I have discovered and shared ~800 open source Rust CLI projects over the past 3 years.

Above is a collage of screenshots from hundreds of Rust terminal and TUI projects
shared on Mastodon.

🔗 Click here to jump to the "Top 99 Rust terminal projects"!

If you follow me on X/Mastodon/Bluesky/LinkedIn, you might be familiar with my regular posts that usually go like this:

I have discovered a 🐀 today!

🐀 - a rat!

💯 Does rat things

⭐ GitHub: ...

#rat

Today, I have realized it has been a while since I started doing this and wondered what I could do with everything I collected over the years. So here we are!

But first, I feel like you might have some questions.

Uhh, yeah. I have one: "Why?"

I have detailed my motivation and strategy towards open source in this blog post and conference talk, but in a nutshell:

1. I like Rust and I want more people to use it after seeing what they can build with it,
2. I maintain Ratatui and sharing projects built with it helps grow the ecosystem,
3. It helps surface hidden gems that would otherwise go unnoticed,
4. It's hella fun.

Recently, one of the Rust ecosystem leaders said:

"I love these posts :) highlight of my day to see all the awesome stuff people do"

I also received many similar messages over the years, so I guess that's a good enough reason to keep doing it!

How do you discover projects?

In the same way that everyone does: through GitHub, social media and word of mouth.
A couple of my special sources include:

1. Discord servers like Ratatui, Grindhouse and Terminal Collective
(follow channels like #showcase and #show-and-tell for the good stuff!)

2. Terminal Trove newsletter for weekly curated terminal projects
(they sponsored me a while back which I'm super grateful for, definitely give them a sub!)

3. GitHub search, e.g. searching for Ratatui projects
(this method is underrated)

Then I maintain a list of things to post in a plain text file and try to post something every day. It's probably fine if I miss a day or two, but I try to keep the cheese rolling 🧀

Looking at the data 👀

So, I have ran the numbers:

Posts analyzed: 786
Posting range: 2022-12-15 to 2026-03-31
Total favourites: 10655
Total reblogs: 4529
Total replies: 658
Average favourites per post: 13.56
Average reblogs per post: 5.76
Average replies per post: 0.84
Active days: 653
Covered date range: 2022-12-15 to 2026-03-31 (1203 days)
Average posts per active day: 1.20

Please note that those are aggregated from Mastodon only, since the other platforms weren't that friendly for automation:

Platform	Public API?	Reality
X (Twitter)	❌ (paid/locked)	Expensive / restricted
Mastodon (Fosstodon)	✅	Fully open, best option
Bluesky	✅	Modern + dev-friendly
LinkedIn	❌ (restricted)	Only for approved apps

I put together a Rust script to fetch my Mastodon project posts, save them as structured JSON, and analyze their posting and engagement stats. Luckily megalodon-rs exists, which made everything super easy. The full script is available on GitHub ⭐

With using the data over the years, I present you the Top 99 Rust terminal projects as of April 2026! 🏆

Disclaimers:

• The ranking is based on the number of favourites x reblogs x replies each post received on Mastodon, which may not be a perfect indicator of a project's quality or popularity. But it's a fun way to see which projects resonated with y'all the most!
• On other platforms, the ranking might be different due to different audiences and engagement patterns.
• The Ratatui projects (github.com/ratatui) and my personal projects (github.com/orhun) are excluded from the ranking to keep it fair.

I'm sure there is something in there for everyone!

