I’ve been working on a TUI framework for Elixir called Drafter, inspired by Python’s Textual but built around Elixir idioms — declarative rendering, pattern-matched event handling, and OTP-native architecture.

The basic idea:

Mix.install([{:drafter, "~> 0.1.3"}])
defmodule CounterApp do
  use Drafter.App

  def mount(_props), do: %{count: 0}

  def render(state) do
    vertical([
      header("Counter"),
      label("Count: #{state.count}", flex: 1),
      horizontal([
        button("−", on_click: :dec),
        button("+", on_click: :inc)
      ], gap: 2),
      footer(bindings: [{"q", "Quit"}])
    ])
  end

  def handle_event(:inc, _data, state), do: {:ok, %{state | count: state.count + 1}}
  def handle_event(:dec, _data, state), do: {:ok, %{state | count: state.count - 1}}
  def handle_event({:key, :q}, _state), do: {:stop, :normal}
  def handle_event(_event, state), do: {:noreply, state}
end

Drafter.run(CounterApp)

What’s in the box:

• 30+ widgets — DataTable, Tree, Charts, TextInput, TextArea, Checkbox, RadioSet, Markdown, CodeView, and more
• Flexible layouts — vertical, horizontal, grid, scrollable, sidebar
• Multi-screen navigation — push/pop screens, modals, popovers, panels, toasts
• Theming system with HSL/RGB/hex color support
• Declarative widget event handling with automatic focus management
• DOM-like three-phase event system (capture → target → bubble)
• Animation engine with 30+ easing functions
• Syntax highlighting via tree-sitter (optional)
• Headless testing harness for ExUnit
• Many examples

TUI over SSH:

Drafter.Server.start_ssh(ChatApp,
  port: 2222,
  mode: :shared,
  auth: [{"alice", "pass"}, {"bob", "pass"}]
)

Any standard SSH client connects and gets a full interactive TUI session. :shared mode means all connected clients see the same state — input from any client updates everyone’s view in real time. The included ssh_chat.exs example is a working multi-user chat app you can try in a couple of minutes.

Built on OTP 28 — raw terminal mode, proper Unicode, and lazy input reading. Earlier OTP versions won’t work correctly.

Feedback and contributions welcome. Still early, but it’s been running real apps reliably.

→ drafter | Hex
→ Drafter — drafter v0.2.10

https://github.com/jaman/drafter