terminice

Terminal interfaces, finally done right.

The ultimate UI toolkit for Dart command-line apps.

terminice gives you 30+ ready-to-use terminal components—from simple prompts to complex searchable menus and config editors.

Universal theming out of the box. Every single prompt, selector, picker, and indicator automatically adapts to your chosen theme. Pick from 11 built-in themes or customize your own via a fluent API.

Zero boilerplate. No widget trees or manual state management. Just call a method and get a polished, keyboard-driven UI instantly.

terminice interactive showcase

Features

  • 30+ built-in prompts — Text, password, confirm, multiline editor, slider, range, rating, date, form, and 7 selector variants. Plus pickers for files, paths, colors, and dates.
  • 11 color themes — Dark, Matrix, Fire, Pastel, Ocean, Monochrome, Neon, Arcane, Phantom, and display modes (Minimal, Compact, Verbose). Mix and match colors, glyphs, and features freely.
  • Config editor — A searchable, nested settings editor that composes existing prompts into a unified configuration flow with live theme switching, validation, and JSON serialization.
  • Progress indicators — Loading spinners, inline spinners, progress bars, inline progress bars, and progress dots, all theme-integrated.
  • Zero boilerplate — One import, one global instance, chainable theme accessors. No setup, no context objects, no widget trees.
  • Cross-platform — Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Backed by a testable terminal abstraction you can swap for custom I/O.
  • Modular architecture — Built on terminice_core, which exposes navigation primitives, prompt scaffolds, and rendering utilities for when you need full control.

Table of Contents

🚀 Quick Start

Get up and running in seconds. No setup required—just import and call.

1. Ask for input

Gather text, passwords, or confirmations with a single line of code.

final name = terminice.text('Project name');
final ship = terminice.confirm(prompt: 'Ship to production?', message: 'Are you sure?');
terminice text and confirm prompts

2. Build interactive menus

Need a searchable list? It's just as easy.

final lang = terminice.searchSelector(
  prompt: 'Language',
  options: ['Dart', 'Go', 'Rust', 'TypeScript'],
  showSearch: true,
);
terminice search selector

3. Change themes instantly

Want a different vibe? Just chain a theme name before your prompt.

// Hacker green
final secret = terminice.matrix.password('Passphrase');

// High-energy cyberpunk
final memory = terminice.neon.slider('Memory', min: 128, max: 2048);
terminice themes showcase

📖 How to use terminice

terminice is designed to be as frictionless as possible. There are no widget trees, no state management classes, and no complex setup.

The Global Instance

Everything starts with the global terminice instance. All prompts, selectors, and indicators are exposed as extension methods on this single object.

import 'package:terminice/terminice.dart';

void main() {
  // Use the global instance directly
  terminice.text('What is your name?');
}

Synchronous Execution

Unlike many Dart libraries, terminice is fully synchronous. You do not need to await any prompt. When you call a method, it blocks execution until the user provides input or cancels, returning the result directly.

// No async/await required!
final name = terminice.text('Name');
final age = terminice.slider('Age', min: 0, max: 100);

print('Hello $name, you are $age years old.');

(Note: Indicators like loadingSpinner return an object that you control asynchronously, but user-input prompts are synchronous).

Shared API Design

Most tools in the library share a consistent set of parameters to keep the API predictable:

  • prompt or label: The main text displayed to the user.
  • initial or defaultValue: The starting value or selection.
  • required: (On text/password prompts) Prevents the user from submitting an empty value.
  • validator: A function that returns a String? error message if the input is invalid.

Validation

Validating input is built directly into the prompts. Simply provide a validator function that returns a String error message if the input is invalid, or null if it passes.

final email = terminice.text(
  'Email address',
  validator: (val) {
    if (!val.contains('@')) return 'Please enter a valid email';
    return null; // Input is valid
  },
);

For basic required fields, you don't even need a custom validator. Just use the required flag:

final name = terminice.text(
  'Full name',
  required: true, // Automatically prevents empty submissions
);

Validation works seamlessly with other tools too, like the multiline editor:

final commitMsg = terminice.multiline(
  'Commit message',
  validator: (lines) {
    if (lines.isEmpty) return 'Message cannot be empty';
    if (lines.first.length > 50) return 'First line must be under 50 chars';
    return null;
  },
);

Theming & Chaining

You don't need to pass a theme object to every prompt. Instead, terminice uses a fluent, chainable API. Every theme or display mode getter returns a new, scoped Terminice instance.

