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Python · MIT · ★4

[docs](https://dwgx.github.io/SmartCLI/) · [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/smartcli-toolkit/)

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# SmartCLI

*Read this in: **English** · [简体中文](docs/i18n/README.zh-Hans.md) · [繁體中文](docs/i18n/README.zh-Hant.md) · [日本語](docs/i18n/README.ja.md) · [한국어](docs/i18n/README.ko.md)*

**A local Python toolkit for driving, perceiving, and rendering the terminal — three agent skills over one pluggable PTY + `pyte` core.**

[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/smartcli-toolkit?color=orange)](https://pypi.org/project/smartcli-toolkit/)
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[![Skills: 3](https://img.shields.io/badge/skills-3-purple)](#features)
[![Platform](https://img.shields.io/badge/platform-Windows%20%7C%20Linux%20%7C%20macOS-lightgrey)](#install)

**Let an AI drive, perceive, and render real terminal programs.** SmartCLI reads
the actual screen with a `pyte` cell model — not a byte pipe — so it knows which
menu row is highlighted, presses the right keys, and waits for the screen to
settle. Below: it drives the real **lazygit** TUI end-to-end (arrow-key
navigation, opening a commit diff, highlighting a branch) — no script, no mock.

<p align="center">
  <img src="showcase/drive-lazygit.gif" alt="SmartCLI driving the real lazygit TUI: navigating panels, opening a commit diff, highlighting a branch" width="700">
</p>

```bash
pip install smartcli-toolkit
```

Requires Python 3.10 or newer. The install includes the shared Python library,
the persistent TUI driver, and the stdio MCP server.

### Drive something in 30 seconds

Copy-paste this. It starts a real Python REPL under a PTY, waits for the prompt
(never a blind `sleep`), types into it, and reads the screen back:

```bash
pip install smartcli-toolkit
SID=$(smartcli-tui start --cmd "python3 -i -q" --cols 80 --rows 24 --json | python3 -c "import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)['sid'])")
smartcli-tui wait-regex --id $SID ">>> " --timeout-ms 15000
smartcli-tui send-line --id $SID "print(6*7)"
smartcli-tui wait-regex --id $SID "42"          # prints the cell grid it sees
smartcli-tui close --id $SID
```

On Windows use `--cmd "py -i -q"`. Swap the command for `vim`, `htop` or
`lazygit` and the same five verbs drive those too — that is the whole point:
**`wait-regex` and friends react to what the screen actually shows**, so an agent
never guesses whether its keystroke landed.

Want the same thing against a real editor, end to end and verifiable?
[`examples/drive_vim.py`](examples/drive_vim.py) drives the actual `vim` binary —
opens a file, appends a line, saves, and then checks the **filesystem**, not the
screen:

```bash
python examples/drive_vim.py
#   [OK ] vim painted its screen
#   [OK ] file contents visible on screen
#   [OK ] alternate screen is active
#   [OK ] vim entered insert mode (so G and o both landed)
#   [OK ] typed text appears on screen
#   [OK ] vim restored the main screen on exit
#   [OK ] file on disk really changed
```

Note the fourth step. It is there because the example itself once sent five
keystrokes back to back with nothing between them, and under load `vim` had not
processed `G` by the time `o` arrived, so nothing was inserted and the run failed
with no useful diagnosis. Confirming insert mode proves both keys landed — the
same discipline the tool exists to provide, applied to its own demo.

Run the same file against `smartcli-toolkit==0.1.8` and two steps fail — and the
file is *never saved*, because a driver that cannot see the alternate screen
mistimes the `:wq`. That is why the emulation work below matters: a wrong screen
model does not error, it silently succeeds at nothing.

Already running an MCP client (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code)? The same verbs are
MCP tools, with the per-session token attached for you:

```bash
smartcli-mcp        # stdio MCP server; or `uvx --from smartcli-toolkit smartcli-mcp`
```

## What & why

SmartCLI is a workspace for terminal work that agents and humans both do: **driving**
interactive terminal programs, **perceiving** what a screen actually shows, and
**rendering** visuals and layouts back out. It is built on one shared, pluggable PTY
backend plus a `pyte` screen model — chosen over screenshot/vision so a single
structured screen model feeds both perception (read the screen) and rendering
(draw the screen). The PTY layer is intentionally **not** tmux-bound: local dev runs
on Windows via ConPTY (`pywinpty`), while target programs can run under POSIX ptys
or tmux elsewhere. Three skills sit on that core, each a self-contained tool you run
in place from the checkout.

