glint

A fast, keyboard-driven terminal dashboard. Stocks, forex + crypto, calendar, weather, news, email, notes, system resources, image gallery — all in one grid you compose yourself. Written in Rust with ratatui.

glint-demo-vid1.mp4

A live capture — keyboard shortcuts driving focus, view changes, and widget interaction across the dashboard.

A composed dashboard — clock + weather on the left, a calendar / email / notes stack and a stocks / forex / WSJ stack on the right, system resources and a rotating gallery filling the rest. tokyonight scheme.

Same layout, different views — calendar in week mode, weather showing the 3-day forecast, the gallery rotating its next image, and the WSJ feed scrolling the latest articles in the middle stack.

A different 5-pane layout in the chalktone scheme, focused on the WSJ stack with an NVDA chart open in stocks on the right.

Everything is opt-in, locally configured, and persists in plain TOML under ~/.config/glint/ — no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud component glint controls. The setup wizard generates a working dashboard on first launch.

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Highlights

• Ten widget kinds, each independently configurable, with sensible built-in defaults — see the widget catalogue below.
• Composable layout: a grid of cells; any cell can be a single widget or a stack of widgets you cycle between with . / ,.
• Multi-instance — run the same widget kind in several panes (stocks@watchlist1 + stocks@watchlist2, clock@home + clock@office).
• Live config reload — edit any widget's TOML and the dashboard picks it up without a restart.
• Theming — nine bundled colour schemes; per-widget colour overrides; add your own schemes by editing one TOML file. :scheme nord switches live.
• Setup wizard — glint --setup (or first launch with no config) walks you through layout, widget assignment, and credentials with copy-pasteable instructions for each external service.
• Keyboard-first, mouse-friendly — Tab cycles widgets, Shift+<letter> jumps to a widget by its shortcut letter, : opens a command bar, click anywhere to focus.
• No cloud component: every credential lives on disk under ~/.config/glint/credentials/ (0600 perms). API calls go directly from your machine to the upstream service.

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Install

From source (only option for now)

You need a recent Rust toolchain (1.81+). Install via rustup if you don't have one.

git clone https://github.com/ntrospect0/glint.git glint
cd glint

# Per-user install (no sudo, installs to ~/.local/bin):
make install PREFIX=~/.local

# Or system-wide (typically needs sudo):
sudo make install

If ~/.local/bin isn't on your $PATH, add this to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Verify:

glint --version

Makefile targets

target	what it does
make / make release	release build at target/release/glint
make build	debug build (faster compile, slower runtime)
make install	release build + copy to $(PREFIX)/bin/glint
make uninstall	remove $(PREFIX)/bin/glint
make test	run the test suite
make clean	cargo clean

Slim builds

Every widget compiles in only when its feature is enabled. The default widgets-all umbrella turns them all on. For a smaller binary:

cargo install --path . --no-default-features \
  --features widget-clock,widget-weather,widget-stocks

Available features: widget-clock, widget-weather, widget-calendar, widget-news, widget-stocks, widget-forex, widget-email, widget-resources, widget-gallery, widget-notes.

Updating

git pull
make install PREFIX=~/.local   # or sudo make install

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Quickstart

Launch with no existing config and you land in the setup wizard:

glint
# → "No config detected … launching the setup wizard."

The wizard walks you through:

1. Global settings — colour scheme, mouse-scroll direction, optional LLM provider and API key.
2. Layout — pick 1 to 8 panes and a layout preset.
3. Widget assignment — pick the widget kind that fills each pane, including the option to stack multiple widgets in a single cell.
4. Per-widget setup — timezone, location, RSS feeds, watchlist tickers, calendar providers, mailbox folders, gallery image paths.
5. OAuth flows (where needed) — Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar all captured inline through the wizard with copy-paste instructions.

The wizard's layout step — pick a pane count, then a preset; widget assignment follows on the next page.

Re-run any time with glint --setup. Every section has an Edit / Skip gate; skipping leaves that TOML untouched, so hand-edits and comments survive.

After the wizard, the dashboard launches with your layout. Press ? for the live keybinding overlay.

