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ratatui-patterns

Skill7 starsChanged 18 days agoMITView on GitHub

Modern-ratatui knowledge pack for Rust TUI code on ratatui and crossterm.

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

4 rules. About 0 are common, 2 are distinctive, and 2 are very specific to this project.

  • ≈0

    Common · estimate

    Many files like this have a rule of this kind.

  • ≈2

    Distinctive · estimate

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 2

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Very specific:

    Before writing any TUI render/layout/lifecycle code, read references/modernization-checklist.md.

    line 16
  2. Very specific:

    Before claiming an API exists or writing a signature, verify it in references/api-reference.md (generated from ratatui source, …

    line 17
  3. Distinctive:

    Use a built-in unless it cannot meet a measured, approved rendering invariant.

    line 18
  4. Distinctive:

    If crates.io reports a version newer than the one at the top of this file, flag it before trusting the bundled references.

    line 45

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Ratatui Patterns

Modern-ratatui knowledge pack. Current stable: ratatui 0.30.2 (2026-06). Model training data predates 0.29. The biggest failure mode is reimplementing by hand what the library now provides; the second is asserting API shapes from memory. Both have the same fix: work from the bundled references, not from memory.

Hard Rules

  1. Before writing any TUI render/layout/lifecycle code, read references/modernization-checklist.md. If the thing being built appears in it, use the built-in.
  2. Before claiming an API exists or writing a signature, verify it in references/api-reference.md (generated from ratatui source, grep-friendly). If it is not there and not in references/limitations.md, pull live docs (below) before hand-rolling.
  3. Use a built-in unless it cannot meet a measured, approved rendering invariant; record that gap beside the custom renderer. Anything else custom is a defect.
  4. Render logic ships with TestBackend tests per references/testing.md.
  5. Depend only on the ratatui umbrella crate, never on ratatui-core/-widgets directly. If default-features = false, re-add layout-cache.
  6. Mouse events are opt-in. ratatui::init()/run() do not enable mouse capture; that needs EnableMouseCapture/DisableMouseCapture around the loop (references/api-reference.md §14).
  7. The event loop can go async (crossterm's event-stream feature + EventStream for tokio::select!); Terminal::draw stays sync regardless (references/api-reference.md §14).

Files

filewhen to read
references/modernization-checklist.mdalways, first: hand-rolled → built-in map + hunt greps
references/api-reference.mdexact signatures, feature flags, full widget/API surface, events (mouse capture, sync vs async loop, kitty key flags)
references/limitations.mdbefore writing custom render code; design-system conformance limits
references/testing.mdwriting or reviewing TUI tests
references/patterns.mdcomposition idioms, corrected cookbook, widget-choice guidance
references/audit-prompt.mdfanning out per-repo modernization audits

Live Docs, on Demand

For anything the bundled references don't answer 1:1, fetch instead of guessing:

  • API detail: https://docs.rs/ratatui/latest/ratatui/ (append module path, e.g. widgets/struct.Table.html)
  • release highlights: https://ratatui.rs/highlights/v0302/ (version digits, no dots)
  • breaking changes: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ratatui/ratatui/main/BREAKING-CHANGES.md
  • concepts/recipes: https://ratatui.rs/concepts/ and https://ratatui.rs/recipes/
  • version check: curl -s -H 'User-Agent: ratatui-version-check' https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/ratatui (a bare curl without User-Agent gets policy-blocked)

If crates.io reports a version newer than the one at the top of this file, flag it before trusting the bundled references; they get re-synced upstream per release.

Related

  • design language (colors, spacing, motion grammar): the project's design-language skill, if it has one. That skill says WHAT it should look like; this one says WHICH ratatui API renders it.
  • panic-safe teardown + shimmer recipe: under 0.30, ratatui::init() already installs the restore panic hook; hand-rolled guards are only for extra seams like bracketed paste or kitty flags. Kitty flags are what let you tell Shift+Enter/Ctrl+Enter apart from plain Enter, see references/api-reference.md §14.

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