How
Code generation only.
iocraft
React-style declarative TUIs and CLI output for Rust.
github.com ↗repo ↗docs ↗HN launch ↗Rust forum announcement ↗
- license
- MIT OR Apache-2.0 · Dual-licensed at the user's option (GitHub reports Apache-2.0).
- language
- Rust
- backing
- Individual: Chris Brown (ccbrown).
- stars
- 1,557 (as of 2026-10-09)
- downloads
- 187k all-time, 53k in the last 90 days (crates.io); 15 reverse dependencies
- latest release
- iocraft-v0.9.1, 2026-09-04
- first release
- 2024-09
ignore
A code-first Rust alternative to ratatui; nothing scene would build on, only minor ideas to borrow.
Ignore it for this purpose.
the steelman: the best honest case for it
iocraft is the answer for Rust developers who find ratatui's immediate mode too low-level: you write components with props, state and hooks like React, lay them out with flexbox (taffy), and get one tree that can be printed to a log, animated inline in a CLI or run as a fullscreen app on Unix and Windows. That inline/print-first design suits developer tools — which is why moonrepo's moon and proto and cachix's devenv use it — and the API is small, readable and dual-licensed MIT/Apache.
scores
| UI as data | 3 scene 5 | Declarative macro in Rust; not serializable |
|---|---|---|
| Agent can drive it | 1 scene 5 | |
| Agent can see it | 2 scene 5 | Render-to-string for tests only |
| Small, targeted edits | 0 scene 5 | |
| Time travel | 0 scene 0 | |
| Live data rate | 2 scene 5 | No numbers; hook-driven rerender |
| Terminal native | 5 scene 5 | |
| Pixel graphics | 0 scene 4 | |
| Teaching | 1 scene 3 | |
| Maturity | 3 scene 1 | Used in production by moonrepo and devenv, small ecosystem |
| Openness | 4 scene 4 | Permissive, single-maintainer control |
iocraft scene now scene planned
how agents use it
Wiring it in
Same as any library: the app author builds a control channel.
Seeing the result
Elements can be rendered to a string; otherwise screen scraping.
Small edits
None from outside.
History
None.
In short
Pleasant declarative Rust API, no agent surface.
architecture
React/Dioxus-style component model in Rust: an element! macro declares trees of components (View, Text, TextInput, …), #[component] functions receive props and Hooks (use_state, use_future, use_context, use_terminal_events), and the runtime re-renders on state change. Layout is flexbox via taffy. The same tree can be printed once to any output (logs, non-TTY), rendered as an inline animated region, or run fullscreen; props and context can be passed by reference to avoid cloning.
- element! macro + #[component] + hooks
- taffy flexbox layout
- Static print, inline render_loop, or fullscreen
- Works on Unix and Windows terminals
- Elements can be rendered to a string (print/to_string) for non-TTY output
performance
No published numbers.
adoption and upkeep
Adoption
Small but real adoption in Rust developer tooling.
Used by: moonrepo moon and proto (via starbase_console), cachix devenv
Maintainability
Actively maintained single-author project.
Releases: Every few weeks to months: v0.8.2 2026-04-28, v0.8.3 05-23, v0.8.4 07-13, v0.8.5 08-20, v0.9.0/0.9.1 09-04. · Contributors: ~27 (GitHub contributors API incl. anonymous) · Recent: ~28 commits, 26 merged PRs since 2026-07-11 (GitHub API) · Bus factor: low: ccbrown has ~194 of the commits; next human contributor 9
weaknesses
- Single maintainer
- Small widget set compared with ratatui
- No images/pixel support
- No introspection or agent protocol
- No published performance data
- Rust's ownership rules limit how React-like it can be (HN discussion)
and thc-scene
Overlap
Rust, declarative component tree, flexbox layout, inline-or-fullscreen rendering.
What scene would be reinventing
Little — scene's declarative tree is data, not a macro DSL; component vocabulary overlaps.
The gap it leaves
Everything agent-facing: serializable UI, socket control, readback, streams, pixels, hot-swap, time travel.
What to borrow
- Inline (non-fullscreen) render mode and print-once mode for one-shot scene output
- taffy as a flexbox engine if scene needs richer layout
sources
- GitHub API repos/ccbrown/iocraft api.github.com
- iocraft README github.com
- crates.io iocraft crates.io
- crates.io reverse dependencies crates.io
- HN: Iocraft news.ycombinator.com
- HN: React model in Rust TUI libraries news.ycombinator.com