tui-protocol¶
Exploring a terminal protocol for dynamic TUIs in the age of AI agents.
As AI agents develop, terminal interfaces need to support more than a stream of output: content is generated, revised, and finalized throughout an ongoing interaction. Traditional terminal control remains useful, but does not fully express the content model these dynamic applications need.
Our vision is for applications to work with terminal content as identifiable, updatable components—somewhat like updating nodes in a document—while terminals retain responsibility for rendering, history, and native interaction. This project explores the protocol contract that could make that possible.
This project is an early research prototype, not a standard or a stable protocol.
Milestones¶
2026-08-01 - Protocol primitives: Defined the initial Block and Operation primitives for mutable, identifiable terminal content.
2026-08-12 - Executable protocol path: Established the first complete terminal-side path from framed Messages through codec and Session execution to deterministic state changes and correlated responses.
2026-08-14 - End-to-end validation: Validated protocol-driven mutation of xterm.js-owned history while preserving the tested reading-anchor and tail-following behavior across resize and reflow.
Documentation¶
Run an example¶
Try a simulated Agent that revises earlier content in an experimental xterm-based terminal host. No model account is required.
On Windows with Node.js 24+ and pnpm installed, run from the repository root:
pnpm install
pnpm example:multi-round
Open http://127.0.0.1:4178/, choose Connect application, wait for
[ready], then choose Next round. Scroll back, select/copy text, or search
while content changes. Stop the server with Ctrl+C.
See the example guide for details and limits.