AppCUI
A fast, cross-platform Rust library for building modern, text-based user interfaces (TUIs) with rich widgets and full Unicode support.
What is AppCUI?
AppCUI-rs is a Rust library for building fast, cross-platform console and text-based user interfaces (TUIs). It provides a low-level console engine for input and rendering combined with a high-level toolkit of rich widgets like windows, menus, buttons, and list views, enabling developers to create modern terminal applications for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Rust developers building terminal-based applications, tools, or utilities that require interactive, graphical-like interfaces within the console, such as system monitors, file managers, or development tools.
Developers choose AppCUI-rs for its rich widget set, cross-platform support, modern features like mouse and clipboard integration, and performance as a Rust-native alternative to traditional frameworks like ncurses.
Overview
AppCUI is a fast, cross-platform console and text-based user interface (CUI/TUI) framework for Rust. It combines a low-level console engine for input (mouse, keyboard, clipboard, etc.), colors, and rendering with a high-level, rich toolkit of widgets such as windows, menus, buttons, checkboxes, and many more, available for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Use Cases
Best For
- Building cross-platform terminal applications with rich graphical widgets
- Creating interactive system administration tools or dashboards
- Developing terminal-based games like Snake, Tetris, or Minesweeper
- Building data visualization tools for the console (e.g., CSV viewers)
- Creating utility applications like calculators, timers, or converters
- Developing prototyping tools or educational demos for TUI concepts
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring simple command-line interfaces without graphical widgets
- Teams prioritizing minimal dependencies and ultra-lightweight frameworks
- Applications needing headless or server-side terminal operations without user interaction
- Developers seeking mature ecosystems with extensive third-party libraries and plugins
Pros & Cons
Pros
Includes a comprehensive range of out-of-the-box controls like buttons, list views, tree views, and date pickers, as demonstrated in the gallery with full demos of all controls.
Supports multiple backends including Windows Console, NCurses for Linux, and Termios for macOS, ensuring consistent behavior across operating systems via feature flags.
Offers mouse support, clipboard integration, true color support, and predefined dialogs, enabling modern terminal applications with enhanced interactivity.
Provides flexible positioning methods such as docking, alignment, and anchors, allowing for complex UI designs without manual coordinate calculations, as detailed in the layout documentation.
Cons
Key features like TextArea with code highlighting are listed on the roadmap but not yet implemented, limiting use for code editors or similar applications.
Requires selecting and configuring backends via feature flags, which can be confusing for newcomers compared to simpler TUI crates with fewer options.
As a newer project, it has fewer community contributions, plugins, and learning resources than established frameworks like ncurses or tui-rs, potentially slowing development.
Open Source Alternative To
AppCUI is an open-source alternative to the following products:
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
ratatui-org/ratatuiA Rust crate for cooking up terminal user interfaces (TUIs) 👨🍳🐀 https://ratatui.rs
clap-rsA full featured, fast Command Line Argument Parser for Rust
indicatifA command line progress reporting library for Rust
CursiveA Text User Interface library for the Rust programming language
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