Building glamorous tuis

Building Glamorous TUIs with Charmbracelet

Quick Router — Start Here

I need to...	Use	Reference
Add prompts/spinners to a shell script	Gum (no Go)	Shell Scripts
Build a Go TUI	Bubble Tea + Lip Gloss	Go TUI
Build a production-grade Go TUI	Above + elite patterns	Production Architecture
Serve a TUI over SSH	Wish + Bubble Tea	Infrastructure
Record a terminal demo	VHS	Shell Scripts
Find a Bubbles component	list, table, viewport, spinner, progress...	Component Catalog
Get a copy-paste pattern	Layouts, forms, animation, testing	Quick Reference / Advanced Patterns

---

Decision Guide

Is it a shell script?
├─ Yes → Use Gum
│        Need recording? → VHS
│        Need AI? → Mods
│
└─ No (Go application)
   │
   ├─ Just styled output? → Lip Gloss only
   ├─ Simple prompts/forms? → Huh standalone
   ├─ Full interactive TUI? → Bubble Tea + Bubbles + Lip Gloss
   │  │
   │  └─ Production-grade?  → Also add elite patterns:
   │     (multi-view, data-    two-phase async, immutable snapshots,
   │      dense, must be       adaptive layout, focus state machine,
   │      fast & polished)     semantic theming, pre-computed styles
   │                           → See Production Architecture reference
   │
   └─ Need SSH access? → Wish + Bubble Tea

---

Shell Scripts (No Go Required)

brew install gum  # One-time install

# Input
NAME=$(gum input --placeholder "Your name")

# Selection
COLOR=$(gum choose "red" "green" "blue")

# Fuzzy filter from stdin
BRANCH=$(git branch | gum filter)

# Confirmation
gum confirm "Continue?" && echo "yes"

# Spinner
gum spin --title "Working..." -- long-command

# Styled output
gum style --border rounded --padding "1 2" "Hello"

Full Gum Reference → VHS Recording → Mods AI →

---

Go Applications

go get github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss

Minimal TUI (Copy & Run)

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    tea "github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea"
    "github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss"
)

var highlight = lipgloss.NewStyle().Foreground(lipgloss.Color("212")).Bold(true)

type model struct {
    items  []string
    cursor int
}

func (m model) Init() tea.Cmd { return nil }

func (m model) Update(msg tea.Msg) (tea.Model, tea.Cmd) {
    switch msg := msg.(type) {
    case tea.KeyMsg:
        switch msg.String() {
        case "q", "ctrl+c":
            return m, tea.Quit
        case "up", "k":
            if m.cursor > 0 { m.cursor-- }
        case "down", "j":
            if m.cursor < len(m.items)-1 { m.cursor++ }
        case "enter":
            fmt.Printf("Selected: %s\n", m.items[m.cursor])
            return m, tea.Quit
        }
    }
    return m, nil
}

func (m model) View() string {
    s := ""
    for i, item := range m.items {
        if i == m.cursor {
            s += highlight.Render("▸ "+item) + "\n"
        } else {
            s += "  " + item + "\n"
        }
    }
    return s + "\n(↑/↓ move, enter select, q quit)"
}

func main() {
    m := model{items: []string{"Option A", "Option B", "Option C"}}
    tea.NewProgram(m).Run()
}

Library Cheat Sheet

Need	Library	Example
TUI framework	bubbletea	tea.NewProgram(model).Run()
Components	bubbles	list.New(), textinput.New()
Styling	lipgloss	style.Foreground(lipgloss.Color("212"))
Forms	huh	huh.NewInput().Title("Name").Run()
Markdown	glamour	glamour.Render(md, "dark")
Animation	harmonica	harmonica.NewSpring()

Full Go TUI Guide → All Bubbles Components → Layout & Animation Patterns →

---

SSH Apps (Infrastructure)

s, _ := wish.NewServer(
    wish.WithAddress(":2222"),
    wish.WithHostKeyPath(".ssh/key"),
    wish.WithMiddleware(
        bubbletea.Middleware(handler),
        logging.Middleware(),
    ),
)
s.ListenAndServe()

Connect: ssh localhost -p 2222

Full Infrastructure Guide →

---

Production TUI Architecture (Elite Patterns)

Beyond basic Bubble Tea: patterns that make TUIs feel fast, polished, and professional. Each links to a full code example in Production Architecture.

