tinky-web

A library for rendering Tinky applications in the browser using Xterm.js.

tinky-web bridges the gap between Tinky's rendering model and web-based terminal emulators. It provides custom stream implementations that allow Tinky to render directly into an Xterm.js instance running in a React application.

Features

• 🖥️ Browser Compatibility: Run Tinky applications entirely in the browser
• 🎨 Xterm.js Integration: Leverages the power and styling of Xterm.js
• 📐 Auto Resizing: Automatically handles terminal resizing and layout fitting
• ⌨️ Input Handling: Captures keyboard input from the browser and forwards it to Tinky
• 🌊 Custom Streams: Built-in stdout, stderr, and stdin streams optimized for the browser
• ⚡ Lightweight: Optimized for modern browser environments

Installation

Install tinky-web and its peer dependencies:

# npm
npm install tinky-web

# yarn
yarn add tinky-web

# pnpm
pnpm add tinky-web

Quick Start

Here's a simple example to get you started:

import React, { useState } from "react";
import { Text, Box } from "tinky";
import { Tinky } from "tinky-web";

// Your Tinky application component
const MyTinkyApp = () => (
  <Box borderStyle="round" borderColor="green">
    <Text>Hello from Tinky in the Browser! 👋</Text>
  </Box>
);

// Main React component
const App = () => {
  const [focused, setFocused] = useState(true);

  return (
    <div style={{ height: "100vh", width: "100vw" }}>
      <Tinky
        focused={focused}
        terminalOptions={{
          fontSize: 14,
          theme: { background: "#1a1b26" },
        }}
        onClick={() => setFocused(true)}
      >
        <MyTinkyApp />
      </Tinky>
    </div>
  );
};

export default App;

API Reference

Tinky Component

The main component that wraps your Tinky application.

import { Tinky } from "tinky-web";

Props

Prop	Type	Default	Description
children	ReactNode	-	The Tinky application to render
focused	boolean	false	Whether the terminal captures keyboard input
cols	number	undefined	Fixed number of columns. If omitted, fits container
rows	number	undefined	Fixed number of rows. If omitted, fits container
terminalOptions	ITerminalOptions	{}	Configuration for the Xterm.js instance
onResize	(dims: { cols: number, rows: number }) => void	-	Callback fired when terminal dimensions change
...divProps	HTMLAttributes<HTMLDivElement>	-	All other props are passed to the container div

Terminal Options

The terminalOptions prop accepts all Xterm.js ITerminalOptions except disableStdin. Common options include:

<Tinky
  terminalOptions={{
    // Font settings
    fontSize: 16,
    fontFamily: "JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, monospace",
    fontWeight: "normal",
    fontWeightBold: "bold",

    // Cursor settings
    cursorStyle: "bar", // 'block' | 'underline' | 'bar'
    cursorBlink: true,

    // Theme (colors)
    theme: {
      background: "#1a1b26",
      foreground: "#a9b1d6",
      cursor: "#c0caf5",
      selectionBackground: "#33467c",
      black: "#15161e",
      red: "#f7768e",
      green: "#9ece6a",
      yellow: "#e0af68",
      blue: "#7aa2f7",
      magenta: "#bb9af7",
      cyan: "#7dcfff",
      white: "#a9b1d6",
    },

    // Scollback
    scrollback: 1000,
  }}
>
  <MyApp />
</Tinky>

TinkyHandle

Access the underlying terminal instance using a ref:

import { useRef } from "react";
import { Tinky, TinkyHandle } from "tinky-web";

const App = () => {
  const tinkyRef = useRef<TinkyHandle>(null);

  const handleClick = () => {
    // Access the Xterm.js terminal
    const terminal = tinkyRef.current?.terminal;

    // Get current dimensions
    const dimensions = tinkyRef.current?.dimensions;
    console.log(`${dimensions?.cols}x${dimensions?.rows}`);

    // Access the Tinky instance
    const tinkyInstance = tinkyRef.current?.instance;
  };

  return (
    <Tinky ref={tinkyRef}>
      <MyApp />
    </Tinky>
  );
};

Property	Type	Description
terminal	Terminal | null	The Xterm.js Terminal instance
dimensions	ITerminalDimensions | null	Current terminal columns and rows
instance	Instance | null	The Tinky instance returned by render()

How It Works

Tinky is designed to be browser-friendly. tinky-web provides:

1. Custom Streams

It creates specialized Runtime streams that:

• Stdout/Stderr: Accept ANSI escape codes from Tinky and render them to the Xterm.js instance. They handle newline conversions (\n -> \r\n) and provide necessary TTY methods.
• Stdin: Captures input from the Xterm.js instance and pipes it back to Tinky.

2. React Integration

The Tinky component manages the lifecycle of:

• The Xterm.js terminal
• The Tinky render instance
• Resize observers to keep the terminal perfectly fitted to its container

Troubleshooting

Terminal appears empty or very small

Make sure the container element has explicit dimensions. The Tinky component fills the width and height of its parent (or the style you pass to it).

// ✅ Correct - explicit dimensions
<Tinky style={{ width: "100%", height: "400px" }}>
  <MyApp />
</Tinky>

Keyboard input not working

Ensure the focused prop is set to true. You usually want to manage this state in your parent component.

<Tinky focused={true}>
  <MyApp />
</Tinky>

License

MIT