tui-fundamentals

Q: How do I install tui-fundamentals?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/josiahsiegel/claude-plugin-marketplace --skill tui-fundamentals in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/tui-fundamentals/ (personal) or .claude/skills/tui-fundamentals/ (project).

by josiahsiegelFrontend & Design

This skill should be used when the user asks to design, create, choose, modernize, or review a terminal UI, text user interface, curses app, dashboard, wizard, REPL shell, prompt flow, or CLI with interactive screens. PROACTIVELY activate for: TUI architecture, terminal-ui design, framework selection, curses vs modern framework, full-screen vs inline UI, app state modeling, widget composition, command palette, keyboard-first workflow, terminal dashboard, interactive CLI UX, and cross-platform terminal product planning. Provides: architecture patterns, framework decision rules, UX guardrails, scope boundaries, and production readiness checklists.

Installs: 279
Last 24h: —
Trending rank: —
Security: Not audited

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/josiahsiegel/claude-plugin-marketplace --skill tui-fundamentals

01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads tui-fundamentals automatically when relevant.
03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

TUI Fundamentals, Architecture, and Framework Selection

Use this skill when the task is about the shape of the terminal product: what kind of TUI to build, which abstraction to use, how to organize state, or whether a full-screen terminal UI is the right answer.

First decision: is a TUI appropriate?

Prefer a rich TUI when users need continuous visual feedback, multi-step navigation, keyboard-driven exploration, selection among many items, or a dashboard-like control surface. Prefer a line-oriented CLI, prompts, or plain output when the flow is short, scriptable, primarily automation-focused, or likely to be used by screen readers and CI systems.

A production terminal product often ships both:

A scriptable CLI surface for automation, accessibility, logs, and non-TTY use.
An optional TUI for exploration, monitoring, bulk selection, or guided workflows.

Architecture rules

Separate model, update, and view. Business state should not print directly to the terminal. Rendering consumes state; input produces events; update logic transforms state.
Treat terminal size as input. Layout must be recomputed from width and height on every resize. Never bake in one terminal size.
Own terminal lifecycle in one place. Raw mode, alternate screen, mouse, focus, keyboard protocols, and cleanup should be centralized.
Make every action keyboard-operable. Mouse support is an enhancement, not the primary navigation model.
Design for degradation. TERM=dumb, non-TTY output, missing color, Windows console differences, tmux/screen, SSH, and CI should have clear behavior.
Avoid hidden global terminal writes. Logs, progress, and background task output must not corrupt the screen.

Framework selection quick matrix

Need	Strong default
Rust full-screen app with precise rendering	Ratatui + Crossterm
Python product-grade app with widgets, CSS, async workers	Textual
Python rich output, progress, tables, markdown, logs	Rich
Python REPL, shell, completions, complex prompt input	prompt_toolkit
Classic dependency-light Unix TUI	curses/ncurses
Go Elm-style app with composable commands	Bubble Tea + Bubbles + Lip Gloss
Go batteries-included forms/tables/tree views	tview over tcell
Go portable low-level cell engine	tcell
React-style terminal components in Node	Ink
Node DOM-like full-screen widgets	Blessed
.NET full-screen views	Terminal.Gui
.NET rich CLI output and prompts	Spectre.Console

Read references/framework-selection.md before committing to a framework in a new project.

Product design checklist

Define the primary user journey in one sentence.
Decide whether the app is full-screen, inline, prompt-based, or hybrid.
List required environments: Windows Terminal, classic conhost, macOS Terminal, iTerm2, GNOME Terminal, Alacritty, SSH, tmux/screen, CI, and logs.
Define minimum terminal dimensions and the small-screen fallback.
Define exit keys, destructive confirmation rules, and recovery instructions.
Define non-interactive equivalents for every essential action.
Decide how help is exposed: footer hints, ?, command palette, --help, docs.

Failure modes

Building a full-screen UI for a workflow that should be scriptable.
Choosing a low-level escape-sequence approach when a framework already solves layout, input, cleanup, and testing.
Mixing business logic with terminal writes, making tests brittle and rendering inconsistent.
Ignoring screen-reader users, CI, pipes, and TERM=dumb until late.
Assuming color, Unicode icons, Nerd Fonts, or mouse support are always available.

Reference files

references/framework-selection.md - Detailed ecosystem comparison and decision tree.
references/tui-architecture.md - State, event, lifecycle, logging, and distribution patterns.

FAQ

What does the tui-fundamentals skill do?

How do I install tui-fundamentals?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/josiahsiegel/claude-plugin-marketplace --skill tui-fundamentals in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/tui-fundamentals/ (personal) or .claude/skills/tui-fundamentals/ (project).

Which AI agents can use tui-fundamentals?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is tui-fundamentals safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains tui-fundamentals?

It is published by josiahsiegel in josiahsiegel/claude-plugin-marketplace. It has 279 recorded installs.