v1.1.0

[1.1.0] - 2026-10-12

The headline of this release is TUI mode: ros2 launch now opens in a full-screen viewer where you scroll, search and filter the log while the launch keeps running. It is the new default; set launch_mode: classic to keep the 1.0 output.

Added

TUI mode (launch_mode: tui, the default, for ros2 launch) — docs

• Full-screen log viewer with scrollback (tui_scrollback_lines, default 5000), line wrapping, a scrollbar and resize support.
• Mouse wheel scrolling, and click-and-drag selection that copies to the clipboard through OSC 52 and xclip / xsel / wl-copy.
• Crash and parameter-change alerts stay pinned in the header instead of scrolling away.
• Falls back to classic output automatically when the output is piped or redirected, or when the terminal can't run it.

Console commands (press \ in TUI mode) — docs

• focus <node>... shows only the listed nodes. It matches the process name or the ROS logger name, so components inside a container can be focused one by one.
• level <lvl> shows lines at a severity or worse. Tracebacks and other lines without a level always stay visible.
• grep <text> is a live text filter with the matches highlighted.
• find <text> searches the scrollback; Tab and Shift+Tab step through the matches.
• mute <node> and unmute <node|all> hide and restore noisy nodes.
• mark [label] inserts a timestamped separator line.
• tee <file> [-c] [-a] saves the lines currently shown to a file, optionally with colors or appending.
• clear removes every filter and mute; help lists every command and key.
• Filters combine, and Esc removes the most recent one at a time.
• Tab completion for commands, node names and levels, and Up/Down command history.

Remote control and reopen — docs

• dendros focus, find, grep, level, mute, unmute, mark, tee and clear send the same commands to a running TUI from another terminal.
• dendros reopen reopens the last TUI run of the current terminal after it has ended, with its full scrollback.

Runtime control — docs

• dendros disable and dendros enable switch DendROS off and on in every terminal, including launches that are already running, without restarting them.

Output options

• show_timestamp and show_logger_name hide the [timestamp] and [logger] brackets of node log lines for a terser output. Both can be set globally or per package.
• ignore_bold strips bold from every color, for terminals that brighten bold text but not backgrounds and so show a badge in a different shade than its node's text.

Other

• A package.xml, so the repository can be indexed as a ROS package.
• Documentation: new pages for TUI mode, console commands, remote control, enable and disable, troubleshooting and a ROS 2 CLI overview. Every screenshot was redone, and each console command has a short recording.

Changed

• ros2 launch opens in the TUI viewer by default (launch_mode: tui). ros2 run, piped or redirected output, and every other command are unchanged.
• dendros config groups its settings into tabs (Output, CLI, Unmatched, System, Diagnostics, Param Alerts, Init) instead of one long list.
• dendros init must be run from the package root, the folder that contains package.xml. From a subfolder it tells you where to run it instead of guessing.
• dendros init writes nothing when it finds no nodes. Previously it created an empty config and patched the build files anyway.
• dendros init colors its warnings yellow and its errors red, like ROS 2 does.
• The [dendROS] tag uses the same brand blue and orange everywhere it is printed.

Fixed

• dendros init on ament_cmake packages added an install rule that put dendROS.yaml in share/<pkg>/ instead of share/<pkg>/config/, so the config was never found. See the upgrade notes below.
• uninstall.sh now works as root (for example in Docker), removes only the two lines the installer added to .bashrc instead of every line mentioning dendROS, and cleans up saved TUI runs and other runtime files. Your settings file is kept.
• The docs gave after as the default tag_position; the default has always been before.

Upgrading from 1.0

• Pull the repository and run bash install.sh again, then open a new terminal or source ~/.bashrc.
• ros2 launch now opens in the viewer, also if you saved your settings with 1.0. To keep the old scrolling output, run dendros config and set Launch mode to classic in the Output tab, or add launch_mode: classic to ~/.config/dendROS/defaults.yaml.
• If you ran dendros init on an ament_cmake package with 1.0, open its CMakeLists.txt and change install(DIRECTORY config/ to install(DIRECTORY config (no trailing slash), then rebuild. ament_python packages are not affected.

v1.0.0

DendROS v1.0.0

First stable release. DendROS shadows ros2 launch/ros2 run with a colorizing pipe and wraps the
main ros2 CLI inspection commands with the same group colors — zero launch-file changes, zero
new ROS 2 dependencies.

Highlights

• Color by group — map node groups to colors/badges via a small dendROS.yaml in your package
• dendros init — automatically generates a config by scanning your launch files (--recursive, --labels)
• dendros config — TUI for global defaults
• Full ros2 CLI wrapped — node list, node info, service list, action list, topic list (with topic_sort=group), param list, param describe
• Crash alert — inline banner on node death with exit code, repeats periodically
• Traceback highlighting — bold/dim red tracebacks (fancy/red/off)
• Keyword highlighting — per-group or package-wide word/pattern highlighting
• Parameter change alert — live old → new notifications on ros2 param set, inline or
  inverted style
• Truly non-invasive — shell-level pipe, exit codes preserved, can be disabled anytime
• Works on host install, Docker, any ROS 2 distribution

Install

git clone https://github.com/mlisi1/DendROS
cd DendROS && bash install.sh && source ~/.bashrc

Full docs: https://mlisi1.github.io/DendROS