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Widget catalogue

widget	what it does	external services
Clock	big block-digit local time, optional secondary world clocks, configurable gradient	none
Weather	current conditions + N-day forecast, IP geolocation fallback	Open-Meteo (free, key-less)
Calendar	day / week / month views with event agenda	Google Calendar (OAuth), Microsoft Outlook (OAuth), CalDAV (iCloud / Fastmail / Nextcloud), local TOML events
News	RSS / Atom aggregator with topic filters, keyword search (:news <terms>), optional per-article LLM summaries	any RSS/Atom feed; LLM provider for summaries
Stocks	watchlist with price + change %, intraday + multi-year graphs, period toggle	Yahoo Finance (free, key-less)
Forex	fiat + crypto pairs with auto-grouped Currencies / Crypto sections, primary-swap with s, USD-pivot triangulation	Yahoo Finance
Email	unified inbox preview with optional per-message LLM summaries	Gmail (OAuth), Outlook (OAuth), any IMAP server (app password)
Resources	htop-style CPU / memory / top-process view	local sysinfo (no FFI)
Gallery	rotating inline image slideshow (any image glob you point it at)	none — uses iTerm2 / Kitty / Sixel inline image protocol, falls back to unicode half-blocks
Notes	vim-flavoured multi-note pad with undo/redo, mouse cursor positioning, per-note files	none — plain .md files under ~/.config/glint/notes/

Every widget is independently optional. The wizard surfaces only what you turn on; missing credentials route gracefully into the inline capture flow.

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Configuration

All files live under ~/.config/glint/:

file	what it controls
config.toml	active colour scheme, mouse-scroll direction, status bar, grid layout, widget cell placements
colorschemes.toml	named theme palettes (default, chalktone, gruvbox, tokyonight, rosepine, nord, bluloco, onedark, miasma)
clock.toml	primary timezone, world clocks, big-digit gradient
weather.toml	location, units (metric/imperial), forecast days, IP geolocation fallback
news.toml	RSS / Atom feeds, topic filters, LLM summary toggle, fetch-body strategy
stocks.toml	watchlist, indices, default period, jump URL template
forex.toml	primary currency, fiat watchlist, separate crypto watchlist, default period
calendar.toml	Google / Outlook / CalDAV / Local providers + per-provider calendar IDs
email.toml	folders / labels to follow, polling cadence, LLM-summary opt-in
resources.toml	refresh interval, top-N processes, sort key (CPU vs memory)
gallery.toml	image paths or globs, rotation cadence, rescan interval
notes.toml	per-widget shortcut + colour overrides (notes themselves live under notes/)
llm.toml	active LLM provider (anthropic or openai), model, rate limit, cache size
credentials/	OAuth tokens + API keys (*_oauth_client.toml, *_oauth_token.toml, anthropic_key.toml, openai_key.toml, caldav.toml, imap.toml) — 0600 perms
notes/<instance>/	one .md file per note, mtime sorts the list

Most fields have sensible defaults; you only have to set what you care about. Re-run the wizard any time, or hand-edit and :reload.

Layout example

# config.toml
version = 1

[global]
theme = "nord"
mouse_scroll = "natural"
show_status_bar = true

[layout]
columns = [28, 36, 36]    # three columns at 28% / 36% / 36% of width
rows = [30, 35, 35]       # three rows at 30% / 35% / 35% of height

[[layout.cells]]
widget = "clock"
col = 0
row = 0

[[layout.cells]]
widget = "calendar"
col = 1
row = 0
col_span = 2              # span two columns

# Stack pane: three widgets share row 1, cols 1–2; rotate with . / ,
[[layout.cells]]
widgets = ["news", "email", "notes"]
col = 1
row = 1
col_span = 2

[[layout.cells]]
widgets = ["stocks", "forex"]
col = 0
row = 2
col_span = 2

Multi-instance widgets

Cells can reference a widget as kind@instance:

[[layout.cells]]
widget = "stocks@watchlist1"
col = 0
row = 2

[[layout.cells]]
widget = "stocks@watchlist2"
col = 1
row = 2

The first uses stocks.toml (the implicit main instance), the others read stocks@watchlist1.toml and stocks@watchlist2.toml. Same trick works for clocks (home + office), calendars (work + personal), email (two accounts), etc.

Per-widget colour overrides

Any widget's TOML can carry a [colors] block that overrides the active theme just for that widget:

# weather.toml
location = "Vancouver, BC"

[colors]
border.focused = { fg = "#e07b00", modifiers = ["bold"] }
widget_title.focused = { fg = "#fff", bg = "#e07b00", modifiers = ["bold"] }

Same field shape as colorschemes.toml.

