TUI Runner

A terminal UI toolkit for scaffolding new projects and running multi-process dev environments, written in Rust. Pick a framework, scaffold it into any folder, then run and monitor all of a project's dev processes (backend, frontend, mobile emulator, etc.) from one live dashboard — with dependency ordering, readiness detection, and automatic cleanup of stale ports.

Install

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Krishmal2004/MTR/main/tui-runner/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Krishmal2004/MTR/main/tui-runner/install.sh | bash

Each installer downloads the latest prebuilt tui-runner binary from GitHub Releases and puts it on your PATH:

• Windows: installed to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\tui-runner and added to your user PATH.
• macOS / Linux: installed to ~/.local/bin (universal binary on macOS, covering both Intel and Apple Silicon).

Once installed, run it from anywhere:

tui-runner

Uninstall

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Krishmal2004/MTR/main/tui-runner/uninstall.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Krishmal2004/MTR/main/tui-runner/uninstall.sh | bash

This removes the installed binary (and, on Windows, the PATH entry the installer added).

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Krishmal2004/MTR.git
cd MTR/tui-runner
cargo build --release
./target/release/tui-runner   # tui-runner.exe on Windows

Features

• Project scaffolder — pick a framework from a TUI menu, choose a target folder in the built-in file browser, and it runs that framework's own CLI to scaffold the project (installing dependencies automatically where applicable).
• Multi-process dev runner — define a project's dev processes once in a config file and start them all together, each with its own color-coded output pane.
• Dependency ordering & readiness detection — a process can wait for another to be "ready" first, matched either by a regex on its output or by polling a command (e.g. waiting for a Flutter emulator to finish booting before launching the app onto it).
• Stale port cleanup — before starting, it detects and kills leftover processes still holding onto a port a dev server needs (via netstat/taskkill on Windows, lsof/kill on Unix).
• Language/toolchain detector — scans your system for installed language runtimes and CLIs before offering scaffolding options, so you're only shown frameworks you can actually build.
• File browser — navigate the filesystem from within the TUI to pick where a project should be created or which existing project folder to run.

Supported project scaffolds

Framework	Language	Command used
React (Vite)	JavaScript / TypeScript	npm create vite@latest
Next.js	JavaScript / TypeScript	npx create-next-app@latest
Vue 3 (Vite)	JavaScript / TypeScript	npm create vite@latest
Angular	TypeScript	npx @angular/cli ng new
SvelteKit	JavaScript / TypeScript	npm create svelte@latest
Deno	TypeScript / JavaScript	deno init
Bun	TypeScript / JavaScript	bun init
Node.js (Express)	JavaScript	npx express-generator
Flutter	Dart	flutter create
Rust (Cargo)	Rust	cargo init
.NET Web API	C#	dotnet new webapi
Go (module)	Go	go mod init
Ballerina	Ballerina	bal new
Elixir (Mix)	Elixir	mix new
Swift Package	Swift	swift package init
Java (Maven)	Java	mvn archetype:generate
Python (venv)	Python	python -m venv
Python (Poetry)	Python	poetry init
PHP (Laravel)	PHP	composer create-project laravel/laravel

Each scaffold only appears in the menu if its underlying CLI (npm, flutter, cargo, etc.) is found on your system PATH.

Usage

Run tui-runner and use the arrow keys + Enter to navigate, q to quit:

• Create New Project — scan installed toolchains, pick a framework, pick a destination folder, and scaffold it.
• Browse PC / File Browser — navigate to an existing project folder and run it using its tui.config.json (or launch a setup wizard to create one if it doesn't exist yet).

Pass --reconfigure to force the setup wizard to run again for a project you've already configured:

tui-runner --reconfigure

Configuration (tui.config.json)

Each project run with TUI Runner has a tui.config.json describing its dev processes. See tui-runner/tui.config.example.json for a full example. Key fields:

• title — display name shown in the TUI header.
• processes[] — the list of processes to run together, each with:
  • name, cmd, args, cwd, color — identity, command, and output styling.
  • port (optional) — a port this process listens on; TUI Runner frees it from stale processes before starting.
  • dependsOn (optional) — names of other processes that must be "ready" first.
  • readyWhen (optional) — how to detect readiness: a regex matched against the process's stdout, or a poll that repeatedly runs a command until a field in its output matches an expected value (used, for example, to wait for an emulator to finish booting).
  • type: "multistep" — instead of a single command, run an ordered list of steps, each with its own readyWhen, passing captured values (like a booted emulator's device ID) between steps via vars.

License

No license is currently specified. If you plan to open-source this project, add a LICENSE file (for example MIT, Apache-2.0, or GPL-3.0) and update this section.