Bubbletea TUI Development

Production-ready skill for building beautiful terminal user interfaces with Go, Bubbletea, and Lipgloss.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Creating new TUI applications with Go
• Adding Bubbletea components to existing apps
• Fixing layout/rendering issues (borders, alignment, overflow)
• Implementing mouse/keyboard interactions
• Building dual-pane or multi-panel layouts
• Adding visual effects (metaballs, waves, rainbow text)
• Troubleshooting TUI rendering problems

Core Principles

CRITICAL: Before implementing ANY layout, consult references/golden-rules.md for the 4 Golden Rules. These rules prevent the most common and frustrating TUI layout bugs.

The 4 Golden Rules (Summary)

1. Always Account for Borders - Subtract 2 from height calculations BEFORE rendering panels
2. Never Auto-Wrap in Bordered Panels - Always truncate text explicitly
3. Match Mouse Detection to Layout - Use X coords for horizontal, Y coords for vertical
4. Use Weights, Not Pixels - Proportional layouts scale perfectly

Full details and examples in references/golden-rules.md.

Creating New Projects

This project includes a production-ready template system. When this skill is bundled with a new project (via new_project.sh), use the existing template structure as the starting point.

Project Structure

All new projects follow this architecture:

your-app/
├── main.go              # Entry point (minimal, ~21 lines)
├── types.go             # Type definitions, structs, enums
├── model.go             # Model initialization & layout calculation
├── update.go            # Message dispatcher
├── update_keyboard.go   # Keyboard handling
├── update_mouse.go      # Mouse handling
├── view.go              # View rendering & layouts
├── styles.go            # Lipgloss style definitions
├── config.go            # Configuration management
└── .claude/skills/bubbletea/  # This skill (bundled)

Architecture Guidelines

• Keep main.go minimal (entry point only, ~21 lines)
• All types in types.go (structs, enums, constants)
• Separate keyboard and mouse handling into dedicated files
• One file, one responsibility
• Maximum file size: 800 lines (ideally <500)
• Configuration via YAML with hot-reload support

Available Components

See references/components.md for the complete catalog of reusable components:

• Panel System: Single, dual-pane, multi-panel, tabbed layouts
• Lists: Simple list, filtered list, tree view
• Input: Text input, multiline, forms, autocomplete
• Dialogs: Confirm, input, progress, modal
• Menus: Context menu, command palette, menu bar
• Status: Status bar, title bar, breadcrumbs
• Preview: Text, markdown, syntax highlighting, images, hex
• Tables: Simple and interactive tables

Effects Library

Beautiful physics-based animations available in the template:

• 🔮 Metaballs - Lava lamp-style floating blobs
• 🌊 Wave Effects - Sine wave distortions
• 🌈 Rainbow Cycling - Animated color gradients
• 🎭 Layer Compositor - ANSI-aware multi-layer rendering

See references/effects.md for usage examples and integration patterns.

Layout Implementation Pattern

When implementing layouts, follow this sequence:

1. Calculate Available Space

func (m model) calculateLayout() (int, int) {
    contentWidth := m.width
    contentHeight := m.height

    // Subtract UI elements
    if m.config.UI.ShowTitle {
        contentHeight -= 3  // title bar (3 lines)
    }
    if m.config.UI.ShowStatus {
        contentHeight -= 1  // status bar
    }

    // CRITICAL: Account for panel borders
    contentHeight -= 2  // top + bottom borders

    return contentWidth, contentHeight
}

2. Use Weight-Based Panel Sizing

// Calculate weights based on focus/accordion mode
leftWeight, rightWeight := 1, 1
if m.accordionMode && m.focusedPanel == "left" {
    leftWeight = 2  // Focused panel gets 2x weight
}

// Calculate actual widths from weights
totalWeight := leftWeight + rightWeight
leftWidth := (availableWidth * leftWeight) / totalWeight
rightWidth := availableWidth - leftWidth

