Introduction

Vextr is a widget-based terminal UI framework for modern C++. It lets you build interactive terminal apps - layouts, styling, events, navigation - with an API that stays out of your way.

auto button = std::make_shared<Button>("Save");
button->setStyle(Style{ .bg = {31, 189, 0} });
button->setFocusedStyle(Style{ .bg = {0, 255, 68} });
button->setOnClick([&]() { save(); });

That’s a styled, focusable, interactive button in four lines.

What Vextr gives you

• Layouts - stack, grid, and absolute positioning with per-child size constraints
• Widgets - labels, buttons, inputs, text areas, scroll views, dropdowns, modals, and more
• Styling - RGB colors, bold/italic/underline, padding, margins, and five border styles
• Events - keyboard input, event bubbling, and per-widget listeners
• Navigation - multi-screen navigator with overlays and dialogs
• Cross-platform - Windows and Unix terminals, out of the box

Requirements

• C++23 compiler (GCC 13+, Clang 16+, MSVC 2022+)
• CMake 3.20+
• Windows or Unix terminal

Installation

Add this to your CMakeLists.txt:

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
    vextr
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/Oltsu-code/Vextr.git
    GIT_TAG v0.1.0 # check latest release from https://github.com/Oltsu-code/Vextr
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(vextr)
target_link_libraries(my_app PRIVATE vextr) # change my_app to the actual project in your CMakeLists

Then include the library in your code:

#include <Vextr/Vextr.hpp>