termscope

Drive and inspect terminal applications — Playwright for the terminal.

Prerequisites

termscope must be installed and on $PATH. Verify:

termscope --version

If not installed:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mwunsch/termscope/main/install.sh | sh

When to use termscope

• Inspect the visual state of a TUI application
• Debug rendering issues by capturing terminal snapshots
• Run visual regression tests in CI
• Automate interactive terminal applications (fill prompts, navigate menus)
• Verify that a CLI tool produces expected output with styling

One-shot mode

Snapshot

Capture the terminal state of a command:

# Plain text (default) — best for reading in context
termscope snapshot -- htop

# JSON — structured data for programmatic processing
termscope snapshot --format json -- my-app

# With custom terminal size
termscope snapshot --cols 120 --rows 40 -- btop

# Write to file
termscope snapshot --format svg -o screenshot.svg -- my-tui

Exec (linear sequence)

Chain actions left-to-right:

# Wait for prompt, type, press enter, snapshot
termscope exec \
  --wait-for-text "Search:" \
  --type "hello" \
  --press RET \
  --wait-idle 200 \
  --snapshot \
  -- my-tui

# Assert text is present (exit 0/1 for CI)
termscope exec --expect "Error" -- my-app

Exec flags are processed in order. Each flag is a step.

Session mode (agent driving)

Start a persistent session:

termscope session -- vim test.txt

Send JSON-line requests on stdin, receive JSON-line responses on stdout. Stderr is for diagnostics only — never protocol data.

Protocol

Request format: {"id": N, "method": "name", "params": {...}}

Response format: {"id": N, "result": {...}} or {"id": N, "error": {"code": "...", "message": "..."}}

Methods

snapshot — Capture terminal state

{"id":1,"method":"snapshot"}
{"id":1,"method":"snapshot","params":{"format":"json"}}

type — Send text characters

{"id":2,"method":"type","params":{"text":"hello world"}}

press — Send a key using Emacs notation

{"id":3,"method":"press","params":{"key":"RET"}}
{"id":3,"method":"press","params":{"key":"C-c"}}
{"id":3,"method":"press","params":{"key":"C-x C-s"}}

wait_for_text — Block until text appears

{"id":4,"method":"wait_for_text","params":{"pattern":"Ready","timeout":5000}}

wait_for_idle — Wait for output to settle

{"id":5,"method":"wait_for_idle","params":{"duration":200}}

query — Get terminal metadata

{"id":6,"method":"query"}
// Returns: cols, rows, cursor, cursor_style, cursor_visible, title, alt_screen

resize — Change terminal dimensions

{"id":7,"method":"resize","params":{"cols":120,"rows":40}}

close — End the session

{"id":8,"method":"close"}
// Returns: exit_code

Session lifecycle

• Session starts when termscope session -- <cmd> launches
• Session ends when: (a) agent sends close, (b) child exits, or (c) termscope receives SIGTERM
• If child exits: {"event":"child_exit","exit_code":N} then EOF
• Errors do NOT end the session — the agent decides what to do

Key notation

Emacs-style key notation:

Notation	Meaning
C-c	Ctrl+C
C-x	Ctrl+X
M-x	Alt+X
C-M-a	Ctrl+Alt+A
RET	Enter
TAB	Tab
ESC	Escape
SPC	Space
DEL	Backspace
<delete>	Forward delete
<up> <down> <left> <right>	Arrow keys
<home> <end>	Home/End
<prior> <next>	Page Up/Down
<f1> … <f12>	Function keys

Key sequences (space-separated): C-x C-s means Ctrl+X then Ctrl+S.

Output formats

• text (default) — Numbered lines with header. Best for LLM token efficiency.
• spans — Text + per-line style runs. For understanding UI structure.
• json — Structured JSON with metadata and lines array.
• html — Styled <pre> with <span> elements.
• svg — Visual screenshot as SVG.

Common patterns

Navigate a list

{"id":1,"method":"wait_for_text","params":{"pattern":"Select:"}}
{"id":2,"method":"press","params":{"key":"<down>"}}
{"id":3,"method":"press","params":{"key":"<down>"}}
{"id":4,"method":"press","params":{"key":"RET"}}

Fill a text field

{"id":1,"method":"wait_for_text","params":{"pattern":"Name:"}}
{"id":2,"method":"type","params":{"text":"John Doe"}}
{"id":3,"method":"press","params":{"key":"TAB"}}

Wait for a prompt then respond

{"id":1,"method":"wait_for_text","params":{"pattern":"Continue? [y/n]"}}
{"id":2,"method":"type","params":{"text":"y"}}
{"id":3,"method":"press","params":{"key":"RET"}}

Check for errors

{"id":1,"method":"snapshot","params":{"format":"json"}}
// Check if any line contains "Error" or "fatal"

Test at multiple sizes

{"id":1,"method":"resize","params":{"cols":80,"rows":24}}
{"id":2,"method":"wait_for_idle","params":{"duration":200}}
{"id":3,"method":"snapshot"}
{"id":4,"method":"resize","params":{"cols":40,"rows":12}}
{"id":5,"method":"wait_for_idle","params":{"duration":200}}
{"id":6,"method":"snapshot"}