My TUI is slow or janky

Symptom	Pattern	Fix
UI blocks during computation	Two-Phase Async	Phase 1 instant, Phase 2 background goroutine
Render path holds mutex	Immutable Snapshots	Pre-build snapshot, atomic pointer swap
File changes cause stutter	Background Worker	Debounced watcher + coalescing
Thousands of allocs per frame	Pre-Computed Styles	Allocate delegate styles once at startup
O(n²) string concat in View()	strings.Builder	Pre-allocated Builder with Grow()
Glamour re-renders every frame	Cached Markdown	Cache by content hash, invalidate on width change
GC pauses during interaction	Idle-Time GC	Trigger GC during idle periods
Large dataset = high memory	Object Pooling	sync.Pool with pre-allocated slices
Rendering off-screen items	Viewport Virtualization	Only render visible rows

My layout breaks on different terminals

Symptom	Pattern	Fix
Hardcoded widths break	Adaptive Layout	3-4 responsive breakpoints (80/100/140/180 cols)
Colors wrong on light terminals	Semantic Theming	lipgloss.AdaptiveColor + WCAG AA contrast
Items have equal priority → list shuffles	Deterministic Sorting	Stable sort with tie-breaking secondary key
Sort mode not visible	Dynamic Status Bar	Left/right segments with gap-fill

My TUI has multiple views and it's getting messy

Symptom	Pattern	Fix
Key routing chaos	Focus State Machine	Explicit focus enum + modal priority layer
User gets lost in nested views	Breadcrumb Navigation	Home > Board > Priority path indicator
Overlay dismiss loses position	Focus Restoration	Save focus before overlay, restore on dismiss
Old async results overwrite new data	Stale Message Detection	Compare data hash before applying results
Multiple component updates per frame	tea.Batch Accumulation	Collect cmds in slice, return tea.Batch(cmds...)
Background goroutine panic kills TUI	Error Recovery	defer/recover wrapper for all goroutines

I want to add data-rich visualizations

Want	Pattern	Code
Bar charts in list columns	Unicode Sparklines	▇▅▂ using 8-level block characters
Color-by-intensity	Perceptual Heatmaps	gray → blue → purple → pink gradient
Dependency graph in terminal	ASCII Graph Renderer	Canvas + Manhattan routing (╭─╮│╰╯)
Age at a glance	Age Color Coding	Fresh=green, aging=yellow, stale=red
Borders that mean something	Semantic Borders	Red=blocked, green=ready, yellow=high-impact

I want my TUI to feel polished and professional

Want	Pattern	Key Idea
Vim-style gg/G	Vim Key Combos	Track waitingForG state between keystrokes
Search without jank	Debounced Search	150ms timer, fire only when typing stops
Search across all fields at once	Composite FilterValue	Flatten all fields into one string
4-line cards with metadata	Rich Delegates	Custom delegate with Height()=4
Expand detail inline	Inline Expansion	Toggle with d, auto-collapse on j/k
Copy to clipboard	Clipboard Integration	y for ID, C for markdown + toast feedback
? / ` / ; help	Multi-Tier Help	Quick ref + tutorial + persistent sidebar
Kanban with mode switching	Kanban Swimlanes	Pre-computed board states, O(1) switch
Collapsible tree with h/l	Tree Navigation	Flatten tree to visible list for j/k nav
Suspend TUI for vim edit	Editor Dispatch	tea.ExecProcess for terminal, background for GUI
Remember expand/collapse	Persistent State	Save to JSON, graceful degradation on corrupt
Tune via env vars	Env Preferences	NO_COLOR, theme, debounce, split ratio
Optional feature missing?	Graceful Degradation	Detect at startup, hide unavailable features

Full Production Architecture Guide →

---

Pre-Flight Checklist (Every TUI)

• Handle tea.WindowSizeMsg — resize all components
• Handle ctrl+c — cleanup, restore terminal state
• Detect piped stdin/stdout — fall back to plain text
• Test on 80×24 minimum terminal
• Provide --no-tui / NO_TUI escape hatch
• Test with both light AND dark backgrounds
• Test with NO_COLOR=1 and TERM=dumb

For production TUIs, see the full checklist (16 must-have + 20 polish items).

---

When NOT to Use Charm

• Output is piped: mytool | grep → plain text
• CI/CD: No terminal → use flags/env vars
• One simple prompt: Maybe fmt.Scanf is fine

Escape hatch:

if !term.IsTerminal(os.Stdin.Fd()) || os.Getenv("NO_TUI") != "" {
    runPlainMode()
    return
}

---

All References

I need...	Read this
Copy-paste one-liners	Quick Reference
Prompts to give Claude for TUI tasks	Prompts
Gum / VHS / Mods / Freeze / Glow	Shell Scripts
Bubble Tea architecture, debugging, anti-patterns	Go TUI
Bubbles component APIs (list, table, viewport...)	Component Catalog
Theming, layouts, animation, Huh forms, testing	Advanced Patterns
Elite patterns: async, snapshots, focus machines, adaptive layout, sparklines, kanban, trees, caching	Production Architecture
Wish SSH server, Soft Serve, teatest	Infrastructure