XenoAtom.Terminal

XenoAtom.Terminal is a modern replacement for System.Console designed for TUI/CLI apps: serialized output, rich ANSI/markup rendering, unified input events, and deterministic tests.

🚀 Quick start

using XenoAtom.Terminal;

Terminal.WriteLine("Hello");
Terminal.WriteMarkup("[bold green]Hello[/] [gray]world[/]!");

✨ Features

• Console-compatible API surface: Title, cursor, window, ReadKey/ReadLine-style workflows
• Output (ANSI-safe):
  • Serialized writers prevent interleaved escape sequences across threads
  • Atomic writes for multi-step output without tearing
  • Markup + ANSI styling (powered by XenoAtom.Ansi)
  • Custom markup tokens via Terminal.MarkupStyles / Terminal.SetMarkupStyle
  • Graphics capability detection via Terminal.Graphics and optional image output through XenoAtom.Terminal.Graphics (Kitty, iTerm2, Sixel), including direct-output fallback text, optional cell reservation, encoded image caching, Sixel RGB332 fast palette mode, and real-time frame source notifications
• Input (unified events):
  • Single event stream for keys, text, mouse, resize, signals
  • Extended key modifiers through native Windows console input or probed Kitty keyboard protocol (Terminal.Capabilities.SupportsExtendedKeys / ExtendedKeyProtocol)
  • Async + cancellation-friendly APIs for TUI loops
• Interactive ReadLine editor:
  • Cursor movement, mid-line insert/delete, word navigation/delete
  • Grapheme cluster-aware editing (emoji/ZWJ/combining sequences)
  • Undo/redo + reverse incremental history search
  • Selection by keyboard (Shift) and mouse click/drag
  • History stored on the TerminalReadLineOptions instance (shareable, not global)
  • Completion + extensibility via custom key/mouse handlers (TerminalReadLineController)
  • Clipboard-friendly shortcuts (Ctrl+C/Ctrl+X/Ctrl+V) when available
  • Readable control-char helpers via TerminalChar (e.g. TerminalChar.CtrlC)
  • Gesture formatting/parsing via TerminalKeyGesture (e.g. CTRL+R)
  • Styled prompt (PromptMarkup) + custom line rendering (MarkupRenderer)
• Scopes + state management:
  • Reliable scopes: alternate screen, raw/cbreak mode, bracketed paste, mouse reporting, hide cursor
  • State tracking: style/colors/decorations, title, cursor position/visibility, window size
• Clipboard: cross-platform text plus named clipboard formats (for example PNG images), including OSC 52 text fallback for remote shells
• CI + testing:
  • CI-aware backend keeps colors when output is redirected
  • In-memory backend for deterministic tests (capture output, inject events or feed raw VT input)
  • Standalone TerminalInstance instances and thread-local Terminal.UseInstance(...) scopes isolate parallel tests without replacing the global terminal; an opt-in allowOutOfOrderDisposal lets a component end its own scope while nested scopes are active
• Cross-platform + AOT: Windows Console + Unix (Linux/macOS), net10.0+ and NativeAOT-friendly design
• Unix terminfo detection: uses terminfo + environment hints for colors (16/256/truecolor) and related capabilities (alternate screen/cursor visibility)

Screenshot of the interactive sample HelloReadLine demo:

[!NOTE] XenoAtom.Terminal is a terminal API, not a widget/UI framework. It provides safe I/O, terminal state/scopes, and input events; higher-level libraries can build screen buffers, widgets, and layouts on top.

📖 User Guide

For more details on how to use XenoAtom.Terminal, please visit the user guide.

🧪 Sample

• samples/HelloImage displays a small markup header and a sample image with terminal graphics.
• samples/HelloTerminal prints all input events (key/mouse/resize/text/signal) and demonstrates scopes.
• samples/HelloReadLine demonstrates the interactive ReadLine editor (history, selection, completion, and markup rendering).
• samples/LogTerminal prints colored pseudo log lines (timestamp/level/category/message) and is run in CI to validate ANSI output.

🪪 License

This software is released under the BSD-2-Clause license.

🤗 Author

Alexandre Mutel aka xoofx.