Getting Started

This guide walks you from an empty mix new project to a supervised terminal UI you can actually use. Read it top-to-bottom the first time; come back later for the capstone module.

Every concept is introduced with runnable code. If you get stuck, compare your file against the snippets or run the matching example from examples/.

What you'll build

A small todo app. Type an item, press Enter to add it, move selection with ↑/↓ (or k/j), press d to delete, Tab to switch focus between the input and the list, Esc to quit.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Todo                                                  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ › buy groceries_                                       │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  walk the dog                                          │
│ ›file taxes                                            │
│  call mom                                              │
│                                                        │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  Tab switch · Enter add · d delete · Esc quit

~80 lines of Elixir. No JavaScript, no web server, no Rust toolchain on your machine.

Install and verify

Create a project and add the dependency:

mix new my_tui --sup
cd my_tui

Edit mix.exs:

defp deps do
  [
    {:ex_ratatui, "~> 0.8"}
  ]
end

Fetch:

mix deps.get
mix compile

A precompiled NIF for your platform downloads automatically — you don't need Rust installed. On first compile you'll see rustler_precompiled fetch the binary.

Verify it works. Create lib/hello.ex:

defmodule Hello do
  alias ExRatatui.Layout.Rect
  alias ExRatatui.Style
  alias ExRatatui.Widgets.{Block, Paragraph}

  def run do
    ExRatatui.run(fn terminal ->
      {w, h} = ExRatatui.terminal_size()

      paragraph = %Paragraph{
        text: "Hello from ExRatatui!\n\nPress any key to exit.",
        style: %Style{fg: :green, modifiers: [:bold]},
        alignment: :center,
        block: %Block{
          title: " Hello World ",
          borders: [:all],
          border_type: :rounded,
          border_style: %Style{fg: :cyan}
        }
      }

      ExRatatui.draw(terminal, [{paragraph, %Rect{x: 0, y: 0, width: w, height: h}}])
      wait_for_key()
    end)
  end

  defp wait_for_key do
    case ExRatatui.poll_event(5_000) do
      nil -> wait_for_key()
      _ -> :ok
    end
  end
end

Run it:

iex -S mix
iex> Hello.run()

You should see a rounded box with a green centered message. Press any key to return to IEx.

If instead you get terminal_init_failed, you're likely in a non-TTY shell (IDE terminal, background process, piped stdin). Run from a real terminal emulator — see the Debugging guide for more.

Your first render

Let's look at what that snippet actually did.

ExRatatui.run(fn terminal ->
  # ...
end)

ExRatatui.run/1 takes a function, puts the terminal into raw mode, gives you a terminal reference, and guarantees the terminal is restored when the function returns (or raises). This is the right shape for a one-shot script but not for a supervised app — we'll replace it in a minute.

{w, h} = ExRatatui.terminal_size()

Returns the current size in cells. The terminal won't automatically resize your widgets — you place them explicitly, in cell coordinates.

paragraph = %Paragraph{
  text: "Hello from ExRatatui!\n\nPress any key to exit.",
  style: %Style{fg: :green, modifiers: [:bold]},
  alignment: :center,
  block: %Block{title: " Hello World ", borders: [:all], border_type: :rounded}
}

A widget is a struct. It doesn't draw anything on its own — it's a value you hand to draw/2. Paragraph renders text; Block is a decorative wrapper most widgets accept via a :block field for a title and borders.

ExRatatui.draw(terminal, [{paragraph, %Rect{x: 0, y: 0, width: w, height: h}}])

draw/2 takes a list of {widget, rect} tuples. Each %Rect{} says where to paint the widget. You can pass many tuples — the whole frame is rendered in one go.

ExRatatui.poll_event(5_000)

Polls for a terminal event (key press, mouse, resize) with a timeout in milliseconds. Returns nil on timeout, an %Event.Key{} / %Event.Mouse{} / %Event.Resize{} otherwise. Event polling runs on the BEAM's DirtyIo scheduler so your other processes keep running.

That's the whole "bare metal" API: size, build structs, draw, poll. For a supervised long-running app, you want the next layer.

Switch to ExRatatui.App

ExRatatui.run/1 is fine for scripts. For a real app you want supervision, test support, and transports (SSH, distribution). That's what the ExRatatui.App behaviour gives you.

