@cssints/tui

Deprecated (2026-10-21). The replacement is the terminal/ target of native/ in this repository (native/terminal): cssints/clay styles, laid out by Clay and drawn into character cells on termbox2, with the keyboard focus layer in C. The package still works and is still published; importing it prints one warning ("@cssints/tui is deprecated: …"). The registry marks the version deprecated when the release runs npm deprecate (see RELEASING.md).

What carries over: styles as data (a styles.ts module, no sheet and no cascade), tokens and named themes (the static dark and light ones), and the state names (:hover, :active, :focus) as overlays. What does not: OpenTUI and bomb.sh, the run-time setTheme and the system theme, hover (termbox2 reports no motion), images, a body that wraps, wide glyphs and emoji, floating overlays, sub-cell borders and radii. native/docs/map.md step 6 is the full account.

cd ../../native
sh terminal/build.sh                    # styles.ts -> generator/clay-header.ts -> styles.h, then cc -> terminal/demo
./terminal/demo                         # the Sensors page in cells: Tab, Up/Down, Space, t, q
./terminal/demo --page sky              # apps/csssky-tui's feed; enter opens the thread
./terminal/demo --page profile          # apps/csssky's profile, the screen the tui never had
./terminal/demo --dump out.txt          # one frame headless, '.' is a fill
./terminal/demo --keys Tab,ArrowDown --dump out.txt   # a frame after each key

The rest of this file describes the deprecated package: cssints in a terminal, the runtime of cssints/tui styles (states, the mouse pointer, the caret, themes) and its adapters for OpenTUI and @bomb.sh/tty. The styles are written with cssints/tui, which the cssints Vite plugin compiles to prop objects; this package puts them on renderables. The design is in docs/research/tui.md.

// styles.ts
import * as css from "cssints/tui" with { type: "cssints" };

export const t = css.createTokens({
  color: { $type: "color", bg: { $value: "#1e1e2e" }, accent: { $value: "#89b4fa" } },
});
css.createGlobalTheme(t, "light", { color: { bg: "#eff1f5", accent: "#1e66f5" } });

export const button = css.cn(
  css.border("rounded", "#585b70"),
  css.p(0, 1),
  css.bg(t.color.bg),
  css.cursor("pointer"),
  css.hover(css.borderColor(t.color.accent)),
  css.active(css.borderStyle("double")),
);

The plugin replaces button by:

export const button = {
  border: true,
  borderStyle: "rounded",
  borderColor: "#585b70",
  paddingTop: 0,
  paddingRight: 1,
  paddingBottom: 0,
  paddingLeft: 1,
  backgroundColor: "#1e1e2e",
  cursor: "pointer",
  ":hover": { borderColor: "#89b4fa" },
  ":active": { border: true, borderStyle: "double" },
  themes: { light: { backgroundColor: "#eff1f5", ":hover": { borderColor: "#1e66f5" } } },
  vars: { backgroundColor: "color-bg", ":hover": { borderColor: "color-accent" } }, // for a run-time theme
};

import { attach, setTheme, use } from "@cssints/tui/opentui";

<box {...use(button)}>
  <text>Save</text>
</box>; // Solid or React
<text {...use(() => (active() ? tabActive : tab))}>Home</text>; // a style that changes
attach(new BoxRenderable(renderer, {}), button); // core
setTheme("light"); // every attached renderable