## Driving a real TUI

The demo above is SmartCLI driving **lazygit** — a real full-screen curses app —
through its perceive → act → confirm loop: it reads the `pyte` cell grid (which
row is selected, the alt-screen diff), moves with arrow keys, opens a commit's
diff, and highlights a branch. Captured by driving the actual program in a Linux
container, not scripted or mocked. A byte-stream matcher like pexpect can't
perceive "which row is highlighted"; a screen model can.

**How we know the perception is right.** A screen model is only useful if it
matches what a real terminal shows, so we measure that instead of asserting it:
identical bytes go to a real **tmux** pane and to our model, and the two cell
grids are diffed. Three suites do it — 34 curated cases, a three-way check that
only trusts a behaviour when **tmux *and* GNU screen agree**, and a generative
fuzz over random VT sequences. That campaign found and fixed **12 emulation bugs**,
including the alternate screen buffer (`pyte` implements none of modes
1049/1047/47, so a full-screen program's output used to be painted over the main
screen and never restored). Scope and remaining edges:
[`LIMITATIONS.md`](skills/drive-tui/references/LIMITATIONS.md).

## Live effects

Real captures of the `cmd-art` `fx` engine — each GIF is the actual effect
rendered frame-by-frame through the project's own pipeline (no screen recorder).
Reproduce any with `python -m fx play <name>` (see [Quickstart](#quickstart)).

<p align="center">
  <img src="showcase/fx-solarsystem.gif" alt="ASCII solar system orrery — planets orbiting a pulsing sun" width="620"><br>
  <sub><b>solarsystem</b> — an orrery: planets on elliptical orbits around a pulsing sun</sub>
</p>

| | | |
|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| ![donut](showcase/fx-donut.gif) | ![fire](showcase/fx-fire.gif) | ![rain](showcase/fx-rain.gif) |
| **donut** — the classic ASCII torus | **fire** — demoscene heat field | **rain** — Matrix digital rain |

> 🌐 **[Explore the live showcase →](https://dwgx.github.io/SmartCLI/)** — play with
> the effect engine, drive a menu with arrow keys, and poke the widgets, right in
> your browser.

## Install

**Just want the three Claude Code skills?** Download one zip, unzip it, done — no
git, no pip, no marketplace:

```bash
curl -LO https://github.com/dwgx/SmartCLI/releases/latest/download/smartcli-skills.zip
```

```bash
unzip smartcli-skills.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/
```

That gives you `cmd-art`, `drive-tui` and `tui-ui` (309 KiB total). `cmd-art` and
`tui-ui` then work with nothing but CPython 3.10+ — verified on a bare virtualenv,
all 30 effects and all 17 widgets load. `drive-tui` additionally needs `pyte`, which
the PyPI install below provides. Or install all three via the plugin marketplace:
`/plugin marketplace add dwgx/SmartCLI`.

**Primary — from PyPI (the library, the CLI, and the MCP server):**

```bash
pip install smartcli-toolkit
```

> **Distribution vs import name:** the PyPI distribution is `smartcli-toolkit`
> (the names `smartcli` / `smart-cli` were taken or blocked), but the importable
> package is `smartcli_core`. So after `pip install smartcli-toolkit` you still
> write `from smartcli_core import PtySession`.

**Alternative — reproduce the full dev environment from a source checkout:**

```bash
git clone https://github.com/dwgx/SmartCLI SmartCLI
cd SmartCLI
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```

`requirements.txt` installs `pyte`, the MCP SDK, and `pywinpty` on Windows only
(POSIX uses the stdlib `pty` backend). `pip install .` installs `smartcli_core`
plus the `smartcli-tui`, `smartcli-mcp`, and `smartcli-toolkit` commands. The
visual `cmd-art` and `tui-ui` skills still run in place from a checkout via
`python -m fx` and `python -m ui`.

**Optional extras** (real FIGlet fonts, raster images, authoritative cell widths — all
degrade gracefully to stdlib fallbacks when absent):

