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Top 23 C++ Terminal Projects
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Windows Terminal
The new Windows Terminal and the original Windows console host, all in the same place!
Fun fact: if you have Windows Terminal installed, it takes over `conhost.exe` and brings telemetry spying even to old apps which never had it before :D
https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/commit/906edf7002b8ccf...
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JetBrains
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>I made a CLI logs viewers and querier for my job, which is very useful but would have taken me a few days to write (~3k LoC)
I recall The Mythical Man-Month stating a rough calculation that the average software developer writes about 10 net lines of new, production-ready code per day. For a tool like this going up an order of magnitude to about 100 lines of pretty good internal tooling seems reasonable.
OP sounds a few cuts above the 'average' software developer in terms of skill level. But here we also need to point out a CLI log viewer and querier is not the kind of thing you actually needed to be a top tier developer to crank out even in the pre-LLM era, unless you were going for lnav [1] levels of polish.
[1]: https://lnav.org/
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FTXUI
Features: - Functional style. Inspired by [1] and React - Simple and elegant syntax (in my opinion). - Support for UTF8 and fullwidth chars (→ 测试). - No dependencies. - Cross platform. Linux/mac (main target), Windows (experimental thanks to contributors), - WebAssembly. - Keyboard & mouse navigation. Operating systems: - linux emscripten - linux gcc - linux clang - windows msvc - mac clang
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musikcube
a cross-platform, terminal-based music player, audio engine, metadata indexer, and server in c++
Project mention: Show HN: Kew – A Terminal Music Player for Linux | news.ycombinator.com | 2024-10-04I personally use a self hosted musikcube server [0] for playing songs. It has a great TUI and an android app. Highly recommended!
[0] - https://musikcube.com/
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I have replaced it with Eternal Terminal: https://github.com/MisterTea/EternalTerminal
But I don't know how widespread that is.
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InfluxDB
InfluxDB – Built for High-Performance Time Series Workloads. InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now.
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console
This is a modified version of Console 2 for a better experience under Windows Vista/7/8/10 and a better visual rendering. (by cbucher)
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Turbo Vision
A modern port of Turbo Vision 2.0, the classical framework for text-based user interfaces. Now cross-platform and with Unicode support.
Project mention: Microsoft Releases Classic MS-DOS Editor for Linux Written in Rust | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-06-24For those curious, here is a modern port of the C++ Turbo Vision that also supports Unicode:
https://github.com/magiblot/tvision
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Project mention: Show HN: Photo viewer, right in the terminal, cross-platform, no need for x11 | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-07-11
Looks like it is based on stb_image which is good for common formats - jpg, png etc but doesn't support modern formats such as webp and heif. Might be worth it to go with GraphicsMagick instead like timg [1] which I use daily.
[1] https://github.com/hzeller/timg
But looks like a good minimal and portable project.
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Far manager now exists on Linux and Mac: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l
I got it from nixpkgs, not sure if it's easy to install otherwise.
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FabGL
ESP32 Display Controller (VGA, PAL/NTSC Color Composite, SSD1306, ST7789, ILI9341), PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard Controller, Graphics Library, Sound Engine, Game Engine and ANSI/VT Terminal
Display controllers from the 8-bit era were simple conceptually but had a huge parts count, particularly it needs to have memory access logic very similar to what is in the microprocessor. The earliest home computers (TRS-80 Model I, Apple II) had a large parts count which was reduced in the next generation (TRS-80 Color Computer, VIC-20) because the glue logic and display controllers got the same LSI [1] treatment as the CPU.
People who build modern real-hardware fantasy computers [2] struggle with the cost of the display controller if it is done in an authentic style so they wind up using an FPGA or microcontroller (amazingly easy to do with ESP32 [3])
This thing addresses the problem by reusing many of the parts between the CPU and display controller, plus the contrast is not so stark since the CPU part count is greater than 1, unlike the typical retrocomputer.
It's fascinating! It's a minicomputer in the sense that it is built out of low-integration parts, but it is like a microcomputer in important ways, particularly having the closely integrated display controller.
[1] https://vaibhav-pawale19.medium.com/integrated-circuits-ssi-...
[2] http://www.commanderx16.com/
[3] https://github.com/fdivitto/FabGL
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termcolor
Termcolor is a header-only C++ library for printing colored messages to the terminal. Written just for fun with a help of the Force.
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neo
Simulates the digital rain from "The Matrix" (CMatrix clone with 32-bit color and Unicode support) (by st3w)
Project mention: 炊紙(kashikishi) is a text editor that utilizes GPU to edit text in a 3D space | news.ycombinator.com | 2024-10-03 -
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Sevalla
Deploy and host your apps and databases, now with $50 credit! Sevalla is the PaaS you have been looking for! Advanced deployment pipelines, usage-based pricing, preview apps, templates, human support by developers, and much more!
NOTE:
The open source projects on this list are ordered by number of github stars.
The number of mentions indicates repo mentiontions in the last 12 Months or
since we started tracking (Dec 2020).
C++ Terminal discussion
C++ Terminal related posts
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Mosh (Mobile Shell)
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Inspect ANSI control codes and escape sequences
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Nix + CMake FetchContent
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The Cassowary Linear Arithmetic Constraint Solving Algorithm [pdf]
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炊紙(kashikishi) is a text editor that utilizes GPU to edit text in a 3D space
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Show HN: Kew – A Terminal Music Player for Linux
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Terminal: A Unified Platform for Windows Terminal and Console Host
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A note from our sponsor - JetBrains
surveys.jetbrains.com | 1 Sep 2025
Index
What are some of the best open-source Terminal projects in C++? This list will help you:
| # | Project | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Windows Terminal | 99,500 |
| 2 | lnav | 9,083 |
| 3 | ConEmu | 8,905 |
| 4 | FTXUI | 8,686 |
| 5 | Clipboard | 5,376 |
| 6 | musikcube | 4,477 |
| 7 | Eternal Terminal | 3,243 |
| 8 | vtm | 3,134 |
| 9 | console | 2,932 |
| 10 | contour | 2,760 |
| 11 | Turbo Vision | 2,397 |
| 12 | timg | 2,287 |
| 13 | tabulate | 2,082 |
| 14 | far2l | 1,951 |
| 15 | FabGL | 1,591 |
| 16 | rang | 1,538 |
| 17 | im-select | 1,187 |
| 18 | FINAL CUT | 1,099 |
| 19 | termcolor | 889 |
| 20 | neo | 776 |
| 21 | TermOx | 756 |
| 22 | peaclock | 642 |
| 23 | turbo | 566 |
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