drivers

Drivers

Available driver classes

Class	Replaces
textual_drivers.linux_driver.CustomLinuxDriver	textual.drivers.linux_driver.LinuxDriver
textual_drivers.linux_inline_driver.CustomLinuxInlineDriver	textual.drivers.linux_inline_driver.LinuxInlineDriver
textual_drivers.windows_driver.CustomWindowsDriver	textual.drivers.windows_driver.WindowsDriver
textual_drivers.headless_driver.CustomHeadlessDriver	textual.drivers.headless_driver.HeadlessDriver

DrivenApp

The easiest way to get started is DrivenApp, which selects the right driver for the current platform automatically:

from textual_drivers import DrivenApp

class MyApp(DrivenApp):
    ...

MyApp().run()

Manual driver selection

Pass the driver class to App.run() or App.__init__() directly:

import sys
from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import Label

if sys.platform == "win32":
    from textual_drivers.windows_driver import CustomWindowsDriver as Driver
else:
    from textual_drivers.linux_driver import CustomLinuxDriver as Driver


class MyApp(App):
    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Label("Hello!")


MyApp().run(driver_class=Driver)

Using the mixin in your own driver

If you already have a driver subclass, mix in your preferred things before the base driver:

from textual_drivers._mixin import LockStdinMixin, EventHandlerMixin
from textual.drivers.linux_driver import LinuxDriver


class MyDriver(LockStdinMixin, EventHandlerMixin, LinuxDriver):
    ...

Use this approach if your driver already handles platform-specific logic but needs event hooks or stdin locking features.

The mixin must appear before the driver class in the MRO so that __init__ chains correctly via super(). You must also call self._stdin_pause_point() at the start of your input-thread loop for lock_stdin to work.

Feel free to contribute extra mixins for other features.

Headless mode

• lock_stdin() on CustomHeadlessDriver is an immediate no-op — no stdin thread exists in headless mode.
• register_event_handler handlers never fire in headless mode for the same reason.
• CustomWindowsDriver is only importable on Windows.