Rules

• attach(renderable, style) sets the props of the style and keeps them in step with :hover (mouse over to out), :active (down to up) and :focus (focused to blurred; a box needs focusable: true), in that order of precedence, and with the theme of setTheme. Your own onMouseOver and the other handlers still run.
• cursor is the mouse pointer while over the renderable (renderer.setMousePointer, OSC 22), "default" again on out. caretShape, caretColor and caretAnimation are the cursorStyle and cursorColor of an Input or a Textarea.
• color is OpenTUI's fg; backgroundColor is backgroundColor on a box and bg on a text; the text attributes (fontWeight, fontStyle, textDecoration) are the bits of attributes. A prop the renderable does not have is not set, so a text style on a box does nothing: put it on the <text>. On an editable or a select, color is textColor.
• A focused renderable draws colours of its own: focusedBorderColor on a box (also while a descendant has the focus), focusedBackgroundColor and focusedTextColor on an editable or a select. Each one follows the style's colour in the current state, so a focused box draws its :focus border.
• attach on a renderable it has attached swaps the style: the states, the theme and the hooks stay, a prop only the old style set goes back to the renderable's own value, and under the mouse the pointer follows the new cursor. use(() => style) re-reads the accessor each time the ref runs: Solid runs a ref in a render effect, so a signal the accessor reads swaps the style; React calls the new ref of each render.
• A text node (<span>, <a>, <b>) takes the props and the theme. It has no mouse events and no focus, so it has no states: put :hover on the <text> around it.
• resolve(style, state, theme) of @cssints/tui is the renderer-neutral part: the props of a style in a state and a theme, for another adapter.

The system theme

A theme computed at run time from the terminal's own colours: each colour token is a role, a hue source (an ANSI colour, or the terminal's fg/bg) and contrast rules against the tokens it sits on.

// theme.ts: run time, not a cssints module
import { createSystemTheme } from "@cssints/tui/system";

import { t } from "./styles.ts";

export const system = createSystemTheme(
  t,
  {
    color: {
      bg: { surface: true }, // the terminal's background
      card: { surface: true, on: [t.color.bg], contrast: 1.1 }, // a panel 1.1:1 from it
      text: { hue: "fg", on: [t.color.bg, t.color.card], contrast: 7 },
      accent: { hue: "blue", on: [t.color.bg, t.color.card], contrast: 3 },
    },
  },
  { hues: { blue: "#89b4fa" }, themes: { light: "light" } },
);

// OpenTUI
import { followSystemTheme } from "@cssints/tui/opentui";

const renderer = await createCliRenderer();
await followSystemTheme(renderer, system); // the palette, or 100 ms; sets the theme "system"

• A role. hue (default fg, bg for a surface), on (tokens with a role), contrast (WCAG 2). A text role keeps its source colour when it meets every rule, else takes the lightness of the strictest one: the reversed WCAG ratio, bisected in OKHSL at the source's hue and saturation (the saturation falls off toward black and white), the OKLCH chroma capped at the source's, so a colour can move but never get more vivid. A surface sits at exactly contrast from its first on, toward the foreground. ansi: the index (or "default") to draw when the terminal reports nothing.
• What the terminal reports. Its background, foreground and ANSI colours: every role from its colour, placed for the real background. Its background only: the app's hues (options.hues). Nothing: on OpenTUI, ANSI indices and the terminal's default colours (ansi:4, default, which the adapter turns into RGBA.fromIndex and RGBA.defaultForeground); on bomb.sh (no indexed colour) the static theme of the appearance.
• Light or dark: the background (darker than the foreground), else the colour-scheme report (CSI ? 997 ; 1|2 n, or OpenTUI's themeMode), else COLORFGBG, else dark. options.themes names the static theme under each: a token without a role keeps its value.
• Changes. OpenTUI turns on mode 2031 and emits theme_mode and palette; the follower rebuilds on both. On bomb.sh the follower writes CSI ? 2031 h and queries again on a notification; stop() turns it off.
• theme.solve(report) gives the values of a report ({ fg, bg, ansi, scheme }) without applying them; defineTheme(name, values, base) of @cssints/tui is the run-time table it fills (a colour per token name, color-bg for var(--color-bg)), for a theme of your own.

