TUI Apps ToolingRich terminal UIs with keyboard-driven interfaces
Terminal User Interfaces bring dashboard-style interactivity to the terminal — no web server needed. We build TUIs in Rust (Ratatui), Go (Bubble Tea), or Python (Textual) for internal tools, monitoring dashboards, and developer utilities.
Terminal User Interfaces (TUIs) bring dashboard-style interactivity to the terminal — tables, charts, input fields, and keyboard navigation without a web server. TUIs are built in Rust (Ratatui), Go (Bubble Tea), or Python (Textual) for internal tools, monitoring dashboards, and developer utilities. TUIs are ideal for power users who live in the terminal — system monitoring, log viewers, database browsers, and configuration tools that need rich interaction but not a web UI. They deploy as single binaries and work over SSH.
Quick start
# Rust TUI with Ratatui
cargo init my-tui
cargo add ratatui crossterm
# Go TUI with Bubble Tea
go mod init my-tui
go get github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea
# Python TUI with Textual
pip install textual
textual run my_app.pyRead the full documentation at ratatui.rs/
Ratatui (Rust)
Ratatui renders reactive TUIs via crossterm — tables, charts, and input widgets at native speed.
Bubble Tea (Go)
Elm-inspired TUI framework for Go — single-binary, cross-platform, with composable components.
Textual (Python)
CSS-styled terminal apps with Textual — familiar styling model, hot-reload during development.
Real-time dashboards
Live system metrics, log streaming, and status boards — useful diagnostics without a web browser.
Keyboard-first UX
Designed for power users — vim-style keybindings, modal navigation, and no mouse required.
Embeddable in CLIs
Add a TUI mode to existing CLIs — launch the dashboard UI when no arguments are passed.
Why it's hard
Terminal compatibility
Different terminals (iTerm2, Windows Terminal, tmux) support different capabilities. Testing across terminals and handling fallbacks for missing features is important.
Layout complexity
Terminal UIs work in a character grid, not a pixel grid. Complex layouts require careful constraint-based sizing and handling terminal resize events.
Input handling across platforms
Keyboard input varies between terminals and operating systems. Libraries like crossterm (Rust) and termbox (Go) abstract these differences but edge cases exist.
Best practices
Use Elm architecture for state management
Bubble Tea (Go) and Ratatui (Rust) both use an Elm-inspired model-update-view pattern — clean separation of state, logic, and rendering.
Design for keyboard-first interaction
TUI users expect vim-style keybindings, modal navigation, and no mouse requirement — design your interaction model around the keyboard.
Handle terminal resize gracefully
Users resize terminals constantly. Your TUI must re-layout on resize events without losing state or crashing.
Frequently asked questions
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