#+TITLE: cl-tui — Reusable Common Lisp Terminal UI Framework
#+STARTUP: content
#+FILETAGS: :project:cl-tui:readme:

* cl-tui

A reusable Common Lisp framework for building rich terminal user interfaces.
Built on croatoan (ncurses) with Yoga for Flexbox layout. Provides a component
tree model with dirty-tracking, incremental rendering, layered keybinding,
theme engine, and full mouse support — the primitives needed to match the TUI
quality of Claude Code and OpenCode from Common Lisp.

** Why

Common Lisp has no reusable terminal UI framework at the level of Python's
Rich/prompt_toolkit or Go's Bubble Tea. Every CL project that wants a
terminal UI either builds ncurses from scratch or uses a text-only REPL.
cl-tui fills that gap — a component library with Flexbox layout, semantic
theming, layered keybinding, and full mouse support. Build a terminal UI once,
reuse it everywhere.

Terminal UIs also work over SSH. A Qt or browser-based UI requires a local
display. A cl-tui application runs remotely — same code, same components,
accessible from anywhere.

** Architecture

```
Application code (any CL project)
  └── cl-tui (layout, components, theme, events, dialogs)
       └── Yoga (Flexbox layout — C library via FFI)
       └── croatoan (ncurses terminal rendering)
```

cl-tui depends only on croatoan and Yoga. It is not tied to any application.

** Dependencies

- Common Lisp (SBCL tested)
- croatoan — ncurses binding for terminal rendering
- Yoga — Flexbox layout engine (C library, loaded via CFFI)
- Quicklisp libraries as needed (ironclad for hashing, bordeaux-threads)

** Status

v0.1.0 — Layout engine (in progress)

See ~docs/ROADMAP.org~ for the full release plan.

** License

TBD
# Test