HQTUI — Terminal UI for TypeScript, Rust, Go, Python and Zig

High Quality Terminal UI for TypeScript, Rust, Go, Python, Zig and C++

v0.7.0 · 10 language demos · MIT

Terminal dashboards thatlook like they took months

btop-grade dashboards with a one-import API. Own the terminal directly, render only what changed, and make beautiful graphics a first-class primitive.

New: native Rust, Go, Python and Zig ports

New: 370 icons and 3,963 emoji, built in

See it running, right now

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system typescript

Or add it to your project

$ bun add @profullstack/hqtui

Choose your language Star on GitHub

hqtui-demo — dashboard

HQTUI dashboard: CPU, memory, network and processes

A screenshot of hqtui-demo on a laptop, reading its own sensors. Not a mockup.

0.29 ms

TypeScript: 10% changed frame

runtime dependencies

30+

widgets

built-in themes

One terminal UI, ten language demos

Build in TypeScript or use a native Rust, Go, Python or Zig implementation. C++ now has a native ten-screen demo over the shared C rendering core, with an experimental library API. Ruby, PHP and Perl add experimental bindings to that same engine, with APIs for your own CLI applications. COBOL links against nothing at all: it writes fixed-width records that an adapter renders, which is how a language with no binding can still draw a Braille chart. The native demos need no JavaScript runtime.

Every command checks latest main, builds in a private cache, and runs it. No manual clone or pull. Vanilla uses your installed toolchain; mise uses the pinned toolchain. C++ uses pinned CMake with your installed GCC/Clang. Git and curl are required; the first build takes longer.

Ruby

Ruby bindings with a batched widget API. The shared C/C++ demo engine runs inside your language runtime; not an independent port.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system ruby

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise ruby

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

PHP

PHP bindings with a batched widget API. The shared C/C++ demo engine runs inside your language runtime; not an independent port.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system php

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise php

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

Perl

Perl bindings with a batched widget API. The shared C/C++ demo engine runs inside your language runtime; not an independent port.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system perl

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise perl

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

C++

Native C++17 demo over the shared C renderer. Experimental library API; requires GCC/Clang and CMake.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system cpp

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise cpp

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

TypeScript

The reference implementation. Runs on Bun, Node and Deno.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system typescript

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise typescript --sim

Latest source, built with Bun. Interactive — press q to quit.

Get started

Rust

Native Rust with explicit ownership and interaction IDs.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system rust

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise rust

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

Go

Native Go with callbacks that close over your application state.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system go

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise go

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

Python

Native Python with callbacks and compact array-backed cell storage.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system python

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise python

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

Zig

Native Zig 0.16 with explicit context and arena-managed frames.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system zig

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --mise zig

Interactive — press q to quit, or add --snapshot for headless output.

Get started

COBOL

Writes 80-column records that a TypeScript or Rust adapter renders. Needs GnuCOBOL; there is no mise package for it, so this one is --system only.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system cobol

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system cobol

Latest source, built with Bun. Interactive — press q to quit.

Get started

Shared conformance fixtures check cells, colors and escape bytes across implementations. Read the launch article.

Start with TypeScript

createApp() already gives you a dark theme, truecolor with automatic fallback, mouse tracking, the alternate screen, resize handling, adaptive frame pacing, and a terminal that is restored no matter how your process dies.

No configuration required to look good
30 fps adaptive, 15 fps over SSH, 0 fps when idle
Degrades to 256/16 colours and ASCII automatically

hello.ts

import { createApp } from "@profullstack/hqtui";

const app = await createApp();

app.render(({ ui }) => {
  ui.panel({ title: "Hello" }, (panel) => {
    panel.text("Hello, terminal.");
  });
});

await app.start();

Everything a dashboard needs

The rendering pipeline is deliberately simple: application state, layout, widgets, framebuffer, diff, batched output. Nothing in between.

Differential rendering

Four typed arrays hold the screen. Each frame is diffed against the last and only changed runs are written, with a model of the terminal's pen so no escape sequence is repeated.

Zero dependencies

The TypeScript library has zero runtime dependencies. The Rust, Go, Python and Zig ports use only their standard libraries. No ncurses, browser DOM or React.

Braille graphics

Every cell is a 2x4 pixel matrix, so a 40x10 panel plots at 80x40 resolution. Falls back to block elements, then ASCII, when the terminal cannot keep up.

Layout that solves itself

Rows, columns and grids with spans. Sizes are 12, "40%", "2fr", auto, or min/max. No manual coordinate arithmetic in application code.

Dark by default

Nine built-in themes and truecolor that quantizes automatically to 256 or 16 colours. NO_COLOR, monochrome and high-contrast modes are first class.

