I found this which is by far the closet to what I’m on about. Imagine this but with inline UI controls too (keyboard-controllable, natch), probably based on Nushell (I like Nushell), and maybe an “alternate display mode” type thing for UIs that want to take over more and not act as a transcript. And, no offence, but more visually appealing and implemented with a common-denominator subset of native UI controls where possible. Clearly the issue is not building it, but adoption. I don’t have an answer for that.
https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In Building a TUI is easy nowunconed
TermKit
JavaScript2011–2026
unconed / TermKit
TermKit
Experimental Terminal platform built on WebKit + node.js. Currently only for Mac and Windows, though the prototype works 90% in any WebKit browser.
29Distinct people
31Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
4.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Experimental Terminal platform built on WebKit + node.js. Currently only for Mac and Windows, though the prototype works 90% in any WebKit browser.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:03:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year31 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2011-05-12 19:57:39 UTC to 2026-02-14 12:27:22 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
TermKit
Goal: next gen terminal / command application
Built out of WebKit and Node.js.
Runs as a desktop app on Mac, Windows and Linux, and can be hacked into any WebKit browser (Chrome, Safari).
Follow TermKit on Twitter for the latest news and updates.
For the background and architecture, please read and comment on:
http://acko.net/blog/on-termkit
Warning: Alpha version, still under development. Nothing works yet.
Some cool features
Smart token-based input with inline autocomplete and automatic escaping
Rich output for common tasks and formats, using MIME types + sniffing
Asynchronous views for background / parallel tasks
Full separation between front/back-end
TermKit is not a...
...Web application. It runs as a regular desktop app.
...Scripting language like PowerShell or bash. It focuses on executing commands only.
...Full terminal emulator. It does not aim to e.g. host 'vim'.
...Reimplementation of the Unix toolchain. It replaces and/or enhances built-in commands and wraps external tools.
(but you could make it do most of those things with plug-ins)
How to use:
Detailed instructions are available from these sources:
Mac OS X (OS X Daily)
Windows (Redpoint blog)
Linux, Python GTK
Linux, Chrome only (Easytech blog)
Unfortunately, TermKit currently requires some assembly.
Install the Mac development tools (Xcode and friends).
Install node.js.
If not covered in #2, install npm: curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
Install node-mime: npm install mime
Clone the TermKit repository: git clone https://github.com/unconed/TermKit.git --recursive
Users of older git versions will need to type: git submodule update --init
Run the NodeKit daemon: cd TermKit/Node; node nodekit.js
Mac:
Unzip and run the Mac app in Build/TermKit.zip
Linux:
See Linux/Readme.txt
Tip: Press ⌥⌘C to access the WebKit console.
API
Preliminary instructions on how to write TermKit native commands can be found here:
https://github.com/unconed/TermKit/blob/master/Node-API.md
Credits
TermKit by Steven Wittens (@unconed).
Windows port by James Rhodes (@hachque).
Linux Python/GTK wrapper by Lucas S. Magalhães.
Includes:
“NSImage+QuickLook” by Matt Gemmell (http://mattgemmell.com/source).
SyntaxHighlighter by Alex Gorbatchev (http://alexgorbatchev.com/SyntaxHighlighter/)
jQuery and jQuery UI
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
31 sourcesThere have been many. But none of them really successful, in the sense that they were more proof-of-concept, never fully feature-complete, or just not adopted by the community.
See the list here: https://github.com/hoeck/schirm
I think the most popular was TermKit (https://github.com/unconed/TermKit, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30517205).
Maybe the most successful such attempts is DomTerm (https://domterm.org).
In State of the TerminalFirst time I saw an idea like this was with termkit [1], which I thought was great and was sad to see it didn't get continued development.
I really feel like we overlook the ways in which we limit ourselves by having our CLI interfaces be tied to a thing that emulates a terminal from the 80s.
The composability, scriptability, history, etc. of CLIs is great, but why should that preclude us from being able to quickly show a PNG or graph a function?
