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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!
Y'know, I spent a week investigating doing something similar with the Windows Terminal about 18 months ago: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/16495#issuecomm...
There's even more under the "Updates archive" expando in that post.
It was a pretty compelling prototype. But after I played with Polyglot Notebooks[1], I pretty much just abandoned that experiment. There's a _lot_ of UI that needs to be written to build a notebook-like experience. But the Polyglot notebooks took care of that by just converting the commandline backend to a jupyter kernel.
I've been writing more and more script-like experiments in those ever since. Just seems so much more natural to have a big-ol doc full of notes, that just so happens to also have play buttons to Do The Thing.
[1]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-dotne...
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Stream
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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
Project mention: Why I Built a C++ Linux System Monitor (And Why You Should Too) | dev.to | 2025-10-17Built with FTXUI for the terminal interface
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musikcube
a cross-platform, terminal-based music player, audio engine, metadata indexer, and server in c++
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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.
- Project mention: A desktop environment without graphics (tmux-like) | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-09-11
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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)
- Project mention: Rio Terminal: A hardware-accelerated GPU terminal emulator | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-09-30
Those two are already balanced by Zutty and Rio. So let's have a look around at some of the emulators that make using the GPU a marketing point.
DarkTile (https://github.com/liamg/darktile) accepts TTF and OTF, so presumably if you can get your bitmap font of choice converted into those formats you are alright.
GhosTTY (https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty) gained proper bitmap font support just last month, the issues list says, but is reliant upon what FreeType and CoreText can handle. It has an open issue discussing those vis-a-vis bitmap fonts.
Trap2 (https://github.com/tale/trap2) likewise relies upon FreeType.
Contour (https://github.com/contour-terminal/contour) at least appears to have bitmap font support.
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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: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-11-03
I run Kitty and use this feature regularly. Most of the time, I rely on it within Yazi [1], a TUI file manager, but I can also display plots within the Julia REPL, thanks to the KittyTerminalImages.jl package [2]. It's even more crucial when I'm navigating a remote directory and need to check an image file, as I usually have timg [3] installed on those servers. Once you discover how valuable this is, it becomes a permanent part of your workflow.
[1] https://yazi-rs.github.io/
[2] https://github.com/simonschoelly/KittyTerminalImages.jl
[3] https://github.com/hzeller/timg
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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)
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SaaSHub
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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).
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Rio Terminal: A hardware-accelerated GPU terminal emulator
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Libghostty Is Coming
- A note from our sponsor - SaaSHub www.saashub.com | 23 Dec 2025
Index
What are some of the best open-source Terminal projects in C++? This list will help you:
| # | Project | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Windows Terminal | 101,132 |
| 2 | lnav | 9,440 |
| 3 | FTXUI | 9,250 |
| 4 | ConEmu | 9,013 |
| 5 | Clipboard | 5,579 |
| 6 | musikcube | 4,625 |
| 7 | Eternal Terminal | 3,414 |
| 8 | vtm | 3,212 |
| 9 | console | 2,928 |
| 10 | contour | 2,838 |
| 11 | Turbo Vision | 2,562 |
| 12 | timg | 2,435 |
| 13 | tabulate | 2,122 |
| 14 | far2l | 2,070 |
| 15 | FabGL | 1,621 |
| 16 | rang | 1,556 |
| 17 | im-select | 1,231 |
| 18 | FINAL CUT | 1,123 |
| 19 | termcolor | 910 |
| 20 | TermOx | 810 |
| 21 | neo | 796 |
| 22 | peaclock | 697 |
| 23 | turbo | 600 |
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