Ratatui (ˌræ.təˈtu.i) is a Rust crate for cooking up terminal user interfaces (TUIs). It provides a simple and flexible way to create text-based user interfaces in the terminal, which can be used for command-line applications, dashboards, and other interactive console programs.

Quickstart

Ratatui has templates available to help you get started quickly. You can use the [cargo-generate] command to create a new project with Ratatui:

cargo install --locked cargo-generate
cargo generate ratatui/templates

Selecting the Hello World template produces the following application:

use color_eyre::Result;
use crossterm::event::{self, Event};
use ratatui::{DefaultTerminal, Frame};

fn main() -> Result<()> {
    color_eyre::install()?;
    let terminal = ratatui::init();
    let result = run(terminal);
    ratatui::restore();
    result
}

fn run(mut terminal: DefaultTerminal) -> Result<()> {
    loop {
        terminal.draw(render)?;
        if matches!(event::read()?, Event::Key(_)) {
            break Ok(());
        }
    }
}

fn render(frame: &mut Frame) {
    frame.render_widget("hello world", frame.area());
}

Documentation

• Docs - the full API documentation for the library on docs.rs.
• Ratatui Website - explains the library's concepts and provides step-by-step tutorials.
• Ratatui Forum - a place to ask questions and discuss the library.
• Widget Examples - a collection of examples that demonstrate how to use the library.
• App Examples - a collection of more complex examples that demonstrate how to build apps.
• ARCHITECTURE.md - explains the crate organization and modular workspace structure.
• Changelog - generated by git-cliff utilizing Conventional Commits.
• Breaking Changes - a list of breaking changes in the library.

You can also watch the EuroRust 2024 talk to learn about common concepts in Ratatui and what's possible to build with it.

Templates

If you're looking to get started quickly, you can use one of the available templates from the templates repository using [cargo-generate]:

cargo generate ratatui/templates

Embedded and no_std

Ratatui also runs on no_std targets such as microcontrollers, using a backend like Mousefood. Turning off default features also turns off the layout cache, which matters most on these targets, so enable it again and size it for the device:

ratatui = { version = "0.30", default-features = false, features = ["layout-cache"] }

See Using Ratatui without std in the docs for details.

Built with Ratatui

Check out the showcase section of the website, or the awesome-ratatui repository for a curated list of awesome apps and libraries built with Ratatui!

Alternatives

• Cursive - a ncurses-based TUI library.
• iocraft - a declarative TUI library.

Contributing

Feel free to join our Discord server for discussions and questions! There is also a Matrix bridge available at #ratatui:matrix.org. We have also recently launched the Ratatui Forum.

We rely on GitHub for bugs and feature requests.

Please make sure you read the contributing guidelines before creating a pull request. We accept AI generated code, but please read the AI Contributions guidelines to ensure compliance.

If you'd like to show your support, you can add the Ratatui badge to your project's README:

[![Built With Ratatui](https://img.shields.io/badge/Built_With_Ratatui-000?logo=ratatui&logoColor=fff)](https://ratatui.rs/)

Acknowledgements

Ratatui was forked from the tui-rs crate in 2023 in order to continue its development. None of this could be possible without Florian Dehau who originally created tui-rs which inspired many Rust TUIs.

Special thanks to Pavel Fomchenkov for his work in designing an awesome logo for the Ratatui project and organization.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.