Core Concept

New to RetUI? You're in the right place.

There are only 8 ideas to learn. Once they click, everything else in RetUI will make sense. Let's go through them one at a time, with real, working code.

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1. Everything is a Component

Think of a component as a little Lego brick. You snap bricks together to build bigger things.

In code, a component is just a Go function that returns a retui.Element. That's it.

func Greeting() retui.Element {
    return retui.Text("Hello, World!", retui.NewStyle())
}

Want to use it? Just call it:

func App() retui.Element {
    return Greeting()
}

👉 Takeaway: if a function returns retui.Element, it's a component. You'll write dozens of these.

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2. Components Nest Inside Each Other

Here's the part that makes RetUI powerful: components can contain other components.

The main container you'll use is Box. Think of Box as an invisible wrapper that arranges whatever you put inside it.

func App() retui.Element {
    return retui.Box(
        retui.Props{Direction: retui.Column},
        retui.NewStyle(),
        retui.Text("Welcome", retui.NewStyle().Bold(true)),
        retui.Text("Hello RetUI!", retui.NewStyle()),
    )
}

That's a Box holding two pieces of text, stacked vertically:

Welcome
Hello RetUI!

You can keep nesting boxes inside boxes, as deep as you need:

Box
├── Box
│   ├── Text
│   └── Text
└── Text

👉 Takeaway: Box is your building container. Everything lives inside one.

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3. Don't Worry About Redrawing — RetUI Does It For You

Here's something nice: you never manually clear or redraw the screen.

When your app's data changes, RetUI notices and updates only the part of the screen that changed.

Before:  Counter: 5
After:   Counter: 6

Only the 6 gets touched. Nothing else flickers or reprints. This is what keeps terminal apps feeling instant.

👉 Takeaway: change your data, RetUI handles the screen.

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4. State = Data That Can Change

"State" is just a fancy word for a value your component remembers and can update.

Without state, text is stuck forever:

retui.Text("Counter: 0", retui.NewStyle())

With state, it can change over time:

count, setCount := retui.UseState(0)
retui.Text(fmt.Sprintf("Counter: %d", count), retui.NewStyle())

• count → the current value
• setCount → the function you call to change it

setCount(count + 1) // bumps the counter, screen updates automatically

Try it: a real, working counter

import (
    "fmt"
"github.com/subhasundardass/retui/retui"

)
func Counter() retui.Element {
count, setCount := retui.UseState(0)
// Give this component a focus slot so it can receive key presses
retui.SetFocusOrder([]string{"counter"})
if retui.CurrentFocus() == "" {
    retui.SetFocus("counter")
}

if retui.IsFocused("counter") {
    switch retui.CurrentKey.Code {
    case retui.KeyUp, retui.KeyEnter, retui.KeySpace:
        setCount(count + 1)
    case retui.KeyDown:
        setCount(count - 1)
    }
}

return retui.Box(
    retui.Props{Direction: retui.Column, Gap: 1},
    retui.NewStyle(),
    retui.Text(fmt.Sprintf("Counter: %d", count), retui.NewStyle()),
    retui.Text("↑ / Space / Enter: +1    ↓: -1", retui.NewStyle().Foreground(retui.Hex("#888888"))),
)

}

Copy this into your app and run it — press the button, watch the number climb. That's state in action.

👉 Takeaway: UseState gives you a value + a way to change it. RetUI handles the rest.

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5. Hooks: How Components Remember Things

"Hooks" sound intimidating, but they're just special functions that let a component hold onto information between renders.

You just met one — UseState. Here are all four:

Hook	What it's for	Beginner analogy
UseState	Store a value that can change	A sticky note your component keeps updating
UseStateKeyed	Same, but for lists/trees where items can appear or disappear	A sticky note labeled with a name instead of a position
UseEffect	Run code when something changes (with optional cleanup)	"When X happens, do Y"
UseContext	Share a value with components deep inside, without passing it manually	A shared bulletin board everyone can read

That's genuinely everything you need to start. Every other RetUI feature you'll learn later is just a variation on these same 8 ideas.