FrankenTUI
Shares rank 13 of 14 terminal UI libraries by recommenders
Rust library for building terminal user interfaces, praised for its mathematically heavy design. Critics report subtle breakage, including no text selection or scrollbar interaction.
Rust library for building terminal user interfaces, praised for its mathematically heavy design. Critics report subtle breakage, including no text selection or scrollbar interaction.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Mathematically heavy design for TUIs
“most mathematically heavy design for creating TUIs ever conceived”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “FrankenTUI: It's Alive” Ridiculously good Rust TUI
“Their Franktui is a ridiculously good rust tui.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Pi – a minimal terminal coding harness” Could solve Claude Code's problems
“this would solve Claude Code's current problems”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: FrankenTUI in the Browser” Enthusiastic praise from commenters
“This is phenomenal stuff man.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: FrankenTUI in the Browser”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Subtle bugs throughout the interface
“Once I tried interacting with it, everything is broken in a subtle way.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: FrankenTUI in the Browser” “It'll be still broken as it'll be claude bugs + frankentui bugs.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: FrankenTUI in the Browser” No text selection or scrollbar
“it's impossible to select any text or interact with a scrollbar”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: FrankenTUI in the Browser”
Other terminal UI libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal UI libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratatui | 57 | 6 | 90% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Bubble Tea | 37 | 16 | 70% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Textual | 34 | 2 | 94% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Turbo Vision | 26 | 5 | 84% | 9 | — | Approved |
| FrankenTUIThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Their Franktui is a ridiculously good rust tui.”
“This is phenomenal stuff man.”
“it's impossible to select any text or interact with a scrollbar”
“It'll be still broken as it'll be claude bugs + frankentui bugs.”
“this would solve Claude Code's current problems”
“Once I tried interacting with it, everything is broken in a subtle way.”
“most mathematically heavy design for creating TUIs ever conceived”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.