A fullscreen sci-fi terminal built on Electron, xterm.js and node-pty, managed with Bun. Inspired by the look of eDEX-UI, stripped down to a single, focused thing: a beautiful, real terminal.
No widgets. No system monitor. No tabs. Just a phosphor-green CRT that runs your shell.
paru -S hexshell-bin # or: yay -S hexshell-binThe AUR -bin package wraps the pre-built AppImage. Auto-updates flow through your AUR helper; no Electron rebuild required (which would otherwise take hours and 10+ GB of scratch space).
If you prefer the .pacman directly:
curl -LO https://github.com/hexshell/hexshell/releases/download/v0.1.0/Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.pacman
sudo pacman -U Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.pacmancurl -LO https://github.com/hexshell/hexshell/releases/download/v0.1.0/hexshell_0.1.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./hexshell_0.1.0_amd64.debsudo dnf install https://github.com/hexshell/hexshell/releases/download/v0.1.0/hexshell-0.1.0.x86_64.rpmcurl -LO https://github.com/hexshell/hexshell/releases/download/v0.1.0/Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.AppImage
chmod +x Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.AppImage
./Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.AppImagecurl -LO https://github.com/hexshell/hexshell/releases/download/v0.1.0/Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.tar.xz
sudo tar -xJf Hexshell-0.1.0-x64.tar.xz -C /opt
sudo ln -s /opt/Hexshell/hexshell /usr/local/bin/hexshellARM64 builds (-arm64.AppImage, _arm64.deb, .aarch64.rpm, .aarch64.pacman, -arm64.tar.xz) are published alongside x64.
Every release ships SHA256SUMS:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing- hexsh — built-in interactive shell. No bash, no zsh, no fish.
- Single-line phosphor prompt with cwd + last-exit indicator
- Live syntax highlighting (known cmd green, unknown red, strings yellow, vars cyan, ops magenta)
- Fish-style autosuggestions from history (accept with → / End)
- Tab completion for commands (PATH + builtins + aliases) and file paths
- Persistent history at
~/.local/share/hexshell/history(5000 entries, deduped) - Builtins:
cd,pwd,export,unset,alias,unalias,history,clear,which,set,help,exit - Operators:
;&&|||>>><2>& - External programs run through ephemeral PTYs, so
vim,htop,btop,git log,lessall work with full color
- Frameless, fullscreen Electron window
- Bundled MesloLGL Nerd Font Mono — powerline glyphs and icons (starship / p10k / lsd) work out of the box
- Cyberpunk HUD: static frame, corner brackets, CRT scanlines, subtle flicker, grid overlay
- xterm.js with FitAddon, web-links, 256/truecolor, unicode, 5000-line scrollback
- GPU-friendly CSS effects (transform/opacity only, no per-frame filters)
- Hardened Electron:
contextIsolation: true,nodeIntegration: false, no remote, strict CSP, validated IPC - Resize coalesced to one rAF; only sends IPC when cell dims actually change
Bun is the package manager and task runner for this project. It installs faster than npm, gives us a single deterministic bun.lock, and runs scripts directly.
Bun does not replace Electron's runtime. When you launch the app, Electron uses its own bundled Node/V8 for the main process and Chromium for the renderer. The source code under src/ is plain CommonJS that Electron executes; Bun just orchestrates dependencies and scripts around it.
# Bun
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
# or: paru -S bun-bin (AUR)
# Native build toolchain for node-pty + unzip for the font fetcher
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel python git unzipYou do not need Node installed; Bun ships its own JavaScript runtime, and Electron carries its own Node binary internally.
git clone https://github.com/hexshell/hexshell
cd hexshell
bun install # respects trustedDependencies in package.json:
# - downloads the Electron binary
# - builds node-pty native bindings
# - postinstall runs `bun run fonts` (downloads
# MesloLGL Nerd Font Mono into src/renderer/fonts)
# - then runs electron-builder install-app-deps to
# rebuild node-pty against Electron's Node ABI
bun run startIf you ever see Error: The module ... was compiled against a different Node.js version:
bun run rebuildBun blocks lifecycle scripts (postinstall, native builds) by default — a supply-chain mitigation. Hexshell needs them for electron, node-pty, @electron/rebuild, and electron-builder. They're listed under trustedDependencies in package.json, so bun install runs only those scripts and refuses to run lifecycle scripts from anything else.
Hexshell bundles MesloLGL Nerd Font Mono so terminal prompts that use powerline / Nerd Font icons (starship, powerlevel10k, oh-my-zsh themes, lsd, eza) render correctly with no system font setup.
The TTFs are not committed to git. They're fetched on bun install (or via bun run fonts on demand) from the Nerd Fonts release into src/renderer/fonts/. The renderer awaits document.fonts.ready before xterm.js measures cell size, so the grid never reflows when the font loads.
Licensing: Meslo is Apache-2.0 (Andre Berg, based on Apple's Menlo / Bitstream Vera Sans Mono). The Nerd Fonts patches are SIL OFL 1.1. Both permit redistribution; LICENSE.font files travel with the AppImage.