Real input handling

Normalized keys with modifiers, SGR mouse with drag and scroll, bracketed paste, focus events, and Tab traversal that works without wiring anything up.

Actually testable

A headless renderer returns text, ANSI, HTML or a cell grid. Assert on what the screen says without a TTY, a PTY, or a screenshot diff.

Restores your terminal

Ctrl+C, SIGTERM, an uncaught exception or a rejected promise: the alternate screen, cursor, raw mode and mouse tracking all go back the way they were.

Thirty widgets, one API

Panels, tables, trees, logs, meters, gauges, donuts, sparklines, graphs, tabs, modals, command palettes and every input control — all sized by the same layout engine, all themeable, all testable.

components

Icons and emoji, built in

370 icons and 3,963 emoji ship with HQTUI and are on by default. Each draws the best thing your terminal can show: a Nerd Font glyph, a Unicode symbol, or plain ASCII, so a status bar never turns into boxes over SSH.

OpenIcon 370 icons

the spec

icon()	Nerd Font	Unicode	ASCII
"mail"	󰇰	✉	@
"phone"	󰷰	☎	tel
"link"	󰌹	🔗	~
"search"	󰍉	🔍	?
"settings"	󰒓	⚙	*
"terminal"	󰆍	⌨	>_
"git-branch"		⎇	Y
"bell"	󰂜	🔔	(!)

Simple

OpenEmoji 3,963 emoji

the spec

emoji()	emoji mode	text mode
"fire"	🔥	[fire]
"smile"	😄	:D
"heart"	❤️	<3
"+1"	👍	+1

Put the OpenEmoji artwork in the terminal itself: install the colour font and point fontconfig, Kitty or WezTerm at it. Kitty, Ghostty, iTerm2 and WezTerm can also draw the high-resolution PNGs inline.

$ bunx @profullstack/hqtui fonts install

icons-and-emoji.ts

import { icon, emoji, emojify } from "@profullstack/hqtui";

icon("mail");      // the Nerd Font glyph, "✉" in Unicode, "@" in ASCII
icon("github");    // brands too: Nerd glyph, "🐙", "gh"

emoji("rocket");   // "🚀", or "[rocket]" where emoji cannot render
emoji("+1");       // aliases and shortcodes: "👍"
emojify("ship it :oe_rocket: :fire:");

Two open specs, one import

Both sets follow open specifications on LogicSRC, so a set someone else draws works with the same calls. The same functions exist in the Go, Python and Rust ports.

OpenIcon spec
An icon set as a folder, with three terminal glyphs per icon
OpenEmoji spec
An emoji set as a folder that says what drew it
All 370 icons
Search, filter, Simple and HQ, Nerd/Unicode/ASCII views
All 3,963 emoji
Search, skin tones, and install packs for 22 networks
API docs: icons and emoji. Sets: openicon, openemoji.

Dark by default

Nine themes ship in the box, and every one of these previews is a live frame from the renderer. Vote for your favourite — the tally lives in SQLite.

theme: dark

Fast by construction

The screen is one grid of cells in four typed arrays. Nothing allocates per cell in a hot path. Frames are diffed and only the changed runs are written, merged across short clean gaps because rewriting five cells is cheaper than an escape sequence.

Changing CPU 72% to CPU 73% writes a single character.

160x50 (8,000 cells) · bun 1.4 · linux x64 · reproduce with bun run bench

Benchmark	Mean	Output
Idle frame (0% changed)	0.068 ms	no output written
1% of cells changed	0.140 ms	627 bytes/frame
10% of cells changed	0.291 ms	2,639 bytes/frame
50% of cells changed	0.904 ms	8,253 bytes/frame
Full 160x50 repaint	0.393 ms	8,000 cells
Six-panel dashboard build	0.425 ms	layout + widgets + diff

Run it on your machine

The reference dashboard reads real metrics on Linux, macOS and Windows with no native dependencies, or runs a deterministic simulation so screenshots and benchmarks are reproducible.

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system typescript

$ curl -fsSL https://hqtui.com/demo.sh | sh -s -- --system typescript --sim

Ten screens: dashboard, sessions, network, traffic, services, components, graphics, themes, input visualizer, stress test.

hqtui-demo — traffic

HQTUI traffic screen reading a live machine

HQTUI — High Quality Terminal UI for TypeScript, Rust, Go, Python, Zig and C++

One terminal UI, ten language demos

Start with TypeScript

Everything a dashboard needs

Thirty widgets, one API

Icons and emoji, built in

OpenIcon 370 icons

OpenEmoji 3,963 emoji

Two open specs, one import

Dark by default

Fast by construction

Run it on your machine