Adding a custom colour scheme

# colorschemes.toml
[schemes.my_scheme]
border.focused           = { fg = "#88c0d0", modifiers = ["bold"] }
border.unfocused         = "#3b4252"
widget_title.focused     = { fg = "#000", bg = "#88c0d0", modifiers = ["bold"] }
widget_title.unfocused   = { fg = "#eceff4", modifiers = ["bold"] }
metadata.focused         = { fg = "#d8dee9" }
metadata.unfocused       = { fg = "#616e88", modifiers = ["dim"] }
text.plain               = { fg = "#d8dee9" }
text.brilliant           = { fg = "#eceff4", modifiers = ["bold"] }
text.dim                 = { fg = "#616e88" }
text.selected            = { fg = "#ebcb8b", modifiers = ["bold"] }
text.focused             = { fg = "#88c0d0", modifiers = ["bold"] }
text.shortcut            = { fg = "#bf616a", modifiers = ["bold"] }

Then :scheme my_scheme (persisted to [global] theme).

⚠️ Dotted keys must be unquoted (border.focused, not "border.focused"). Quoted dotted keys silently fail to deserialize.

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Keybindings

Global

key	action
Tab / Shift+Tab	cycle focused widget
Shift+<letter>	jump focus to a widget by its shortcut letter (lit in title)
click cell	focus that widget
. / ,	rotate the active widget in a stack pane
:	open the command bar
?	toggle help overlay (scrollable)
q / Ctrl+C	quit

Command bar (:)

command	what it does
:scheme <name>	switch colour scheme (persists to config.toml)
:reload	re-read every widget's TOML without restarting
:news <terms>	filter News by keyword
:weather <city>	retarget Weather to a one-off city
:time <city>	retarget Clock
:stock <symbol>	jump-lookup a ticker in Stocks
:fx <code>	swap primary currency in Forex

Common per-widget keys

widget	keys
Stocks	↑/↓ select ticker · ←/→ cycle graph period · c % ↔ $ · Enter open in browser · 1–9 jump period · y yank value
Forex	↑/↓ select pair · ←/→ cycle period · s / Enter make selected primary (crypto seeds amount=1) · c edit amount · y yank
Calendar	d / w / m day/week/month · ←/→ navigate · t today
Weather	:weather <city> retarget · x revert to default
Clock	:time <city> retarget · x revert to local
News	↑/↓ select · ←/→ filter tabs · e expand · s LLM summary · Enter open · x clear search
Email	↑/↓ select · Enter open in mail client · e expand · s LLM summary
Resources	m toggle sort (CPU ↔ memory) · r force refresh
Gallery	p pause/resume · n / N step · ↑/↓ rotation interval ±1s
Notes	+ new · - delete (confirm) · i insert · ESC normal · h/l focus list / content · j/k scroll · gg/G top/bottom · y yank note · Ctrl-A/Ctrl-E line start/end · Ctrl-U delete line · Ctrl-Z / Ctrl-Shift-Z undo / redo

Hit ? while running for the full overlay with the current shortcut assignments and active scheme.

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CLI reference

glint                    # launch the dashboard (or wizard on first run)
glint --setup            # launch the wizard
glint --init             # create ~/.config/glint/ with default seed files
glint --auth <provider>  # run an auth flow (google, microsoft, imap, anthropic, openai)
glint --clear-cache [TARGET]
                         # wipe ~/.cache/glint/ entirely, or scope to
                         # a widget kind (news) or instance (news@home)
glint --config <FILE>    # override the default XDG location
glint --version

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External dependencies

glint pulls every piece of remote data directly from the upstream service; nothing routes through a glint-owned backend.

service	used by	auth
Open-Meteo	Weather (forecast), Weather (geocoding fallback via ipapi.co)	none
Yahoo Finance	Stocks, Forex (fiat + crypto)	none
Google Calendar API	Calendar (Google provider)	OAuth, you create the OAuth app
Gmail API	Email (Gmail provider)	OAuth, same app as Calendar
Microsoft Graph	Calendar (Outlook), Email (Outlook)	OAuth, you register an Azure app
any CalDAV server	Calendar (iCloud, Fastmail, Nextcloud, …)	app password
any IMAP server	Email (IMAP provider)	app password
Anthropic / OpenAI	News + Email LLM summaries	API key, optional
any RSS / Atom feed	News	none

The setup wizard walks you through the OAuth flows for Google, Outlook, and the LLM providers. For CalDAV and IMAP the wizard captures host + username + app-password inline. INSTRUCTIONS.md in the repo has the full step-by-step for each provider, including screenshots of the Google Cloud / Azure portals.

Rust crate dependencies

Notable runtime crates: ratatui (TUI), crossterm (terminal I/O), tokio (async runtime), reqwest (HTTP), serde + toml (config), chrono + chrono-tz (time / timezones), feed-rs (RSS / Atom), image + ratatui-image (Gallery), imap + mail-parser (Email), sysinfo (Resources), readability (article extraction for LLM summaries). Full list in Cargo.toml.

