SwiftTUI

A SwiftUI engine that renders to the terminal.

Credits: Nicolas Dominati with its chess app created with SwiftTUI

Requirements

• macOS 26 or later
• Swift 6.3 toolchain or later

Installation

Create a new executable target and add SwiftTUI as a dependency in your Package.swift:

let package = Package(
    name: "MyApp",
    platforms: [
        .macOS(.v26)
    ],
    dependencies: [
        .package(url: "https://github.com/bpisano/SwiftTUI", from: "0.0.3")
    ],
    targets: [
        .executableTarget(
            name: "MyApp",
            dependencies: ["SwiftTUI"]
        )
    ]
)

Usage

The entry point is a type conforming to App, marked @main.

import SwiftTUI

@main
struct MyApp: App {
    var body: some View {
        Text("Hello, World!")
    }
}

Views nest, and @State holds values that change. Here a button updates a count:

import SwiftTUI

@main
struct MyApp: App {
    var body: some View {
        Counter()
    }
}

struct Counter: View {
    @State private var count = 0

    var body: some View {
        VStack(alignment: .leading) {
            Text("Count: \(count)")
            Button("Increment") {
                count += 1
            }
        }
    }
}

Run your app with swift run. SwiftTUI takes over the terminal, draws the view tree, and processes keyboard input. Press Ctrl-C to exit.

Features

• Views — Text, Button, TextField, ForEach.
• Layout — HStack, VStack, ZStack, plus the frame and padding modifiers.
• State and data flow — @State, @Binding, @Environment.
• Focus — keyboard navigation between controls (Tab / Shift-Tab / arrows) and the @Focus property wrapper for moving focus programmatically.
• Styling — Color, foregroundStyle, ShapeStyle, and custom ButtonStyle.

Many SwiftUI APIs are not yet supported (for example Spacer, Divider, background/overlay, gradients, Toggle/Slider/Picker). See the compatibility guide for the current list.

Documentation

You can read the full documentation here.

Guides:

• Getting Started
• Laying Out Views
• Controls
• Managing Focus
• Styling Views
• SwiftUI Compatibility

Licence

SwiftTUI is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more information.