# cosmos72/twin

Text mode window environment. A terminal emulator and multiplexer with mouse support, overlapped windows and networked clients. Text-mode equivalent of X11 server + VNC server

Repository: https://github.com/cosmos72/twin
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/twin
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-08-03T21:08:14+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 32, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4316, "days_push": 30, "days_rel": 242, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1056, forks 61 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:24.525736+00:00)

## What it is
Twin is a text-mode windowing environment that acts like a terminal emulator and multiplexer with overlapping windows, mouse support, and network-transparent display clients. It is the text-mode equivalent of an X11 server combined with a VNC server, allowing displays to be attached and detached on the fly.

## Use cases
- run multiple terminal windows inside a plain text console
- detach and reattach terminal sessions across machines over the network
- use a mouse with overlapping windows in a text-only environment
- share a text-mode session across multiple displays like VNC
- replace screen or tmux with a full windowing text environment
- run a multi-window terminal on the Linux console or over SSH

## When to choose
- you work primarily in text terminals but want window management and mouse support
- you need network-transparent attach/detach of text sessions across displays
- you want a text-mode alternative to X11 plus VNC
- you need a terminal multiplexer that works on the Linux console, X11, and remote terminals

## When to avoid
- you only need simple session persistence and are happy with tmux or screen
- you need a graphical desktop environment with real GUI applications
- you require polished, well-documented client APIs for programmatic use
- you need support on operating systems beyond Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, or Android

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: terminal-ui, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: bsd, cli, cross-platform
- tags: terminal-multiplexer, window-manager, text-mode, remote-display, detach-attach, mouse-support, truecolor, command-line, linux, macos, android

## Member repositories
- cosmos72/twin (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:24.525736+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 2026-08-30T06:58:22.129460+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cosmos72/twin (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:24.525736+00:00, sha eb0ae69a45c7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.