@bomb.sh/tty

bomb.sh draws a frame from a list of ops (open, text, close) and returns the pointer events of that frame. The adapter @cssints/tui/bomb turns a style, in the state of its element id, into the options of open() and text(), and its tracker keeps the states across frames:

import { close, createTerm } from "@bomb.sh/tty";
import { createTracker, setTheme } from "@cssints/tui/bomb";

const term = await createTerm({ width: 80, height: 24 });
const ui = createTracker();
const build = () => [
  ui.open("save", button), // open("save", options of `button` in the state of "save")
  ui.text("Save", label, "save"), // text("Save", options of `label` in the state of "save")
  close(),
];
// each mouse event: the pointer is { x, y, down }
process.stdout.write(ui.render(term, build, { pointer }).output);
setTheme("light"); // the next frame takes the light values
process.stdout.write(ui.reset()); // on exit: the default pointer and caret

• ui.render(term, build, options) renders build(), reads the pointerenter/pointerleave events and, when a state changed, renders build() again, so a hover shows in the same frame. output holds both frames and the escape bytes of the pointer and the caret. The events of both frames are in events (pointerclick for a click).
• :hover is on from pointerenter to pointerleave (an element and its ancestors, as Clay reports them); :active is on from a press (pointer.down becomes true) over the element to the release or a leave; :focus is the id given to ui.focus(id) (bomb.sh has no focus of its own).
• cursor is the mouse pointer (OSC 22) of the innermost hovered element that has one, default when there is none. The caret of the focused element is DECSCUSR (caretShape, caretAnimation) and OSC 12 (caretColor); its place is the caret option of text(), which is yours. ui.reset() gives the terminal its pointer and caret back.
• openProps(props) and textProps(props) are the plain mapping of resolve() (no tracker): a number is fixed(n), N% is percent, auto is fit, flexGrow is grow on each axis with no size, min*/max* are the bounds of fit and grow, flexDirection is direction, justifyContent and alignItems are alignX and alignY (by the direction), borderStyle: "rounded" is a cornerRadius of 1, overflow is clip, position: "absolute" is floating on the parent, display: "none" is a box of size 0 that clips. The full table, and what does not map, is in docs/research/tui.md.
• What bomb.sh cannot draw: double and heavy borders are a single line (bomb.sh has one line set and round corners), margins (wrap the element in a parent with padding), flexShrink, flexBasis, flexWrap, the -reverse directions (drawn forward), space-*, stretch and baseline alignment, alignSelf, opacity, percentages of padding and gap, scroll offsets (overflow: scroll clips), zIndex without position: absolute. They are left out at run time; the build cannot tell, since the same style may go to OpenTUI.
• Transitions are not a cssints/tui member: give bomb.sh's transition as the last argument of ui.open and render again while animating.
• The system theme: followSystemTheme(system, { write }) writes the queries (OSC 10, 11, 4, CSI ? 996 n, mode 2031); pass each chunk of stdin through follow.feed(bytes), which takes the replies out and returns the rest for input.scan() (bomb.sh's parser does not report OSC replies). await follow.ready: the replies or 100 ms.

const follow = followSystemTheme(system, { write: (s) => process.stdout.write(s) });
process.stdin.on("data", (bytes) => dispatch(input.scan(follow.feed(bytes)).events));
await follow.ready;

Limits

No terminal HMR, no inheritance of text styles, no per-side borders or titles (the renderable's own options), no units or calc(). See "Out of scope" in docs/research/tui.md.

Credits

The adapter is for OpenTUI (MIT). No code of it is copied.

Tests

bun run test        # node test/system.ts (the solver on Gruvbox dark, Catppuccin Latte and Nord, the fallbacks, the replies
                    # as bytes, the bomb.sh follower), node test/tui.mjs (the plugin: dev transform, SSR build, errors),
                    # bun test/render.ts (OpenTUI's test renderer; the system theme on a fake terminal that answers OSC 4/10/11),
                    # node test/bomb.ts (bomb.sh's renderer at 30x8, the cells read back from its output)
bun run example     # examples/bomb.ts: a list with hover, press and click, `t` swaps the theme, `q` quits
bun run typecheck   # src and test/types/tui.ts (what the types reject)