Maybe it's an idea whose time has come.
[1] https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In WavetermTake a look at TermKit - https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
Long abandoned but I’d love something like this. Someone I know tried to revive it but Node has changed so much that they gave up.
I would donate to an effort to revive it.
In Rich: A Python library for rich text and formatting in the terminalThere are many related attempts to make the terminal more modern, by including some HTML in it, improved auto-completion, and many other ideas.
For example:
- TermKit (https://github.com/unconed/TermKit, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2559734)
- GateOne (https://github.com/liftoff/GateOne)
- DomTerm (https://domterm.org/)
- Extraterm (https://extraterm.org/)
- GraphTerm (https://github.com/mitotic/graphterm)
- HTerm (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7539648)
- Terminology (https://www.enlightenment.org/about-terminology)
I wonder about the state of these, or in general about terminal emulators.
I really miss some extended features, like foldable text (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/terminal-wg/specifications/-/...) or even just standardized image support (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/terminal-wg/specifications/-/...).
And mayb
Read the rest
e this could be further extended to also directly support sth like this autocomplete support.
It becomes tricky when you think about how this works well together with tmux, SSH, Mosh, etc.
Are you kidding? The shell is a massively important part of modern computers, and making it more expressive would be a huge win. You might be familiar with TermKit[0] which also tried this.
[0]: https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In The Future of Notebooks: Lessons from JupyterConUnfortunately TermKit is effectively dead, with the last commit being almost 6 years ago - https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In Fish: A user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, etcI'm pro-hypertext, but this looks like web tech for web tech's sake. Their demo is literally an animated cursor.
See TermKit for some more tought put into a graphically-enabled terminal: https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In Hyper – A terminal emulator based on JavaScript, HTML and CSSHow hard would it to be to make an entirely new shell language that doesn't feel like it's 30+ years old? Why isn't this more common?
I'm aware of, like, TermKit[0], but that didn't get finished and I don't recall hearing about any newer efforts.
[0]: https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In Shell Has a Forth-Like Qualityhttps://github.com/unconed/TermKit or https://acko.net/blog/on-termkit/
TermKit is another terminal app from 2011 designed to modernize the command line experience.
Sadly, I don't think it's being worked on anymore.
In Show HN: Alacritty, a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator written in Rusthttps://github.com/unconed/TermKit
https://github.com/breuleux/terminus
https://github.com/substack/exterminate
In Black Screen: A modern terminal emulator based on ElectronI miss TermKit[1]. Its a real shame that the developer abandoned it after it got a lot of hype. There's a huge opportunity for someone to come along and make either a new terminal encoding which allows rich, interactive output or extend VT somehow to which allows the same. If you could extend the terminal protocol, you might even be able to get it to work over SSH.
HTML+JS seem like the obvious way to do it - even though the web is an awful platform, its standard, cross-platform and fully featured. Its the perfect worse-is-better solution for this.
I think the hardest part would be figuring out how to reconcile browser-like UI events and file streams. Maybe you'd need to make a standardized event serialization format so your process could receive serialized events via stdin or something like that. I think it'll be a really hard sell if we
Read the rest
have to abandon our unix pipes entirely.
[1] https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
Previous hackernews discussion around termkit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2559734
There was TermKit (https://github.com/unconed/TermKit) but the author has stopped working on it.
In Modernizing “less”I get excited each time I see an attempt to improve the shell, e.g. Mosh [1] and TermKit [2]. I believe that there is room for improvement. But I also think that the UI itself might be in its best form because it is as simple as: type the command, hit enter, get the result. And also equally important, its very efficient.
I don't see that it can replace Bash but it can be useful in some cases. I really liked the Git functionalities.
[1] http://mosh.mit.edu/
[2] https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
In Xiki: The Command RevolutionReminds me of https://github.com/unconed/TermKit
I really don't want or need this. It's solving a problem I don't have.
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