```bash
python -m pip install -r requirements-optional.txt
# or, from the checkout, via pyproject extras:
pip install ".[all]"        # pyfiglet + Pillow + wcwidth
pip install ".[art]"        # pyfiglet only
pip install ".[image]"      # Pillow only  (also: the PNG screenshot harness needs it)
pip install ".[width]"      # wcwidth only
```

**Windows note:** set UTF-8 output before running any skill so box-drawing and CJK
glyphs encode cleanly (the CLIs also auto-reconfigure stdout, but set this to be safe):

```powershell
set PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8
```

Verified dep versions on the dev box (Windows 11, CPython 3.14.6): `pyte` 0.8.2,
`pywinpty` 3.0.5, `pyfiglet` 1.0.4, `Pillow` 12.2.0, `wcwidth` 0.8.1.

**Diagnostics.** `python -m smartcli_core` prints your OS, Python, terminal, PTY
backend, and dependency versions. `smartcli-tui doctor` reports where the core
was loaded from and whether drive dependencies are present. Include both outputs
when filing a terminal-sensitive bug.

## Quickstart

### cmd-art — terminal visual effects

```bash
cd skills/cmd-art
python -m fx list                          # list all 30 effects
python -m fx play donut --seconds 5        # play one effect (bounded)
python -m fx gallery                       # one frame of each effect
python -m fx show --seq "donut:fire:3,plasma::3"
```

### tui-ui — cell-accurate terminal UI

```bash
cd skills/tui-ui
python -m ui widgets                       # list all 17 widgets
python -m ui gallery --width 100 --height 30
python -m ui demo table --width 80 --height 12 --theme dashboard
```

### drive-tui — perceive & drive interactive programs

Persistent-session CLI (state survives across shell calls):

```bash
smartcli-tui start --cmd "python3 -i -q" --cols 80 --rows 24
smartcli-tui wait-regex --id <SID> ">>> " --timeout-ms 15000
smartcli-tui send-line --id <SID> "print(6*7)"
smartcli-tui snapshot --id <SID>
smartcli-tui close --id <SID>
```

On Windows use `py -i -q` as the child command. From a source checkout, replace
`smartcli-tui` with `python skills/drive-tui/scripts/tui.py`.

Or drive from any MCP client — the same verbs as MCP tools, with the
per-session token attached automatically:

```bash
pip install smartcli-toolkit
smartcli-mcp     # stdio MCP server; smartcli-toolkit is an equivalent alias
```

### As a library

The shared core is importable directly:

```python
import sys
from smartcli_core import PtySession

s = PtySession()
s.start([sys.executable, "-q"])
s.wait_for(r">>> ")            # readiness sync, never a blind sleep
print(s.snapshot().to_text())  # pyte-backed structured screen
s.close()
```

For the full command reference, the screenshot/AGENTCLI harnesses, and the regression
suite, see **[`README-USAGE.md`](README-USAGE.md)**.

## Features

**`cmd-art`** (`skills/cmd-art`) — a "living-template" effect engine: an `Effect` ABC +
`@register` decorator + auto-discovery. **30 effects** (donut, solarsystem, fire, plasma,
rain, starfield, tunnel, text3d, cube, sphere, boids, life, fireworks, sparkle, decrypt,
gradient_text, banner_scroll, image2ascii, typewriter, julia, mandelbrot, perlin, flames, water, nebula, text_flyin, text_converge, text_decrypt, spectrum_bars, cbonsai) across **8 themes** (mono, fire,
ocean, synthwave, viridis, pastel, matrix-green, rainbow). Effects are pure frame
producers; `play` is bounded by default and always restores the terminal.

**`tui-ui`** (`skills/tui-ui`) — a web-like terminal layout engine emitting tmux-safe
ANSI frames (SGR color runs + newlines only; no cursor moves, no alt-screen). **17
widgets** (badge, banner, braille_chart, card, fuzzy_filter_list, gradient_rule, kv,
meter, panel, preview_pane, progress, radial_glow, rule, slider_track, table, tabs,
tree) over an engine of two modules the render path actually calls — `field.py`
(shader compositors) and `raster.py` (sub-cell half/quad/braille pixels). Two
further helpers, `box_junction.py` and `color_model.py`, shipped unwired through
0.3.2 and were **removed in 0.3.3**: nothing imported them, and `tui-ui` has no
auto-discovery over `ui/`, so no caller could ever reach them.
Display-cell accurate for CJK/emoji/ZWJ so columns never desync.

**`drive-tui`** (`skills/drive-tui`) — drives interactive terminal programs (REPLs,
menus, pagers, y/N prompts, wizards) through a PTY via a
perceive → decide → act → wait → confirm loop, never a blind sleep. A thin CLI
(`scripts/tui.py`) offers a persistent detached session and a one-shot `run` mode, with
an importable pattern library of **8 recipes** (repl, menu_select, pager, search_filter,
confirm, form, progress, wizard) that `classify()` a screen and `drive()` it.

**Where the wait capabilities live.** The wait family can end when the child
process dies rather than sitting out the remaining timeout — a program that
crashes on your first input then costs one poll cycle instead of the whole
ceiling. It is **opt-in and off by default**: `start --detect-child-exit` /
`run --detect-child-exit`, or `detect_child_exit` on the MCP `start` tool. Off
is exactly the previous behaviour. On, every wait reply carries `exited`, and
`wait` reports `reason=EXITED`. Three other core capabilities — the
screen-revision wait baseline, the terminal-mode registry, and the session event
log — are **library-only**: they are importable from `smartcli_core` and are
deliberately *not* on the CLI or MCP surface. See
[`CHANGELOG.md`](CHANGELOG.md) (Unreleased) for the reasoning per capability.

**Shared core** (`smartcli_core`) — the pluggable PTY backend + `pyte` screen model +
semantic snapshot + readiness sync (`pty_backend / screen_model / snapshot / readiness /
session`). The reusable, importable foundation under all three skills. Since 0.3.0 a
budgeted read path and an `io` block travel with every observation, so a caller can tell
*quiet* from *not read yet* (`local_cut`, byte watermarks, pending facts — unknown values are
`null`, never `0`), `STABLE` requires a drained observation, and close reports
`closed_confirmed` or `close_unconfirmed` with the last progress instead of assuming a
returned native call means the child is gone.

**Knowledge graph** (`knowledge/`) — a wiki-link graph (140+ `.md` files) of exact
rendering formulas, ANSI sequences, and measured constants, each note carrying a
source and cross-links. See [`knowledge/INDEX.md`](knowledge/INDEX.md).

## Project layout

```text
SmartCLI/
  smartcli_core/           shared PTY + pyte engine (importable package)
  skills/cmd-art/          fx effect package and CLI (30 effects, 8 themes)
  skills/drive-tui/        TUI pattern library and PTY driver CLI (8 recipes)
  skills/tui-ui/           terminal UI layout engine and widgets (17 widgets)
  tools/screenshot/        pyte -> PNG smoke-test harness
  tools/agentcli/          agent-CLI control validation harness
  knowledge/               wiki-link knowledge graph, 140+ .md files (see knowledge/INDEX.md)
  showcase/                rendered effect PNGs + demo GIFs (shown above)
  tests/                   direct script-style regressions
  research/                archived first-pass research notes
```

## Documentation

- **[`README-USAGE.md`](README-USAGE.md)** — the full usage cheat-sheet: every skill,
  the screenshot and AGENTCLI harnesses, and the regression commands.
- **[`knowledge/INDEX.md`](knowledge/INDEX.md)** — the knowledge graph (140+ `.md` files).
- **[`AGENTCLI-VALIDATION.md`](AGENTCLI-VALIDATION.md)** — agent-CLI control test matrix.
- **[`CHANGELOG.md`](CHANGELOG.md)** — release history.
- **Verification evidence tree — archived 2026-10-01.** The former `verification/`
  directory (receipts, probes, historical harness revisions) is **no longer part
  of this repository**, and is not distributed with the package. It was moved
  byte-for-byte, so nothing was deleted. It was pulled out because it held 8
  stale copies of `smartcli_core/screen_model.py` taken before three bug fixes,
  so a repo-wide search returned pre-fix code. The sha256 pins inside it still
  resolve — they name files that stayed in the repository.

## License

MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).