If you'd rather use a different face, edit src/renderer/fonts/fonts.css and the fontFamily field in src/renderer/renderer.js. Anything monospaced will work; xterm needs accurate cell metrics, which means a true monospace face (not a "ligatures everywhere" variable-width one).
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
F11 |
Toggle fullscreen |
Ctrl+Shift+R |
Reload (resets PTY) |
Ctrl+Shift+Q |
Quit |
Everything else is forwarded straight to your shell.
src/
├── main/
│ ├── main.js # Electron lifecycle + IPC + window
│ └── shell/ # hexsh, the interactive shell
│ ├── hexsh.js # state machine: editing <-> running
│ ├── editor.js # line editor (keys, redraw, cursor math)
│ ├── parser.js # lossless tokenizer + pipeline parser
│ ├── env.js # vars, aliases, cwd, expansion, prompt
│ ├── history.js # persistent history + autosuggest source
│ ├── highlighter.js # ANSI coloring driven by token stream
│ ├── completer.js # Tab completion + PATH cache
│ ├── builtins.js # cd / pwd / export / alias / etc.
│ └── executor.js # ephemeral node-pty per external command
├── preload/ # contextBridge boundary
├── renderer/ # xterm.js UI, no Node access
├── ipc/ # shared channel names
└── styles/ # reset, terminal theme, HUD chrome
xterm.onData ─▶ preload.write ─▶ ipc 'terminal:write' ─▶ main ─▶ pty.write
pty.onData ─▶ ipc 'terminal:data' ─▶ preload.onData ─▶ xterm.write
ResizeObserver ─▶ preload.resize ─▶ ipc 'terminal:resize' ─▶ pty.resize
pty.onExit ─▶ ipc 'terminal:exit' ─▶ renderer banner
Channel names live in src/ipc/channels.js so main, preload, and renderer cannot drift.
Hexsh has no long-lived shell process. Each external command (or pipeline) gets a fresh node-pty session that's disposed when the command exits. Single foreground commands are spawned directly; pipelines and redirections are routed through /bin/sh -c after we've done variable expansion. Builtins (cd, export, alias…) run inside the main process, never in a child.
A ResizeObserver on the terminal container schedules at most one requestAnimationFrame callback. That callback runs fit.fit(), computes proposed cols/rows, and only sends IPC if they differ from the last value sent.
xterm.js uses its default DOM renderer. All sci-fi effects are CSS layers stacked above with pointer-events: none. Animations are transform and opacity only, so they live on the GPU compositor and don't trigger layout or text repaint.
Hexshell ships five Linux artifact formats per architecture, plus an AUR -bin package. CI does this automatically on every v*.*.* tag push.
bun run dist:all # AppImage + deb + rpm + pacman + tar.xz
bun run checksums # writes dist/SHA256SUMS
# Or one format at a time:
bun run dist:appimage
bun run dist:deb
bun run dist:rpm
bun run dist:pacman
bun run dist:tarYou'll need a few system packages on the build host:
# Arch
sudo pacman -S --needed rpm-tools dpkg fakeroot binutils xz librsvg unzip
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install rpm fakeroot dpkg-dev xz-utils librsvg2-bin unzipbun run icon rasterises build/icon.svg to build/icon.png (electron-builder needs a 512×512 PNG; SVG icons would be re-rastered per format with worse hinting).
# 1. Bump version
$EDITOR package.json
git commit -am "chore: 0.2.0"
# 2. Build + checksum
bun run release # refuses if working tree is dirty or tag exists
# 3. Tag and push
git tag -a v0.2.0 -m "Release v0.2.0"
git push origin main v0.2.0The push triggers .github/workflows/release.yml, which builds x64 and arm64 in parallel and creates a draft GitHub Release with all artifacts and SHA256SUMS attached. Edit the notes, click Publish.
Lives in packaging/aur/hexshell-bin/. After a release:
- Edit
pkgverinPKGBUILD. updpkgsumsto rewritesha256sums_*from the new release URLs.makepkg --printsrcinfo > .SRCINFO.- Commit + push to the AUR git repo.
- AppImage — universal Linux, no install needed, ideal "just works" path.
- .pacman — first-class on Arch;
sudo pacman -Uintegrates with the package db. - AUR
-bin— the path most Arch users actually take; gets auto-updates viaparu/yay. - .deb — Debian-family distros (~60% of Linux desktops).
- .rpm — Red Hat-family distros.
- .tar.xz — Slackware, Void, Gentoo, NixOS, anyone who wants to inspect or repack.
bun install # install deps + run trusted lifecycle scripts
bun run start # launch Electron in dev mode
bun run dev # same with --enable-logging
bun run fonts # (re)download MesloLGL Nerd Font Mono
bun run rebuild # rebuild node-pty for current Electron version
bun run dist:linux # build AppImage
bun run clean # remove dist, node_modules, bun caches
bun add <pkg> # add a runtime dep
bun add -d <pkg> # add a dev dep
bun update # update lockfile
bun pm ls # list installed packagesMIT.