OpenTUI

Presentation

OpenTUI is an open-source TypeScript library for building terminal user interfaces (TUIs).
It provides a modular and high-performance foundation for creating interactive CLI-based UI components and applications.
OpenTUI aims to serve as the foundational framework for both opencode and terminaldotshop.

This monorepo includes multiple bindings and reconcilers for various frameworks:

• @opentui/core — The standalone core library providing primitives, an imperative API, and renderer.
• @opentui/solid — SolidJS reconciler for OpenTUI.
• @opentui/react — React reconciler for OpenTUI.
• @opentui/vue — Vue reconciler (currently unmaintained).
• @opentui/go — Go bindings (currently unmaintained).

Latest update: feat(core): allow configuring cursor style (commit 5e41a03) on 2025‑11‑05 by Adictya.

License: MIT

Contributors include: kommander, msmps, Adictya, fezproof, remorses, bhushan6, KurtGokhan, and others.

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Installation

Requirement: You must have Zig installed on your system to build the packages.

Using Bun (recommended)

bun install @opentui/core

Quick Start with Template

You can scaffold a new TUI app using create-tui:

bun create tui

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Usage

Running Core Examples (from repo root)

bun install
cd packages/core
bun run src/examples/index.ts

Local Development Linking

Use the link-opentui-dev.sh script to test OpenTUI changes in another project without publishing.

Basic usage:

./scripts/link-opentui-dev.sh /path/to/your/project

Options:

• --react — Link @opentui/react
• --solid — Link @opentui/solid and solid-js
• --dist — Link dist directories instead of source
• --copy — Copy dist output instead of creating symlinks (requires --dist)

Examples:

./scripts/link-opentui-dev.sh /project/path              # Core only
./scripts/link-opentui-dev.sh /project/path --solid      # Link core + solid
./scripts/link-opentui-dev.sh /project/path --react --dist
./scripts/link-opentui-dev.sh /project/path --dist --copy

Notes:

• Target project must have node_modules initialized.
• Source mode enables hot-reloading.
• Use --dist when testing build artifacts.
• Use --copy for symlink-limited environments (e.g. Docker, Windows).

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Main Functions and Classes

Name	File	Description	Inputs	Outputs
Renderable	packages/core/src/Renderable.ts	Base class representing a renderable terminal element.	Props (dimensions, content)	Renderable instance
CliRenderer	packages/core/src/renderer.ts	Main TUI renderer managing the render lifecycle in terminal.	Render tree, target stream	Renders UI in terminal
Timeline	packages/core/src/animation/Timeline.ts	Handles animation sequencing and synchronized transitions.	Keyframes, duration	Animation control object
TextBuffer	packages/core/src/text-buffer.ts	Manages text input and display buffer.	String data	Buffer object
EditorView	packages/core/src/editor-view.ts	Provides a full TUI editor abstraction for text editing.	Input events, buffer	Updated editable content view
KeyHandler	packages/core/src/KeyHandler.ts	Maps and handles keyboard input events.	Key events	Action dispatch
Yoga	packages/core/src/index.ts	Layout engine interface for flexbox-style terminal elements.	Layout nodes	Computed layout
AppContext	packages/react/src/components/app.tsx	Context managing CLI renderer and keyboard handler in React.	React context inputs	Context provider
useAppContext()	packages/react/src/components/app.tsx	React hook exposing the OpenTUI app context.	None	{ keyHandler, renderer }
render()	packages/vue/src/renderer.ts	Vue-specific terminal rendering entry point.	Vue component	Renders TUI app in console
extend()	packages/vue/src/extend.ts	Extends the Vue TUI renderer with custom renderables.	Custom components	Updated renderer registry
opentui.go	packages/go/opentui.go	Go bindings entry point for OpenTUI core.	Go struct definitions	Exposed TUI bindings

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