Top 99 Rust Terminal Tools

Rank	Project	Description	Repo	Score
🥇	🌸 cyme	A modern and cross-platform lsusb	tuna-f1sh/cyme	369
🥈	🥒 gurk	Signal Messenger client for the terminal	boxdot/gurk-rs	214
🥉	⚔️ ratthew	A 3D dungeon crawler in the terminal	cxreiff/ratthew	197
4	📡 atac	A simple API client in your terminal	Julien-cpsn/ATAC	163
5	💾 monolith	CLI tool for saving complete web pages	Y2Z/monolith	149
6	🖌️ brush	Bash/POSIX-compatible shell implemented in Rust	reubeno/brush	119
7	📨 iamb	A Matrix client for Vim addicts	ulyssa/iamb	114
8	📄 doxx	Terminal-based document viewer for Microsoft Word files	bgreenwell/doxx	109
9	🔎 flamelens	An interactive flamegraph viewer for the terminal	YS-L/flamelens	90
10	💽 caligula	A user-friendly, lightweight TUI for disk imaging	ifd3f/caligula	89
11	🛠️ heretek	A gdb TUI dashboard	wcampbell0x2a/heretek	88
12	🎮 Plastic	A NES emulator that runs in your terminal	Amjad50/plastic	87
13	🧩 setrixtui	A TUI puzzle game where falling blocks become sand	Mjoyufull/Setrixtui	81
14	🎬 gitlogue	A cinematic Git commit replay tool for the terminal	unhappychoice/gitlogue	79
15	🌀 cute	TUI HTTP client with API/auth key management and request history/storage	PThorpe92/CuTE	73
16	🚀 serie	A rich git commit graph in your terminal, like magic	lusingander/serie	71
17	⚙️ systemctl-tui	A fast and simple TUI for interacting with systemd services and their logs	rgwood/systemctl-tui	69
18	📡 netscanner	Network scanning tool	Chleba/netscanner	67
19	🧊 soft_ratatui	Pure software renderer	gold-silver-copper/soft_ratatui	64
20	🎼 scope-tui	A simple oscilloscope/vectorscope/spectroscope for your terminal	alemidev/scope-tui	62
21	⚡ eilmeldung	A fast & powerful TUI RSS reader	christo-auer/eilmeldung	61
22	🐗 hexhog	A configurable hex viewer & editor for your terminal	DVDTSB/hexhog	61
23	🎧 Auditorium	Listen to your music library in the terminal	nate-craft/auditorium	59
24	🔮 regect	Regex 101 like CLI tool	kloki/regect	59
25	🌳 treemd	An interactive Markdown navigator with a collapsible heading tree	Epistates/treemd	58
26	🎛️ wiremix	A simple TUI audio mixer for PipeWire	tsowell/wiremix	57
27	📰 bulletty	A RSS/ATOM feed reader for your terminal	CrociDB/bulletty	55
28	🪄 xan	The CSV magician	medialab/xan	54
29	💠 bevy_tui_texture	A Bevy plugin for rendering TUIs using Ratatui and wgpu	tt-toe/bevy_tui_texture	52
30	🐠 lifecycler	Terminal aquarium	cxreiff/lifecycler	52
31	🌀 ratatui-wgpu	A wgpu based rendering backend for	Jesterhearts/ratatui-wgpu	52
32	🌀 bevy_ratatui_render	A Bevy plugin for rendering a Bevy app to the terminal using Ratatui	cxreiff/bevy_ratatui_render	51
33	🔍 bpftop	Provides a dynamic real-time view of running eBPF programs	Netflix/bpftop	51
34	✨ Gitu	A TUI Git client inspired by Magit	altsem/gitu	51
35	📄 tdf	A TUI-based PDF viewer	itsjunetime/tdf	50
36	⌨️ typr	Typing practice plugin for Neovim with dashboard	nvzone/typr	49
37	🪨 basalt	Manage Obsidian notes directly from the terminal	erikjuhani/basalt	46
38	🏴‍☠️ Rebels in the Sky	P2P terminal game about space pirates playing basketball across the galaxy	ricott1/rebels-in-the-sky	46
39	🌀 systemd-manager-tui	Manage systemd services in the terminal	matheus-git/systemd-manager-tui	46
40	🌀 termscp	A feature rich TUI for file transfer and explorer	veeso/termscp	46
41	👾 cellular-automaton	execute aesthetically pleasing animations	Eandrju/cellular-automaton.nvim	44
42	🧪 jiq	An interactive JSON query tool with live results	bellicose100xp/jiq	44
43	➡️ ratatui-ffi	Native C ABI bindings for Ratatui	holo-q/ratatui-ffi	44
44	🌀 rumdl	A fast Markdown linter & formatter	rvben/rumdl	44
45	🚗 suzui-rs	Suzuki Serial Data Line (SDL) viewer in Rust	thatdevsherry/suzui-rs	44
46	🤠 yeehaw	A batteries-included text-based application framework	bogzbonny/yeehaw	44
47	📊 tui-piechart	A customizable pie chart widget for	sorinirimies/tui-piechart	43
48	⚙️ DataTUI	A terminal UI for viewing data	forensicmatt/datatui	41
49	📨 mqttui	Subscribe to a MQTT Topic or publish something quickly from the terminal	EdJoPaTo/mqttui	41
50	🐱 manga-tui	Terminal-based manga reader and downloader	josueBarretogit/manga-tui	40
51	🐭 webatui	Make TUI-themed WASM web apps	TylerBloom/webatui	40
52	🛠️ csvlens	A command line CSV file viewer	YS-L/csvlens	39
