Pi Tui

Pi TUI library (@mariozechner/pi-tui)

Grounding

1. pi-mono/packages/tui/README.md — core TUI concepts, Overlays, Component interface, Focusable IME, Built-in Components, and Differential Rendering.
2. pi-mono/packages/coding-agent/docs/tui.md — agent-specific TUI component usage (if applicable).
3. pi-mono/packages/tui/src/ — read specific component implementations when needing deeper context.

Invariants

• Synchronized Output: Uses CSI 2026 for atomic screen updates. Do not attempt to bypass differential rendering with raw console.log when the TUI is active.
• Component Interface: Each line returned by render(width) MUST NOT exceed the width parameter; use truncateToWidth or wrapTextWithAnsi.
• IME Support: Components needing text input (cursors) must implement the Focusable interface to position the hardware cursor correctly.

Workflows

• Custom Component: Implement Component interface (render, handleInput, invalidate). Check width constraints explicitly.
• Overlays: Use tui.showOverlay(component, options) for floating UI elements like dialogs, menus, or alerts.
• Key Detection: Use matchesKey(data, Key.xxx) for keyboard input detection instead of manual string matching.

Anti-patterns

• Do not use generic string length for text formatting; always use visibleWidth and truncateToWidth to account for ANSI escape codes properly.
• Do not clear the screen manually; let the differential rendering strategies handle updates.