ratatui

Ratatui (Rust TUI)

Immediate-mode terminal UI framework for Rust using Crossterm backend.

Project Setup

Always use Edition 2024:

[package]
name = "my-tui-app"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2024"
rust-version = "1.85"

[dependencies]
ratatui = "0.30"
crossterm = "0.29"
# Optional: Enhanced error handling
anyhow = "1.0"
thiserror = "2.0"

Why Edition 2024 for TUI apps:

• ✅ Better async support for background tasks
• ✅ Improved pattern matching for event handling
• ✅ Cleaner error handling with if let chains
• ✅ Native async traits for plugins/extensions

Basic Application

use crossterm::{
    event::{self, Event, KeyCode},
    execute,
    terminal::{disable_raw_mode, enable_raw_mode, EnterAlternateScreen, LeaveAlternateScreen},
};
use ratatui::{backend::CrosstermBackend, widgets::{Block, Borders, Paragraph}, Terminal};
use std::io;

struct App {
    counter: i32,
}

impl App {
    fn new() -> App {
        App { counter: 0 }
    }

    fn on_key(&mut self, key: KeyCode) {
        match key {
            KeyCode::Up => self.counter += 1,
            KeyCode::Down => self.counter -= 1,
            _ => {}
        }
    }
}

fn main() -> Result<(), io::Error> {
    enable_raw_mode()?;
    let mut stdout = io::stdout();
    execute!(stdout, EnterAlternateScreen)?;

    let backend = CrosstermBackend::new(stdout);
    let mut terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;

    let mut app = App::new();

    loop {
        terminal.draw(|f| {
            let block = Block::default().title("Counter").borders(Borders::ALL);
            let paragraph = Paragraph::new(format!("Count: {}", app.counter)).block(block);
            f.render_widget(paragraph, f.area());
        })?;

        if let Event::Key(key) = event::read()? {
            match key.code {
                KeyCode::Char('q') => break,
                code => app.on_key(code),
            }
        }
    }

    disable_raw_mode()?;
    execute!(terminal.backend_mut(), LeaveAlternateScreen)?;
    Ok(())
}