Watch the conference talk: Bringing Terminal Aesthetics to the Web With Rust (and Vice Versa)
Build terminal-themed web applications with Rust and WebAssembly. Powered by Ratatui.
Install cargo-generate:
cargo install cargo-generateGenerate a new project:
cargo generate orhun/ratzillaAnd then serve the application on your browser ➡️
See templates for more information.
Add Ratzilla as a dependency in your Cargo.toml:
cargo add ratzillaHere is a minimal example:
use std::{cell::RefCell, io, rc::Rc};
use ratzilla::ratatui::{
layout::Alignment,
style::Color,
widgets::{Block, Paragraph},
Terminal,
};
use ratzilla::{event::KeyCode, DomBackend, WebRenderer};
fn main() -> io::Result<()> {
let counter = Rc::new(RefCell::new(0));
let backend = DomBackend::new()?;
let terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;
terminal.on_key_event({
let counter_cloned = counter.clone();
move |key_event| {
if key_event.code == KeyCode::Char(' ') {
let mut counter = counter_cloned.borrow_mut();
*counter += 1;
}
}
});
terminal.draw_web(move |f| {
let counter = counter.borrow();
f.render_widget(
Paragraph::new(format!("Count: {counter}"))
.alignment(Alignment::Center)
.block(
Block::bordered()
.title("Ratzilla")
.title_alignment(Alignment::Center)
.border_style(Color::Yellow),
),
f.area(),
);
});
Ok(())
}Add your index.html. During build, trunk will automatically inject and initialize your Rust code (compiled to
WebAssembly) as a JavaScript module.
index.html
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
<meta
name="viewport"
content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no"
/>
<link
rel="stylesheet"
href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/firacode/6.2.0/fira_code.min.css"
/>
<link data-trunk rel="rust"/>
<title>Ratzilla</title>
<style>
body {
margin: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100vh;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
align-content: center;
background-color: #121212;
}
pre {
font-family: "Fira Code", monospace;
font-size: 16px;
margin: 0px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!-- (optional) subscribe to the application started event -->
<script type="module">
window.addEventListener("TrunkApplicationStarted", (_) => {
// #[wasm_bindgen] functions are now bound to window.wasmBindings.*
console.log("application initialized");
});
</script>
</body>
</html>And then serve the application on your browser ➡️
Install trunk to build and serve the web application.
cargo install --locked trunkAdd compilation target wasm32-unknown-unknown:
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknownThen serve it on your browser:
trunk serveNow go to http://localhost:8080 and enjoy TUIs in your browser!
To build the WASM bundle, you can run the following command:
trunk build --releaseThen you can serve the server from the dist directory.
Example Build Script
#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail
export HOME=/root
# Install Rustup
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y -t wasm32-unknown-unknown --profile minimal
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"
# Install trunk using binstall
curl -L --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cargo-bins/cargo-binstall/main/install-from-binstall-release.sh | bash
cargo binstall --targets x86_64-unknown-linux-musl -y trunk
# Build project with trunk
trunk build --releaseThere is a Vercel deployment template available for Ratzilla here.
- Minimal (Preview)
- Demo (Preview)
- Pong (Preview)
- Colors RGB (Preview)
- Animations (Preview)
- World Map (Preview)
- https://orhun.dev/ratzilla - The official website of Ratzilla
- https://terminalcollective.org - Terminal Collective community website
- https://www.function-type.com/tusistor - Resistor calculator
- http://timbeck.me - Personal website of Tim Beck
- https://jetpham.com - Conway's Game of Life
- https://map.apt-swarm.orca.toys - Map of apt-swarm p2p locations
- TachyonFX FTL - DSL editor and previewer for TachyonFX effects
- https://emrecansuster.com - Personal website of Emrecan Şuşter (source)
- https://junkdog.github.io/exabind - A tachyonfx tech demo: animated KDE keyboard shortcut viewer
Thanks to Webatui projects for the inspiration.
Special thanks to:
- Martin Blasko for his huge help with the initial implementation.
- Adrian Papari for implementing WebGL2 backend.
Lastly, thanks to Ratatui for providing the core UI components.
Pull requests are welcome!
Consider submitting your ideas via issues first and check out the existing issues.
Licensed under either of Apache License Version 2.0 or The MIT License at your option.
🦀 ノ( º _ º ノ) - respect crables!
Copyright © 2025, Orhun Parmaksız