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Data, privacy, and where things live

where	what
~/.config/glint/*.toml	your config — fully owned and editable by you
~/.config/glint/credentials/ (0600)	OAuth tokens, API keys, IMAP passwords
~/.config/glint/notes/	notes as plain .md files
~/.cache/glint/	per-widget on-disk caches (news articles, calendar events, email messages, etc.) — regenerable; a startup sweep drops anything > 30 days old
~/.config/glint/glint.log	runtime log; tail -f it to debug

glint never sends data to any third party that isn't named in the External dependencies table above. There is no telemetry.

Credential storage — what it does and doesn't protect

Today every credential glint stores (IMAP / CalDAV app passwords, LLM API keys, OAuth tokens) lives in a TOML file under ~/.config/glint/credentials/ with 0600 permissions and an atomic write. This mirrors the convention used by aws, gcloud, gh, docker, npm, ssh, and similar local-first CLIs.

What that covers:

• ✅ Another non-root user on the same Unix host can't read the file.
• ✅ With full-disk encryption on (FileVault / LUKS / BitLocker) a lost laptop's offline disk is unreadable until unlocked.
• ✅ OAuth tokens (Google, Microsoft) and app passwords (IMAP, CalDAV) are revocable from the provider's account dashboard, and app passwords don't grant master-account access.

What it doesn't cover:

• ❌ Anything running as your user (a rogue shell script, a compromised npm package, anything else with read access to your $HOME) can read the file. Same threat model as ~/.aws/credentials or ~/.ssh/.
• ❌ Root / sudo on the host can read the file.
• ❌ Backups that include ~/.config/ (Time Machine, restic, borg, Arq, dotfile syncers like chezmoi / yadm / GNU stow) will carry the credentials along. Excluding ~/.config/glint/credentials/ is recommended; on dotfile managers add it to the per-host ignore list rather than syncing it across machines.

Recommended posture:

1. Keep full-disk encryption on.
2. Exclude ~/.config/glint/credentials/ from your backup tool.
3. Exclude it from any dotfile sync — credentials should stay per-host.
4. Prefer OAuth and app passwords (which glint already does) over master passwords.

Coming post-v0.2: a tiered credential backend (OS keychain → host-bound encryption → plaintext fallback) selected via credentials_backend in config.toml. See CHANGELOG.md → Deferred for the scope.

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Troubleshooting

• glint not found after install — make sure $(PREFIX)/bin is on your $PATH. The Makefile prints the right export line at the end of make install.
• Gallery shows chunky pixelated images — your terminal doesn't speak iTerm2 / Kitty / Sixel inline protocols, so glint fell back to unicode half-blocks. Switch to iTerm2 (macOS), WezTerm, Kitty, or enable sixel mode in your terminal.
• OAuth flow won't open a browser — the auth flow prints the URL too; copy-paste it into any browser, complete the consent, and the flow's localhost listener picks up the redirect.
• Forex shows blank rates after closing on a non-USD primary — fixed; the disk cache now only persists when the live primary matches the configured one. Earlier versions could seed the next launch with the wrong symbol set.
• Logs: runtime alt-screen mode means stderr/stdout would corrupt the display, so warnings/errors land in ~/.config/glint/glint.log. tail -f ~/.config/glint/glint.log while debugging.
• Reset to defaults: move aside ~/.config/glint/ and re-run glint --setup.

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Contributing

glint is pre-launch v0.2; the architecture is settling but the surface is largely stable. If you want to dig in:

1. make test — runs the full suite (~460 tests). Should pass clean on main at all times.
2. make build for a debug binary, make for release.
3. cargo clippy --features widgets-all for lints; CI gates on this.
4. Adding a widget is purely additive: implement the Widget trait under src/widgets/<name>/, declare a widget-<name> Cargo feature, and append a WidgetDescriptor to src/widgets/registry.rs. The registry is the single registration point — no edits to app.rs, main.rs, or the wizard are needed.
5. AGENTS.md carries the architecture overview (read it before non-trivial PRs). docs/widget-sdk.md is the widget author's guide — platform capabilities, conventions, and reference patterns extracted from the shipped widgets.

Issues and PRs welcome.

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License

glint is licensed under GNU GPL v3 or later — see LICENSE for the full text. In short: you're free to use, modify, and redistribute glint, but any modified version you distribute must also be GPL-licensed and must keep glint's copyright notices intact. The author retains the right to offer the project under additional licenses (see CONTRIBUTING.md for the contributor sign-off + relicensing grant).