cool-retro-term

hqtui is a TypeScript terminal UI library developed by profullstack for building btop-style dashboards with a one-import API and zero runtime dependencies. It renders directly through ANSI/VT sequences using a typed-array cell framebuffer, differential rendering, truecolor with automatic 256- and 16-color fallback, and Braille or block graphics, without ncurses, a browser DOM, React, native add-ons, or network access. Its API provides layouts, panels, tables, trees, logs, meters, graphs, forms, dialogs, themes, mouse input, and responsive terminal handling. A headless renderer can produce text, screen, ANSI, or HTML output for testing without a TTY. Bun is the default runtime; Node 22.6 or newer is supported, with best-effort Deno support. The project is MIT-licensed and includes a demo dashboard with real or simulated system metrics.

lolcat is a command-line utility that prints terminal output with a colored gradient. It supports configurable gradient settings and an animation mode that renders output line by line. The project is distributed for Linux through Snap and for macOS through Homebrew.

terminal-code is a command-line tool that runs the VS Code interface inside a terminal. It combines terminal-browser, a browser rendered in the terminal, with code-server, which provides VS Code in a browser; the terminal renderer uses the Kitty graphics protocol to draw the interface. The `tode` command opens folders or files, supports workspace, split-pane, diff, extension, theme, source-control review, and timing options, can serve or shut down code-server, and supports importing settings from compatible editors. Its SSH mode keeps the VS Code frontend local while running the backend remotely, proxying network requests over SSH. It can manage code-server installations and upgrades. It is distributed for macOS and Linux through an installation script; Windows is supported only through a compatible terminal and Linux under WSL, without an official Windows build.

Shitty is a terminal emulator for macOS and Linux/Wayland, built for low latency, fast startup, and predictable resource use. It keeps terminal state on the CPU and renders changed cells with native compute backends: Metal on macOS and Vulkan on Linux. It supports VT52 through VT5xx and ECMA-48 controls, ISO-2022 character sets, common xterm extensions, primary and alternate screens, scrollback reflow, hyperlinks, shell marks, mouse and keyboard input, resizing, HiDPI and fractional Wayland scaling, and Unicode 17 grapheme clusters including emoji sequences and wide CJK characters. Resize frames are rendered in the same transaction as bounds changes, and updates are damage-driven. The project provides native macOS and Linux/Wayland frontends as a small self-contained binary with embedded fonts. Its README describes more than 5,000 black-box tests driven through a real PTY, a fuzzed parser state machine, and a default security model that prevents applications from reading selections or controlling the host window unless explicitly permitted. The same terminal code is also distributed under the user-facing name Pretty.