Ink – React for CLIs

React for CLIs. Build and test your CLI output using components.

Ink provides the same component-based UI building experience that React offers in the browser, but for command-line apps. It uses Yoga for Flexbox layouts in the terminal.

Important: All text must be wrapped in a <Text> component.

Quick Example

import {render, Text, Box} from 'ink';

render(
	<Box borderStyle="round" padding={1}>
		<Text color="green">Hello World</Text>
	</Box>
);

Components

• <Text> – Display text with styling (color, bold, italic, underline, etc.)
• <Box> – Flexbox container for layouts
  • Layout Properties – dimensions, flex, spacing, alignment
  • Visual Properties – borders, colors, backgrounds
• <Newline> – Insert newline characters
• <Spacer> – Flexible space that expands to fill available space
• <Static> – Permanently render output above everything else (for logs, completed tasks)
• <Transform> – Transform string representation before output

Hooks

Interaction

• useInput() – Handle keyboard input (arrow keys, enter, escape, etc.)
• useFocus() – Make components focusable with Tab key
• useFocusManager() – Programmatically manage focus

Lifecycle & Streams

• useApp() – Exit the app programmatically
• useStdin() – Access stdin stream and setRawMode
• useStdout() – Access stdout stream and write output
• useStderr() – Access stderr stream

Accessibility

• useIsScreenReaderEnabled() – Detect if screen reader is active

API

• render(tree, options?) – Mount and render your app
• Instance Methods – rerender(), unmount(), waitUntilExit(), clear()
• measureElement(ref) – Get width and height of a component

Guides

• Accessibility & Screen Readers – ARIA support, screen reader integration
• Testing – Test Ink components with ink-testing-library
• React DevTools – Debug with React DevTools

Third-Party Components

See references/third-party.md for a comprehensive list of community components including:

• Text inputs, spinners, select menus
• Progress bars, tables, charts
• Markdown rendering, syntax highlighting
• And many more