Scry CLI

A beautiful terminal-based chat interface built with Rust and Ratatui, featuring gradient borders, smooth scrolling, and optional Terminal Text Effects (TTE) integration.

Features

• Animated Welcome Screen - Uses Terminal Text Effects for a stunning beams effect (optional)
• Gradient Borders - Purple->Blue chat area, Green->Cyan input area
• Scrolling Support - Navigate chat history with arrow keys, Page Up/Down, Home/End
• Visual Scrollbar - Gradient-colored scrollbar showing current position
• Miami-Style Menu - Popup menu with hot pink/cyan/orange gradients (Ctrl+P to open)
• Interactive Input - Full cursor support with backspace and arrow navigation
• LLM Integration - OpenAI-compatible API support with streaming responses
• TOML Configuration - Customize colors and behavior via config file

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ (install from rustup.rs)
• Optional: Python 3.8+ with terminaltexteffects for animated welcome screen

Install Terminal Text Effects (Optional)

For the animated welcome screen with the beams effect:

pip install terminaltexteffects

If TTE is not installed, the app will display a simple welcome message instead.

Build

cargo build --release

The compiled binary will be at target/release/scry-cli

Run

# Run directly
cargo run --release

# Or run the compiled binary
./target/release/scry-cli

Controls

Input

• Type - Enter text
• Enter - Send message
• Backspace - Delete character
• Left/Right - Move cursor

Scrolling

• Up/Down - Scroll up/down one message
• Page Up/Down - Scroll 10 messages
• Home - Jump to top
• End - Jump to bottom

Menu

• Ctrl+P - Open/close menu
• Up/Down - Navigate menu items (when open)
• Enter - Select menu item
• Esc - Close menu

Exit

• Ctrl+C or Esc - Quit

Configuration

Scry CLI supports configuration via TOML file at ~/.config/scry-cli/config.toml.

Copy the example config to get started:

mkdir -p ~/.config/scry-cli
cp docs/config.example.toml ~/.config/scry-cli/config.toml

Configurable Options

Colors:

• Chat area gradient (start and end colors)
• Input area gradient (start and end colors)
• Miami banner colors (pink, purple, cyan, orange)

Behavior:

• scroll_page_size - Messages scrolled with Page Up/Down (default: 10)
• animation_chars_per_frame - Banner animation speed (default: 3)
• animation_frame_ms - Animation frame duration in ms (default: 16)
• idle_poll_ms - Event polling interval when idle (default: 100)

See docs/config.example.toml for the full example.

Project Structure

scry-cli/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs          # Entry point, terminal setup
│   ├── app.rs           # Application state and logic
│   ├── config.rs        # Configuration loading (TOML)
│   ├── input.rs         # Event handling and key bindings
│   ├── message.rs       # Message and Role types
│   ├── welcome.rs       # TTE welcome screen integration
│   └── ui/
│       ├── mod.rs       # UI module exports
│       ├── render.rs    # Main UI rendering
│       ├── menu.rs      # Menu overlay rendering
│       ├── gradient.rs  # Gradient color utilities
│       └── text.rs      # Text wrapping and styling
├── docs/
│   ├── config.example.toml  # Example configuration
│   ├── gradient_presets.md  # Color preset examples
│   ├── SCROLLING.md         # Scrolling documentation
│   └── NOTES.md             # Development notes
├── Cargo.toml
└── README.md

Dependencies

Rust

• ratatui - Terminal UI framework
• crossterm - Terminal manipulation
• serde + toml - Configuration parsing
• anyhow - Error handling
• dirs - Platform-specific directories

Optional (Python)

• terminaltexteffects - Animated text effects

License

MIT

Screenshots

Welcome Screen (with TTE)

The beams effect creates an animated reveal of the welcome text with Miami-inspired colors.

Chat Interface

┌ Chat (Up/Down PgUp/PgDn Home/End to scroll, Ctrl+C to quit) ─┐
│Assistant: Welcome! Type a message and press Enter to chat.  │#
│           Press Ctrl+P for menu.                              ││
│                                                               ││
│You: Hello there!                                             ││
│                                                               ││
│Assistant: You said: Hello there!                             │v
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌ Your message ──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│What should I type?|                                            │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Future Ideas

• Syntax highlighting for code blocks
• Message history persistence
• Multi-agent workflow support
• Themes and color schemes
• Markdown rendering

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit PRs!