interactive menu is a friendly front-end over the exact same qb commands documented throughout this CLI Reference. Every choice you make in the menu runs the same underlying script as its direct command equivalent, so you get identical results either way.

Two surfaces, one engine

The QuickBox Pro dashboard is the recommended point-and-click control surface for most users. The interactive menu is its terminal-native counterpart — ideal when you are already on the server over SSH and want a guided experience without leaving the shell. Both run the same scripts; neither replaces the other.

Run the qb command with no arguments, or use any of the explicit entry points:


qb          # bare command opens the menu
qb menu
qb cui
qb tui

Any of these launches a dialog-based text UI (a curses interface) that renders correctly over SSH, on the console, or inside a terminal multiplexer. Navigate with the arrow keys, select with Enter, and cancel or go back with Esc or the on-screen Cancel button.

License activation is required first

The menu runs the standard license check before it opens. On an unlicensed install, qb reports the activation error and exits before the menu is drawn — exactly as every other qb command does. Activate first with qb manage api -k qbp_YOUR_KEY (see qb manage), then launch the menu.

What makes it useful

Guided prompts

Pick the target user, then their installed app, then the operation - no flags to memorize

Role-aware

Admin-only categories are hidden automatically for standard users

Nine categories

Software, Updates, Manage, Fix, System, Clean, SSL & DNS, Users, and Support in one place

Live system view

The System category renders real-time telemetry and streaming analytics as terminal tables

Real selection widgets

Options are checklists and pick-lists of real values, not free-text you have to get right

Fully translated

Every label is localized across all supported interface languages

When to use it

Reach for the interactive menu

You are on the server over SSH and want a guided workflow
You do not remember an app's exact flags and want to be walked through them
You want to browse what is installed for a user before acting
You want a quick live look at system telemetry and streaming activity
You are newer to the CLI and prefer menus over memorized syntax

Reach for direct commands

You are scripting or automating tasks in a shell loop or cron
You already know the exact command and flags you want
You are running a headless one-shot over an automated connection
You need to pipe or capture command output
You are managing many users or apps in a single batch

The nine categories

When the menu opens, the top level lists categories. Which ones you see depends on your account level — standard users only see the user-facing categories, while administrators see all nine.

Category	Who sees it	What it covers
Software	Everyone	Install, reinstall, update, or remove applications for a user
Updates	Everyone	Apply pending application updates and view QuickBox news
Manage	Administrators	System configuration — API key, database, language, trackers, backups
Fix	Administrators	Repair permissions, PHP, Python, and database issues
System	Administrators	Live system telemetry and streaming analytics as terminal tables
Clean	Everyone	Clear logs, caches, and temporary files
SSL & DNS	Administrators	Certificate and DNS provider tasks
Users	Administrators	Create, delete, promote, demote, ban, and inspect accounts
Support	Everyone	Enable temporary support access and generate support reports

Standard users see a focused menu

Categories that only make sense for an administrator — Manage, Fix, System, SSL & DNS, and Users — are hidden entirely when a standard user opens the menu. Even inside the shared categories (like Updates and Clean), individual administrator actions are gated by your account level, so you only ever see what you are permitted to run.

How a guided task flows

Take installing or updating an application as an example. The menu resolves everything a direct command would need, one prompt at a time:

Choose the category — e.g. Software.
Choose the operation — install, reinstall, update, or remove.
Choose the target user — administrators pick from a list of accounts; standard users are automatically scoped to themselves.
Choose the application — the menu shows a list drawn from what that user actually has (for update/reinstall/remove) or can install (for a new install), so you never pick something that does not apply.
Choose any options — where an application supports them, the menu presents the choices as real selection widgets: a checklist of toggles, a pick-list of the actual available versions, and so on. There is nothing to type unless a value is genuinely free-form (like a domain or an email address).
Confirm and run — the command executes and its output is shown; press Enter to return to the menu.

Because the app lists come from your real installation, the menu never offers an update for something that has none, and never offers to install an app a user already owns.

Options are real values, not guesswork

When an app offers a version choice, the menu lists the versions actually available for your server. When it offers integrations or channels, they appear as a checklist of real options. This removes the most common source of CLI mistakes — a mistyped flag or a version string that does not exist.

Destructive actions always confirm

Any operation that removes data or changes system state — removing an application, restoring a database, deleting or banning a user, and clean or fix operations — presents a yes/no confirmation before it runs. Cancelling at any prompt (including the confirmation) aborts the whole action and returns you to the menu without changing anything.

Confirmation is the last stop, not a substitute for care

The confirm dialog protects against an accidental key press, but a confirmed removal or restore still runs for real. Read the prompt — it names the user and the operation — before choosing Yes.

The System category — a live cockpit

The System category (administrators only) is more than a command launcher. It reads live data from the QuickBox Pro dashboard service running on the server and renders it as aligned tables right in your terminal:

System telemetry — current resource and health metrics for the box.
Streaming analytics — live activity from the streaming dashboard.

This gives an administrator a quick, text-only pulse of the server without opening a browser — useful when you are already connected over SSH.

Language support

The menu is fully localized. Every category label, prompt, and message is translated across all supported interface languages, matching the language configured for your install. Command names and application names themselves are never translated — only the surrounding menu text — so a guided task and its direct-command equivalent always refer to the same things.

You can change the interface language with qb manage lang.

Best practices

Do

Use the menu when you want to browse what is installed before acting
Let the guided option widgets pick versions and channels for you to avoid typos
Read the confirmation prompt — it names the exact user and operation
Switch to direct commands once you know the exact syntax you need
Activate your license first so the menu opens cleanly

Don't

Do not rely on the menu inside scripts or cron — use direct qb commands there
Do not assume a piped SSH session will render the menu — it needs a real terminal
Do not confirm a removal or restore without reading which user it targets
Do not expect admin categories to appear for a standard user account

FAQ

No. The menu is a guided front-end that runs the exact same commands documented across the CLI Reference. Every menu choice maps to a qb command and produces an identical result.

Run qb with no arguments, or use qb menu, qb cui, or qb tui. All four open the same interface.

Categories are role-gated. Standard users see only the user-facing categories (Software, Updates, Clean, Support). Administrators additionally see Manage, Fix, System, SSL & DNS, and Users.

The most common cause is running it through a connection that does not allocate a real terminal (for example, a plain piped SSH command). The dialog interface needs an interactive terminal. Connect a normal SSH session and run qb again. If the install is not licensed, qb will instead print an activation error before the menu opens.

Yes. Where an application supports options, the menu offers them as real selection widgets — checklists and pick-lists of the actual available values — so you select rather than type them.

Yes. Every label and prompt is translated across all supported interface languages, following the language set for your install. Change it with qb manage lang.

CLI Reference

The full qb command reference

qb user

User account management commands

qb manage

API key, database, language, and backups

qb fix

Repair permissions, PHP, Python, and the database

qb clean

Clear logs, caches, and temporary files

Applications

Browse every supported application

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