React for interactive command-line apps.
github.com ↗repo ↗docs ↗ink-testing-library ↗Claude Code renderer rewrite (issue #769 comment) ↗Claude Code fullscreen renderer docs ↗v8.0.0 release ↗
Ink is the terminal target of the JS/A2UI world; scene should interoperate with the specs that target Ink rather than compete with Ink itself.
Complement it: it does a neighbouring job; interoperate.
Ink made the terminal a React target, and that single idea is why the agent CLI wave happened in JavaScript: Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, Wrangler, Shopify and Prisma all shipped on it, and 7.8M installs a week follow. Every frontend engineer — and every model — already knows how to write it; components, hooks, context and Suspense just work, with Yoga flexbox for layout. Its default inline mode with <Static> output keeps native scrollback, selection and Cmd+F, a trade-off Anthropic explicitly defended for Claude Code. Ink is also where declarative agent UI lands in the terminal today: A2UI's official terminal renderer and json-render both target Ink, so a JSON spec from an agent becomes a live Ink tree with no new runtime. React DevTools lets you inspect and edit a running CLI's props live. In 2026 it is actively maintained again, with incremental rendering, kitty keyboard, scroll views and screen-reader support.
| UI as data | 3 scene 5 | JSX; A2UI/json-render add a JSON layer on top, but that is not Ink |
|---|---|---|
| Agent can drive it | 2 scene 5 | React DevTools live prop editing is an API, but human-oriented; no agent protocol |
| Agent can see it | 3 scene 5 | Structured tree via DevTools; lastFrame() in tests |
| Small, targeted edits | 2 scene 5 | |
| Time travel | 0 scene 0 | |
| Live data rate | 3 scene 5 | 30 fps default cap; no throughput numbers |
| Terminal native | 5 scene 5 | |
| Pixel graphics | 0 scene 4 | No image support in core found |
| Teaching | 1 scene 3 | |
| Maturity | 5 scene 1 | |
| Openness | 5 scene 4 | MIT, individual community maintainers |
Ink scene now scene planned
Code generation (agents write Ink/React fluently). Live: React DevTools over its WebSocket backend can inspect the tree and edit props of a running CLI (DEV=true). Declarative-UI projects use Ink as the terminal target: A2UI (a2ui-ink) and json-render (@json-render/ink) map JSON specs onto Ink components.
Low for code-gen; for live control you either speak the React DevTools protocol or put a JSON spec layer (A2UI/json-render) in front of Ink.
React DevTools shows the component tree and props; ink-testing-library gives lastFrame() text in tests; otherwise screen scraping.
DevTools prop edits (human-oriented); via json-render/A2UI, spec-level patches.
None built in.
Not agent-drivable by itself, but the de facto terminal backend that JSON agent-UI specs compile to.
A custom React reconciler builds a tree of Box/Text host nodes laid out with Yoga (flexbox); on each commit Ink renders the tree to a string and writes it to stdout, either redrawing the dynamic region or, with incrementalRendering, only changed lines (v8 skips unchanged line prefixes). <Static> writes permanent output above the live region, which is what lets CLIs keep native scrollback. Hooks (useInput, usePaste, useFocus, useBoxMetrics, useWindowSize) give input and measurement; options cover alternateScreen, maxFps (default 30), concurrent React, kitty keyboard, screen-reader output.
Ink publishes no benchmarks; the best public evidence is negative (Claude Code's rewrite) plus upstream fixes (incremental rendering, PR #781; v8 prefix skipping).
The default terminal renderer for the JS agent wave; README lists Claude Code, Gemini CLI and Copilot CLI first.
Used by: Claude Code (originally; now React on Anthropic's own renderer), Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Cloudflare Wrangler, Shopify CLI, Prisma, Canva CLI, Linear (internal), Qodo Command, A2UI's terminal renderer (a2ui-ink) and json-render's @json-render/ink
Revived and moving fast in 2026 (v7 overhauled input, v8 requires React 19.3+, adds scroll offsets and finer incremental rendering).
Releases: Active: v7.0.4 2026-05-24, v7.0.5 05-29, v7.0.6 06-12, v7.1.0 06-17, v7.1.1 07-16, v8.0.0 10-03. · Contributors: ~181 (GitHub contributors API incl. anonymous) · Recent: ~89 commits, 28 merged PRs since 2026-07-11 (GitHub API) · Bus factor: medium: two well-known maintainers, no company; very wide downstream use
Declarative component tree, keyed reconciliation preserving view state (scene's ids work like React keys), terminal renderer for JSON agent-UI specs (via A2UI/json-render).
Reconciliation keyed by id and a component vocabulary; for JS hosts, A2UI+Ink already gives 'agent sends JSON, terminal renders it'.
Cell-level diffing renderer, socket control of a live instance, readback of state + screen, data streams that bypass the model, pixel layer, hot-swap, time travel.
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