How
Code generation (C/Python/Rust). No protocol or socket.
Notcurses
C TUI library for maximal terminals: pixels, video, planes, threads.
notcurses.com ↗repo ↗docs ↗Hacking the Planet with Notcurses (book PDF) ↗dankwiki: Notcurses (terminal performance table) ↗Rust bindings libnotcurses-sys ↗
- license
- Apache-2.0 · COPYRIGHT file is Apache-2.0; GitHub API reports NOASSERTION because of the file layout.
- language
- C (C++ wrappers; Python and Rust bindings)
- backing
- Individual: Nick Black (dankamongmen); GitHub Sponsors.
- stars
- 4,740 (as of 2026-10-09)
- downloads
- Distributed mainly via distro packages (Repology); Rust libnotcurses-sys 169k all-time, 954 in the last 90 days (crates.io)
- latest release
- v3.0.17, 2025-10-28
- first release
- 2019-11
borrow
Its graphics engineering is the reference for scene's pixel layer, but it's a C library in maintenance mode with no agent model.
Borrow from it: take a specific idea, API or format.
the steelman: the best honest case for it
Notcurses is the most ambitious terminal graphics engine ever shipped: z-ordered planes with transparency composited into each frame, images and full video blitted through Sixel, Kitty or the Linux framebuffer, and a ladder of Unicode blitters (half-blocks to octants and braille) when pixels are unavailable — all thread-safe, all with 24-bit colour quantized per terminal, and measured with a published per-terminal benchmark methodology. It 'assumes the maximum and steps down', which is exactly the right stance for an agent-era terminal that wants pixels. It has a free guidebook, Python and Rust bindings, and is widely packaged across distributions (Repology).
scores
| UI as data | 0 scene 5 | Imperative C API on planes |
|---|---|---|
| Agent can drive it | 1 scene 5 | |
| Agent can see it | 2 scene 5 | Cell readback exists but only in-process |
| Small, targeted edits | 0 scene 5 | |
| Time travel | 0 scene 0 | |
| Live data rate | 4 scene 5 | Published hundreds of FPS (old measurements) |
| Terminal native | 5 scene 5 | |
| Pixel graphics | 5 scene 4 | Sixel/Kitty/fbcon bitmaps, video, plane compositing with alpha: the richest pixel story in the group |
| Teaching | 1 scene 3 | |
| Maturity | 3 scene 1 | Stable 3.x, widely packaged, few visible production users, slowing maintenance |
| Openness | 4 scene 4 | Apache-2.0 but a one-person project |
Notcurses scene now scene planned
how agents use it
Wiring it in
High: C API, manual memory, app must add its own control layer.
Seeing the result
In-process the app can read rendered cells (notcurses_at_yx, ncplane_contents); otherwise screen scraping.
Small edits
None from outside.
History
None.
In short
A powerful renderer with no agent story.
architecture
Notcurses abandons the X/Open Curses API: drawing happens on z-ordered ncplanes grouped into piles; notcurses_render composites planes (with transparency, blending) into a frame and rasterizes only the damage to the terminal. Cells are grapheme-cluster based with 24-bit color quantized as needed. ncvisuals load images/video (FFmpeg or OpenImageIO) and blit via the best available method — Sixel, Kitty, Linux framebuffer, or Unicode half/quadrant/sextant/octant/braille blitters. Thread safety was a design goal. Higher-level widgets (menus, readers, plots, reels, trees, selectors) are built in.
- z-ordered planes and piles with alpha/blending
- Pixel blitting via Sixel, Kitty, fbcon; Unicode blitters down to octants
- Video playback via FFmpeg
- Thread-safe C API; Python and Rust bindings
- Assumes the most capable terminal and steps down
- Can read back rendered cells (ncplane_contents, notcurses_at_yx)
performance
The only project in this group with a published, reproducible frame-rate methodology (notcurses-demo, three runs per terminal), though the table is from ~2019-2020 terminal versions.
- 'fast as shit' (README) github.com ↗
- notcurses-demo benchmark per terminal (old builds): kitty 0.15.0 682.3 FPS / 72.9 s, alacritty 0.4.1 553.7 FPS / 74.0 s, VTE 205.9 FPS, xterm 11.87 FPS nick-black.com ↗
adoption and upkeep
Adoption
Respected and widely packaged, but no prominent applications found; best known for notcurses-demo and the author's own tools (ncls, ncplayer).
Maintainability
Feature-complete and stable at 3.x but in maintenance mode with a single author.
Releases: Slowing: v3.0.12 2025-01-09, v3.0.13 01-11, v3.0.14 04-27, v3.0.15 04-30, v3.0.16 05-04, v3.0.17 10-28; nothing since. · Contributors: ~50 (GitHub contributors API incl. anonymous) · Recent: 0 commits and 0 merged PRs since 2026-07-11; 33 commits in the past year, last 2026-05-18 (GitHub API); 332 open issues · Bus factor: low: Nick Black has ~7,950 of the commits
weaknesses
- Single author; no release since 2025-10-28 and no commits since 2026-05-18
- 332 open issues
- C API with manual lifetimes; heavy optional multimedia deps (FFmpeg/OIIO)
- No widget-level declarative model or agent surface
- Performance table measured on 2019-2020 terminal versions
- Few visible production users
and thc-scene
Overlap
Pixel layer under/over text, capability probing with cell fallbacks, compositing of layers.
What scene would be reinventing
Plane compositing with alpha and the pixel-protocol ladder with Unicode blitter fallbacks — Notcurses solved these years ago (in C).
The gap it leaves
Serializable UI, live agent control and readback, streams, hot-swap, time travel, modern maintenance.
What to borrow
- The blitter ladder (pixel → octant/sextant/quadrant/half-block/braille) as scene's pixel fallback
- 'Assume the maximum and step down' only on positive terminal confirmation (it won't use bitmaps unless the terminal says so)
- Planes/piles as a mental model for scene's callout and card layers
- notcurses-demo-style per-terminal benchmark methodology
sources
- GitHub API repos/dankamongmen/notcurses api.github.com
- Notcurses README github.com
- COPYRIGHT (Apache-2.0) github.com
- dankwiki Notcurses (performance table) nick-black.com
- LWN: Hacking the planet with Notcurses lwn.net
- crates.io libnotcurses-sys crates.io