3. Truncate Text to Prevent Wrapping

// Calculate max text width to prevent wrapping
maxTextWidth := panelWidth - 4  // -2 borders, -2 padding

// Truncate ALL text before rendering
title = truncateString(title, maxTextWidth)
subtitle = truncateString(subtitle, maxTextWidth)

func truncateString(s string, maxLen int) string {
    if len(s) <= maxLen {
        return s
    }
    return s[:maxLen-1] + "…"
}

Mouse Interaction Pattern

Always check layout mode before processing mouse events:

func (m model) handleLeftClick(msg tea.MouseMsg) (tea.Model, tea.Cmd) {
    if m.shouldUseVerticalStack() {
        // Vertical stack mode: use Y coordinates
        topHeight, _ := m.calculateVerticalStackLayout()
        relY := msg.Y - contentStartY

        if relY < topHeight {
            m.focusedPanel = "left"  // Top panel
        } else {
            m.focusedPanel = "right" // Bottom panel
        }
    } else {
        // Side-by-side mode: use X coordinates
        leftWidth, _ := m.calculateDualPaneLayout()

        if msg.X < leftWidth {
            m.focusedPanel = "left"
        } else {
            m.focusedPanel = "right"
        }
    }

    return m, nil
}

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

See references/troubleshooting.md for detailed solutions to common issues:

❌ DON'T: Set explicit Height() on bordered panels

// BAD: Can cause misalignment
panelStyle := lipgloss.NewStyle().
    Border(border).
    Height(height)  // Don't do this!

✅ DO: Fill content to exact height

// GOOD: Fill content lines to exact height
for len(lines) < innerHeight {
    lines = append(lines, "")
}
panelStyle := lipgloss.NewStyle().Border(border)

Testing and Debugging

When panels don't align or render incorrectly:

1. Check height accounting - Verify contentHeight calculation subtracts all UI elements + borders
2. Check text wrapping - Ensure all strings are truncated to maxTextWidth
3. Check mouse detection - Verify X/Y coordinate usage matches layout orientation
4. Check border consistency - Use same border style for all panels

See references/troubleshooting.md for the complete debugging decision tree.

Configuration System

All projects support YAML configuration with hot-reload:

theme: "dark"
keybindings: "default"

layout:
  type: "dual_pane"
  split_ratio: 0.5
  accordion_mode: true

ui:
  show_title: true
  show_status: true
  mouse_enabled: true
  show_icons: true

Configuration files are loaded from:

1. ~/.config/your-app/config.yaml (user config)
2. ./config.yaml (local override)

Dependencies

Required:

github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea
github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss
github.com/charmbracelet/bubbles
gopkg.in/yaml.v3

Optional (uncomment in go.mod as needed):

github.com/charmbracelet/glamour       # Markdown rendering
github.com/charmbracelet/huh           # Forms
github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2        # Syntax highlighting
github.com/evertras/bubble-table       # Interactive tables
github.com/koki-develop/go-fzf         # Fuzzy finder

Reference Documentation

All reference files are loaded progressively as needed:

• golden-rules.md - Critical layout patterns and anti-patterns
• components.md - Complete catalog of reusable components
• troubleshooting.md - Common issues and debugging decision tree
• emoji-width-fix.md - Battle-tested solution for emoji alignment across terminals (xterm, WezTerm, Termux, Windows Terminal)

External Resources

• Bubbletea Documentation
• Lipgloss Documentation
• Bubbles Components
• Charm Ecosystem

Best Practices Summary

1. Always consult golden-rules.md before implementing layouts
2. Always use weight-based sizing for flexible layouts
3. Always truncate text explicitly (never rely on auto-wrap)
4. Always match mouse detection to layout orientation
5. Always account for borders in height calculations
6. Never set explicit Height() on bordered Lipgloss styles
7. Never assume layout orientation in mouse handlers

Follow these patterns and you'll avoid 90% of TUI layout bugs.