Replace lib/hello.ex with:

defmodule Hello do
  use ExRatatui.App

  alias ExRatatui.Layout.Rect
  alias ExRatatui.Style
  alias ExRatatui.Widgets.{Block, Paragraph}

  @impl true
  def mount(_opts) do
    {:ok, %{}}
  end

  @impl true
  def render(_state, frame) do
    paragraph = %Paragraph{
      text: "Hello from ExRatatui!\n\nPress any key to exit.",
      style: %Style{fg: :green, modifiers: [:bold]},
      alignment: :center,
      block: %Block{
        title: " Hello World ",
        borders: [:all],
        border_type: :rounded,
        border_style: %Style{fg: :cyan}
      }
    }

    [{paragraph, %Rect{x: 0, y: 0, width: frame.width, height: frame.height}}]
  end

  @impl true
  def handle_event(%ExRatatui.Event.Key{kind: "press"}, state) do
    {:stop, state}
  end

  def handle_event(_event, state), do: {:noreply, state}
end

Three callbacks:

• mount/1 — runs once when the app starts. Returns {:ok, state}. Here the state is empty.
• render/2 — runs after every state change. Gets state and a %Frame{width:, height:} with the current terminal size. Returns [{widget, rect}, ...]. Always return the full scene — the runtime diffs cells between frames for you, but your job is to describe the whole screen.
• handle_event/2 — receives a terminal event. Returns {:noreply, new_state} to keep running or {:stop, state} to quit. Here any key press quits.

Run it:

iex -S mix
iex> {:ok, _pid} = Hello.start_link(name: nil)
iex> Process.monitor(_pid)  # optional — block until the app exits

Under a supervisor, you'd add it like any other child:

# lib/my_tui/application.ex
children = [
  Hello
]

Same behavior as before, but now you have a proper OTP process you can test, supervise, and serve remotely. The SSH and Distribution guides serve this exact module over the network with no code changes.

State and events

A static paragraph isn't very interactive. Let's add a counter.

defmodule Hello do
  use ExRatatui.App

  alias ExRatatui.{Event, Layout}
  alias ExRatatui.Layout.Rect
  alias ExRatatui.Style
  alias ExRatatui.Widgets.{Block, Paragraph}

  @impl true
  def mount(_opts), do: {:ok, %{count: 0}}

  @impl true
  def render(state, frame) do
    area = %Rect{x: 0, y: 0, width: frame.width, height: frame.height}

    widget = %Paragraph{
      text: "\n\n  Count: #{state.count}",
      style: %Style{fg: :white, modifiers: [:bold]},
      alignment: :center,
      block: %Block{title: " Counter ", borders: [:all], border_type: :rounded}
    }

    [{widget, area}]
  end

  @impl true
  def handle_event(%Event.Key{code: "q", kind: "press"}, state), do: {:stop, state}

  def handle_event(%Event.Key{code: code, kind: "press"}, state) when code in ["up", "k"] do
    {:noreply, %{state | count: state.count + 1}}
  end

  def handle_event(%Event.Key{code: code, kind: "press"}, state) when code in ["down", "j"] do
    {:noreply, %{state | count: state.count - 1}}
  end

  def handle_event(_, state), do: {:noreply, state}
end

Two things to notice.

Events come in handle_event clauses. An %Event.Key{} carries :code (a string like "up", "a", "enter", "esc"), :modifiers (e.g. [:ctrl]), and :kind ("press" / "repeat" / "release"). Pattern-match on the shape you care about; fall through to a catch-all {:noreply, state} so unhandled events don't crash.

Return values control the loop:

• {:noreply, state} — update state and re-render
• {:noreply, state, opts} — same, with options like render?: false to skip the re-render (see the Performance guide)
• {:stop, state} — exit cleanly

Run it, press ↑/↓ or k/j, watch the counter. Press q to quit.

Layout

Placing everything in one giant Rect gets old fast. Layout.split/3 divides a rectangle into regions using constraints.

def render(state, frame) do
  area = %Rect{x: 0, y: 0, width: frame.width, height: frame.height}

  [header, body, footer] = Layout.split(area, :vertical, [
    {:length, 3},
    {:min, 0},
    {:length, 1}
  ])

  header_widget = %Paragraph{
    text: "  Counter",
    style: %Style{fg: :cyan, modifiers: [:bold]},
    block: %Block{borders: [:all], border_type: :rounded}
  }

  body_widget = %Paragraph{
    text: "\n\n  Count: #{state.count}",
    alignment: :center,
    block: %Block{borders: [:all], border_type: :rounded}
  }

  footer_widget = %Paragraph{
    text: " ↑/k +1 · ↓/j -1 · q quit",
    style: %Style{fg: :dark_gray}
  }

