tui-best-practices

Designing terminal user interfaces

TUI Best Practices

Use this skill when:

• Designing terminal user interfaces
• Creating accessible TUIs
• Optimizing TUI performance
• Implementing keyboard navigation
• Building cross-platform TUIs

Keyboard Shortcuts

Use consistent, discoverable shortcuts:

Standard Conventions:
- q / Ctrl+C: Quit
- h/j/k/l or arrows: Navigate
- Enter: Select/Confirm
- Esc: Cancel/Back
- /: Search
- ?: Help
- Tab: Next field
- Shift+Tab: Previous field

Layout Design

Principles:
- Clear visual hierarchy
- Consistent spacing
- Meaningful borders
- Status information visible
- Help text always available

Performance

Optimization:
- Limit redraws (only when state changes)
- Use double buffering
- Batch terminal updates
- Cache rendered content
- Throttle high-frequency events

Accessibility

Guidelines:
- Support screen readers
- High contrast colors
- Keyboard-only navigation
- Clear focus indicators
- Avoid color-only information

Error Handling

Best Practices:
- Show errors inline
- Provide actionable messages
- Don't crash on terminal resize
- Handle missing terminal features
- Graceful degradation

Related Skills

• bubbletea-architecture.md - Go TUI patterns
• ratatui-architecture.md - Rust TUI patterns