// Chain a theme and a display mode directly
final choice = terminice.ocean.compact.confirm(message: 'Save changes?');

// Or save a scoped instance for reuse
final t = terminice.neon.minimal;
final user = t.text('Username');
final pass = t.password('Password');

For a complete list of available tools, check out The Terminice Catalogue below.

📚 The terminice Catalogue

Explore the complete collection of tools available in terminice. Every tool is fully themeable and ready to use with zero setup.

📝 Prompts

Standard input controls for gathering user data.

  • text — Single-line text input.
  • password — Secure, masked text input.
  • confirm — Yes/No boolean confirmation.
  • multiline — Multi-line text editor.
  • slider — Numeric selection along a single axis.
  • range — Dual-thumb slider for selecting a min/max range.
  • rating — Star-based rating input.
  • date — Simple date text entry.
  • form — Group multiple prompts into a single cohesive form.

🎯 Selectors

Interactive menus for choosing from predefined options.

  • searchSelector — Filterable list of options.
  • choiceSelector — Simple single-choice list.
  • checkboxSelector — Multi-select list with checkboxes.
  • gridSelector — 2D grid selection.
  • tagSelector — Select and manage multiple tags.
  • toggleGroup — Segmented control for mutually exclusive options.
  • commandPalette — Global command launcher with fuzzy search.

🗂️ Pickers

Specialized components for selecting complex data types.

  • filePicker — Browse and select files from the filesystem.
  • pathPicker — Browse and select directories.
  • colorPicker — Interactive color selection.
  • datePicker — Calendar-based date selection.

⏳ Indicators

Visual feedback for long-running tasks.

  • loadingSpinner — Full-featured loading animation.
  • inlineSpinner — Compact loading animation for inline use.
  • progressBar — Standard progress bar with percentage.
  • inlineProgressBar — Compact progress bar.
  • progressDots — Minimalist dot-based progress indicator.

⚙️ Configuration & Utilities

Advanced tools for building full CLI applications.

  • configEditor — A searchable, nested settings editor for complex configurations.
  • cheatSheet — Display a quick reference guide.
  • helpCenter — Interactive help documentation viewer.
  • hotkeyGuide — Display available keyboard shortcuts.
  • themeDemo — Showcase all available themes and colors.

▧ Theming & Display Modes

terminice makes styling effortless. Every prompt adapts automatically to the selected theme and display mode. Just chain the theme or mode accessor before calling any prompt.

Dark Matrix Fire
Pastel Ocean Monochrome
Neon Arcane Phantom

❖ Available Themes

Theme Description Usage
◉ Dark The default. Clean, subtle, professional. terminice.dark
▤ Matrix Hacker green on black. terminice.matrix
▧ Fire Warm reds, oranges, and yellows. terminice.fire
▦ Pastel Soft, muted, and friendly colors. terminice.pastel
▪ Ocean Deep blues and calming cyans. terminice.ocean
▣ Monochrome Pure black and white. High contrast. terminice.monochrome
▱ Neon Bright, high-energy cyberpunk colors. terminice.neon
▰ Arcane Mystical purples and magentas. terminice.arcane
◈ Phantom Ghostly grays and ethereal tones. terminice.phantom

◩ Display Modes

Control the verbosity and framing of your prompts:

  • verbose (Default) — Full borders, contextual hints, and clear separation.
  • compact — Keeps borders but removes hints for a tighter layout.
  • minimal — Strips away borders and frames for a classic, inline CLI feel.

⌨ Example

// Combine theme and display mode
final name = terminice.ocean.compact.text('Name');

// Store a themed instance for consistency
final t = terminice.fire.minimal;
final age = t.text('Age');
final role = t.searchSelector(prompt: 'Role', options: ['Admin', 'User']);

Libraries

terminice