# gdamore/tcell

Tcell is an alternate terminal package, similar in some ways to termbox, but better in others.

Repository: https://github.com/gdamore/tcell
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tcell
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-24T15:47:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 98, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3993, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": 13, "gap_med": 2.0, "n_releases_24m": 31}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5216, forks 372 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:13.120514+00:00)

## What it is
Tcell is a pure Go library providing a cell-based view for text terminals, inspired by termbox but with more features and portability. It enables building terminal user interfaces without CGO across Linux, macOS, Windows, and WebAssembly.

## Use cases
- build a TUI application in Go
- render colored text and styles in the terminal
- handle keyboard and mouse input in a terminal app
- create a full-screen terminal dashboard
- replace termbox with a more portable Go terminal library
- draw cell-based UIs in a terminal emulator like XTerm

## When to avoid
- you need a web-based UI rather than a text terminal
- you are not programming in Go
- you need a high-level widget framework rather than a low-level cell buffer

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: terminal-ui, developer-tools, gui
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, wasm, go
- tags: tui, termbox-alternative, text-terminals, pure-go, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- gdamore/tcell (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:13.120514+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:00:10.541204+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/gdamore/tcell (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:13.120514+00:00, sha 791ee193315f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.