  [{header_widget, header}, {body_widget, body}, {footer_widget, footer}]
end

Constraint types you'll use most:

• {:length, n} — exactly n cells
• {:min, n} — at least n, expand to fill remaining space
• {:percentage, n} — n% of the parent
• {:ratio, num, den} — num/den of the parent

Layout.split/3 returns a list of %Rect{} in the same order as your constraints. Chain splits to build grids — split vertically into rows, then split each row horizontally into columns. The Building UIs guide goes deep on constraints.

Styling and rich text

%Style{} carries foreground, background, and modifiers. Accepts named colors (:green), RGB ({:rgb, 255, 100, 0}), and 256-color indices ({:indexed, 42}).

%Style{fg: :red, bg: {:rgb, 30, 30, 30}, modifiers: [:bold, :underlined]}

Most widgets take a top-level :style plus part-specific fields like :highlight_style or :border_style.

Rich text lets one string carry per-segment styling. Build a %Span{} for a styled run and group them with %Line{}:

alias ExRatatui.Text.{Line, Span}

%Paragraph{
  text: Line.new([
    Span.new(" ok ", style: %Style{fg: :black, bg: :green}),
    Span.new("  Count: #{state.count}", style: %Style{modifiers: [:bold]})
  ])
}

Paragraph.text, List.items, Table cells, Tabs.titles, and Block.title all accept rich text. Plain strings keep working everywhere — you only reach for spans when you want mixed styling on one line.

Make negative counts red:

style = if state.count < 0, do: %Style{fg: :red}, else: %Style{fg: :white}

body_widget = %Paragraph{
  text: "\n\n  Count: #{state.count}",
  style: style,
  alignment: :center,
  block: %Block{borders: [:all], border_type: :rounded}
}

Capstone: a small todo app

Time to put it together. This app introduces two things you haven't seen:

1. A stateful widget — TextInput owns a NIF-side editor state. You create the state once in mount/1, keep the reference in your state map, and pass it to the widget on every render.

2. Focus management — two regions (input, list) want different keybindings. We track a focus: :input | :list atom and dispatch keys accordingly. For multi-panel apps with more than a couple of regions, ExRatatui.Focus gives you a proper focus ring; see Building UIs for that pattern.

Create lib/todo.ex:

defmodule Todo do
  use ExRatatui.App

  alias ExRatatui.{Event, Layout, Style}
  alias ExRatatui.Layout.Rect
  alias ExRatatui.Widgets.{Block, List, Paragraph, TextInput}

  @impl true
  def mount(_opts) do
    {:ok,
     %{
       input: ExRatatui.text_input_new(),
       items: [],
       selected: 0,
       focus: :input
     }}
  end

  @impl true
  def render(state, frame) do
    area = %Rect{x: 0, y: 0, width: frame.width, height: frame.height}

    [header, input_rect, list_rect, footer] =
      Layout.split(area, :vertical, [
        {:length, 3},
        {:length, 3},
        {:min, 0},
        {:length, 1}
      ])

    [
      {header_widget(), header},
      {input_widget(state), input_rect},
      {list_widget(state), list_rect},
      {footer_widget(), footer}
    ]
  end

  # ---- events ----------------------------------------------------------

  @impl true
  def handle_event(%Event.Key{code: "esc", kind: "press"}, state) do
    {:stop, state}
  end

  def handle_event(%Event.Key{code: "tab", kind: "press"}, state) do
    {:noreply, toggle_focus(state)}
  end

  def handle_event(%Event.Key{kind: "press"} = key, %{focus: :input} = state) do
    {:noreply, handle_input_key(state, key)}
  end

  def handle_event(%Event.Key{kind: "press"} = key, %{focus: :list} = state) do
    {:noreply, handle_list_key(state, key)}
  end

  def handle_event(_event, state), do: {:noreply, state}

  # ---- input focus -----------------------------------------------------

  defp handle_input_key(state, %Event.Key{code: "enter"}) do
    case ExRatatui.text_input_get_value(state.input) do
      "" ->
        state

      text ->
        :ok = ExRatatui.text_input_set_value(state.input, "")
        %{state | items: state.items ++ [text]}
    end
  end

  defp handle_input_key(state, %Event.Key{code: code}) do
    :ok = ExRatatui.text_input_handle_key(state.input, code)
    state
  end

