diff --git a/examples/common.cpp b/examples/common.cpp
index 1308f84109519..23054b6f39931 100644
--- a/examples/common.cpp
+++ b/examples/common.cpp
@@ -338,6 +338,8 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
                 break;
             }
             params.input_suffix = argv[i];
+        } else if (arg == "--disable-tty") {
+            params.disable_tty = true;
         } else {
             fprintf(stderr, "error: unknown argument: %s\n", arg.c_str());
             gpt_print_usage(argc, argv, default_params);
@@ -376,6 +378,7 @@ void gpt_print_usage(int /*argc*/, char ** argv, const gpt_params & params) {
     fprintf(stderr, "                        halt generation at PROMPT, return control in interactive mode\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "                        (can be specified more than once for multiple prompts).\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  --color               colorise output to distinguish prompt and user input from generations\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "  --disable-tty         disable the use of TTY in interactive mode in favor of stderr\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -s SEED, --seed SEED  RNG seed (default: -1, use random seed for < 0)\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -t N, --threads N     number of threads to use during computation (default: %d)\n", params.n_threads);
     fprintf(stderr, "  -p PROMPT, --prompt PROMPT\n");
@@ -495,7 +498,7 @@ struct llama_context * llama_init_from_gpt_params(const gpt_params & params) {
     return lctx;
 }
 
-void console_init(console_state & con_st) {
+void console_init(console_state & con_st, bool disable_tty) {
 #if defined(_WIN32)
     // Windows-specific console initialization
     DWORD dwMode = 0;
@@ -533,9 +536,13 @@ void console_init(console_state & con_st) {
     new_termios.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
     tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &new_termios);
 
-    con_st.tty = fopen("/dev/tty", "w+");
-    if (con_st.tty != nullptr) {
-        con_st.out = con_st.tty;
+    if (!disable_tty) {
+        con_st.tty = fopen("/dev/tty", "w+");
+        if (con_st.tty != nullptr) {
+            con_st.out = con_st.tty;
+        }
+    } else {
+        con_st.out = stderr;
     }
 
     setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
diff --git a/examples/common.h b/examples/common.h
index 2b66382a6a5e0..7f25804eff549 100644
--- a/examples/common.h
+++ b/examples/common.h
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ struct gpt_params {
     bool use_mlock         = false; // use mlock to keep model in memory
     bool mem_test          = false; // compute maximum memory usage
     bool verbose_prompt    = false; // print prompt tokens before generation
+    bool disable_tty       = false; // disable TTY mode
 };
 
 bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params);
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@ struct console_state {
 #endif
 };
 
-void console_init(console_state & con_st);
+void console_init(console_state & con_st, bool disable_tty);
 void console_cleanup(console_state & con_st);
 void console_set_color(console_state & con_st, console_color_t color);
 bool console_readline(console_state & con_st, std::string & line);
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index 47b418d972bbc..3d948506c2c0c 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
     // (note for later: this is a slightly awkward choice)
     con_st.use_color = params.use_color;
     con_st.multiline_input = params.multiline_input;
-    console_init(con_st);
+    console_init(con_st, params.disable_tty);
     atexit([]() { console_cleanup(con_st); });
 
     if (params.perplexity) {