53	🔋 jolt	A battery & energy monitor TUI	jordond/jolt	39
54	⚙️ journalview	View, filter, and navigate system logs from journalctl	codervijo/journalview	39
55	🏒 ssHattrick	Multiplayer game that you can play over SSH	ricott1/sshattrick	39
56	🧱 tetrs	A modern Tetromino game with a TUI	strophox/tetrs	39
57	🌲 lstr	A minimalist directory tree viewer with an optional TUI mode	bgreenwell/lstr	38
58	🧬 NanoCore	An 8-bit CPU emulator + assembler + TUI debugger	AfaanBilal/NanoCore	38
59	♜ chess-tui	Play chess in your terminal	thomas-mauran/chess-tui	37
60	🌀 hl	The tool for analyzing logs	pamburus/hl	37
61	🦀 modalkit	A Rust library for building modal editing applications	ulyssa/modalkit	37
62	🍺 zerobrew	A modern drop-in replacement for Homebrew on macOS	lucasgelfond/zerobrew	37
63	🦆 ducker	A terminal app for managing Docker containers	robertpsoane/ducker	36
64	🎮 sharad_ratatui	A text-based Shadowrun role-playing game	ProHaller/sharad_ratatui	36
65	🔍 tabiew	View and query CSV and TSV files	shshemi/tabiew	36
66	🦾 tenere	TUI for LLMs written in Rust	pythops/tenere	36
67	🐘 tsql	A modern PostgreSQL manager TUI	fcoury/tsql	36
68	🌀 channels-console	A TUI dashboard for inspecting std/tokio/futures/crossbeam channels	pawurb/channels-console	35
69	🖼️ md-tui	Markdown renderer in the terminal	henriklovhaug/md-tui	35
70	🦀 cargo-wizard	Applies profile and config templates to your Cargo project	Kobzol/cargo-wizard	34
71	🎧 concertus	A plug-and-play TUI music player for local libraries	Jaxx497/concertus	34
72	🎹 CrabSID	A TUI music player for Commodore 64 SID tunes	mlund/crabsid	34
73	💽 dua	View disk space usage and delete unwanted data	Byron/dua-cli	34
74	🦀 md-tui	Markdown renderer	henriklovhaug/Preview.nvim	34
75	💯 pls	A prettier and powerful ls(1) for the pros	pls-rs/pls	34
76	🧪 SeqTUI	A terminal-based sequence data viewer & toolkit	ranwez-search/SeqTUI	34
77	🧭 tui-scrollbar	Smooth & fractional scrollbar widget for	joshka/tui-widgets	34
78	🧹 wiper	Disk cleanup tool with visual breakdown of directory sizes	ikebastuz/wiper	34
79	✈️ adsb_deku	Rust ADS-B decoder + TUI radar application	rsadsb/adsb_deku	33
80	🐦 perch	A TUI client for Mastodon & Bluesky	ricardodantas/perch	33
81	🌀 rgx	TUI regex tester with real-time matching	brevity1swos/rgx	33
82	🧲 superseedr	A full-featured BitTorrent client for the terminal	Jagalite/superseedr	33
83	📖 bookokrat	A terminal-based EPUB reader	bugzmanov/bookokrat	32
84	🔧 jirust	Jira terminal UI	Code-Militia/jirust	32
85	🦀 ouch	Painless compression and decompression in the terminal - written in Rust	ouch-org/ouch	32
86	📺 television	A general purpose fuzzy finder TUI	alexpasmantier/television	32
87	🌀 tui-shader	A library for using GPU shaders in TUI applications	pemattern/tui-shader	32
88	🃏 BalatroTUI	Balatro game in your terminal	Passeriform/BalatroTUI	31
89	🌪️ blendr	The hacker's BLE (bluetooth low energy) browser terminal app	dmtrKovalenko/blendr	31
90	🧬 keifu	A TUI for visualizing Git commit graphs	trasta298/keifu	31
91	🃏 private_poker	A poker library, server, client, and TUI	theOGognf/private_poker	31
92	🐭 ratframe	egui widget + Ratatui backend	gold-silver-copper/ratatui_egui_wasm	31
93	🌐 RustNet	A cross-platform network monitor	domcyrus/rustnet	31
94	🏗️ texaform	A factory game automated by your code	JoshuaPostel/texaform	31
95	🐢 tortuise	Render 3D scenes using pure terminal symbols	buildoak/tortuise	31
96	🛰️ tracker	Track satellites and predict orbits in real-time in your terminal	ShenMian/tracker	31
97	📓 tui-journal	Your journal app if you live in a terminal	AmmarAbouZor/tui-journal	31
98	📚 ekphos	A markdown research TUI inspired by Obsidian	hanebox/ekphos	30
99	🌌 fractouille	Fractal explorer for the terminal	PottierLoic/Fractouille	30

The full list (600+) is also available here.

What's next?

I will keep posting.

If you want to help in any way:

• If you have a Rust/Ratatui/terminal project or if you know one that deserves more attention, send it to me and I will post about it!
• If you have ideas for what I could do with this data or have any feedback for the posts, let me know!
• Smash the sponsor button below if you want to support the work that I do.

Cheers! 🐁

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