  # ---- list focus ------------------------------------------------------

  defp handle_list_key(state, %Event.Key{code: code}) when code in ["up", "k"] do
    %{state | selected: max(state.selected - 1, 0)}
  end

  defp handle_list_key(state, %Event.Key{code: code}) when code in ["down", "j"] do
    max_index = max(length(state.items) - 1, 0)
    %{state | selected: min(state.selected + 1, max_index)}
  end

  defp handle_list_key(state, %Event.Key{code: "d"}) do
    items = delete_at(state.items, state.selected)
    %{state | items: items, selected: min(state.selected, max(length(items) - 1, 0))}
  end

  defp handle_list_key(state, _), do: state

  # ---- widgets ---------------------------------------------------------

  defp header_widget do
    %Paragraph{
      text: "  Todo",
      style: %Style{fg: :cyan, modifiers: [:bold]},
      block: %Block{borders: [:all], border_type: :rounded, border_style: %Style{fg: :dark_gray}}
    }
  end

  defp input_widget(state) do
    %TextInput{
      state: state.input,
      placeholder: "Add a todo…",
      block: %Block{
        borders: [:all],
        border_type: :rounded,
        border_style: border_style(state.focus, :input)
      }
    }
  end

  defp list_widget(state) do
    %List{
      items: state.items,
      selected: if(state.items == [], do: nil, else: state.selected),
      highlight_symbol: "› ",
      highlight_style: %Style{fg: :black, bg: :yellow, modifiers: [:bold]},
      block: %Block{
        borders: [:all],
        border_type: :rounded,
        border_style: border_style(state.focus, :list)
      }
    }
  end

  defp footer_widget do
    %Paragraph{
      text: "  Tab switch · Enter add · d delete · Esc quit",
      style: %Style{fg: :dark_gray}
    }
  end

  # ---- helpers ---------------------------------------------------------

  defp toggle_focus(%{focus: :input} = state), do: %{state | focus: :list}
  defp toggle_focus(%{focus: :list} = state), do: %{state | focus: :input}

  defp border_style(focus, id) do
    if focus == id,
      do: %Style{fg: :yellow, modifiers: [:bold]},
      else: %Style{fg: :dark_gray}
  end

  defp delete_at(list, n), do: Enum.take(list, n) ++ Enum.drop(list, n + 1)
end

Run it:

iex -S mix
iex> {:ok, pid} = Todo.start_link(name: nil)
iex> ref = Process.monitor(pid)
iex> receive do {:DOWN, ^ref, _, _, _} -> :ok end

Things worth highlighting:

• TextInput state is created in mount/1, never in render/2. Creating it on every render would lose the cursor and typed text between frames. The reference lives in state; the widget just reads it.
• handle_event/2 dispatches by focus. The pattern def handle_event(%Event.Key{…} = key, %{focus: :input} = state) is a clean way to split behavior without nested case.
• Guard against empty state. List.selected is set to nil when there are no items so you don't highlight row zero of an empty list. Delete clamps the new selection to the new length.
• Focus shows visually. The focused region gets a bold yellow border. This is a minimal pattern — for more panels, reach for ExRatatui.Focus.

Where to go next

You now have a working local supervised TUI with input, a list, and focus. From here, pick the guide that matches what you want to learn:

• Building UIs — full widget reference, layout deep-dive, rich text, events, ExRatatui.Focus.
• Callback Runtime — all callbacks (mount, render, handle_event, handle_info, terminate), options, lifecycle details.
• Reducer Runtime — Elm-style alternative with first-class commands, subscriptions, and runtime inspection. Good when you have async work or want structured side effects.
• Custom Widgets — compose primitives into reusable widgets via the ExRatatui.Widget protocol.
• State Machine Patterns — multi-screen apps, modals, conditional UI.
• Testing — headless test backend, inject_event, Runtime.snapshot, property-based tests.
• Debugging — Runtime.snapshot, tracing, buffer inspection, common errors.
• Performance — render?: false, poll tuning, keeping render/2 cheap.
• Running TUIs over SSH — serve this exact app to remote clients.
• Running TUIs over Erlang Distribution — drive the TUI from a different BEAM node.

Or browse the examples/ folder for more patterns — focus_multi_panel.exs, chat_interface.exs, and task_manager/ are good next reads.