flutter_alacritty

Flutter terminal widget powered by an Alacritty-based Rust engine, with PTY support via flutter_pty.

Screenshots

Flutter Alacritty terminal

Requirements

  • Flutter 3.3+
  • Dart 3.11+
  • Rust toolchain (for building the native engine)
  • Linux, macOS, or Windows desktop (primary targets)

Use as a dependency

dependencies:
  flutter_alacritty: ^2.1.0

Use as a library

flutter_alacritty ships three public types: a TerminalEngine (the alacritty handle), a TerminalController (selection / search / scroll state), and a TerminalView widget. Wire any PtyBackend to the engine with two Stream subscriptions:

import 'dart:async';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_alacritty/flutter_alacritty.dart';
import 'package:flutter_alacritty/src/rust/frb_generated.dart';

Future<void> main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  await RustLib.init();
  runApp(const MaterialApp(home: _TerminalScaffold()));
}

class _TerminalScaffold extends StatefulWidget {
  const _TerminalScaffold();
  @override
  State<_TerminalScaffold> createState() => _TerminalScaffoldState();
}

class _TerminalScaffoldState extends State<_TerminalScaffold> {
  late final _engine = TerminalEngine(config: TerminalConfig.defaults());
  late final _controller = TerminalController()..attach(_engine);
  late final PtyBackend _pty = FlutterPtyBackend(rows: 24, columns: 80);
  late final StreamSubscription _ptyIn = _pty.output.listen(_engine.feed);
  late final StreamSubscription _ptyOut = _engine.output.listen(_pty.write);

  @override
  void dispose() {
    _ptyIn.cancel();
    _ptyOut.cancel();
    _pty.kill();
    _controller.dispose();
    _engine.dispose();
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) => ValueListenableBuilder<String>(
        valueListenable: _engine.title,
        builder: (_, title, __) => Scaffold(
          appBar: AppBar(title: Text(title)),
          body: TerminalView(_engine, controller: _controller),
        ),
      );
}

See docs/library-api.md for the full API walkthrough: every TerminalEngine / TerminalController / TerminalView member, shortcut customization patterns, callbacks, theming, and SSH / remote-PTY wiring. The reference consumer with drag-and-drop, right-click menu, restart overlay, and url_launcher integration lives at lib/example/example_app.dart.

Clone (with Rust FFI submodule)

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/hhoao/flutter_alacritty.git
# existing clone:
git submodule update --init --recursive

The rust_lib_flutter_alacritty plugin lives in packages/rust_lib_flutter_alacritty/ as a git submodule.

Package Linux (deb + AppImage)

See linux/packaging/README.md for detailed steps. Briefly:

dart pub global activate fastforge
git submodule update --init --recursive
flutter pub get
fastforge release --name dev
# Output: dist/{version}/flutter_alacritty-{version}-linux.deb, etc.

Run the demo app (from git checkout)

flutter pub get
flutter run -d linux   # or macos / windows

Publishing to pub.dev

This repo ships two packages:

Package Directory Publish first?
rust_lib_flutter_alacritty packages/rust_lib_flutter_alacritty/ (submodule) Yes
flutter_alacritty repo root After the plugin is on pub.dev

See PUBLISHING.md for the full checklist.

Projects using this library

Project Description
TeamPilot Desktop client for terminal AI agent teams: per-member embedded terminals (local PTY or SSH), team/model configuration, and a multi-tab chat workbench. Built on flutter_alacritty for rendering.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Libraries

config/color_parse
config/config_loader
config/platform_font_defaults
config/terminal_config
controller/terminal_controller
debug/terminal_scroll_trace
engine/engine_binding
engine/terminal_engine
engine/terminal_engine_client
example/example_app
example/terminal_history_scrollbar
example/terminal_scrollbar_geometry
flutter_alacritty
Flutter terminal UI backed by an Alacritty-based Rust engine.
input/ime_key_routing
input/ime_session
input/key_bindings
input/key_input
input/mouse_input
input/paste
input/program_scroll_encoder
input/scroll_accumulator
input/scroll_destination
input/term_mode
pty/flutter_pty_backend
pty/pty_backend
render/box_drawing
render/cell_flags
render/cell_metrics
render/glyph_atlas
render/glyph_cache
render/mirror_grid
render/terminal_painter
theme/terminal_theme
Public, immutable theme + text-style data slices over TerminalConfig.
ui/preedit_overlay
ui/terminal_scroll_controller
ui/terminal_shortcuts
ui/terminal_view
ui/terminal_viewport
ui/terminal_viewport_controller
ui/viewport_geometry
ui/viewport_resolver