Tauterm
TauTerm
A terminal emulator for Linux, built with Rust and Tauri 2. Currently Linux-only.
Status: beta (v0.1.0-beta.3) — Core features are implemented. Under active stabilization — expect rough edges.
Features
- Multi-tab terminal with independent PTY sessions and background activity notifications
- Split panes (horizontal and vertical), each with its own independent session
- Full VT parser with configurable scrollback buffer
- Search in terminal output
- SSH as a first-class citizen: saved connection profiles, secure credential storage via D-Bus Secret Service
- Three built-in themes — Umbra (dark, default), Solstice (light), Archipel (dark, tropical) — plus custom themes via design tokens
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts
- Every feature accessible via both mouse and keyboard
- Full-screen mode
- English and French interface
Build and Run
See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed prerequisites. In short: Rust 1.94.1, Node.js 22, pnpm 10, and a few system packages on Debian/Ubuntu.
git clone [email protected]:Bawycle/TauTerm.git
cd TauTerm
pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev
Production build (pnpm tauri build) produces an AppImage.
Default Shortcuts
All shortcuts are customizable in Preferences (Ctrl+,).
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| New tab | Ctrl+Shift+T |
| Close tab | Ctrl+Shift+W |
| Next tab | Ctrl+Tab |
| Previous tab | Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
| Rename tab | F2 |
| Split pane horizontally | Ctrl+Shift+D |
| Split pane vertically | Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Close pane | Ctrl+Shift+Q |
| Navigate panes | Ctrl+Shift+Arrow |
| Paste | Ctrl+Shift+V |
| Search | Ctrl+Shift+F |
| Toggle full-screen | F11 |
Themes
TauTerm ships with three built-in themes. Umbra (default) is a dark theme built on warm neutrals and cool steel-blue accents — designed for all-day use without eye fatigue. Solstice is a high-contrast light theme with cold, Nordic tones. Archipel is a dark theme with saturated tropical accents for users who find neutral palettes visually flat.
Custom themes can be created using design tokens. See docs/AD.md for the full artistic direction.
Documentation
| Document | Content |
|---|---|
| docs/arch/ | Architecture: modules, IPC, state machines, concurrency |
| docs/AD.md | Artistic direction and theme design |
| docs/UR.md | User requirements and personas |
| docs/fs/ | Functional specifications |
| docs/uxd/ | UX/UI design: tokens, components, interactions |
| docs/testing/TESTING.md | Test strategy |
| docs/adr/ | Architecture Decision Records |
| CHANGELOG.md | Release history |
| SECURITY.md | Security policy and vulnerability reporting |
Architecture
The Rust backend handles PTY management, VT parsing, SSH, and terminal state. The Svelte 5 frontend renders the terminal UI. All communication crosses the IPC boundary via Tauri commands and events.
src-tauri/src/ Rust backend (PTY, VT parser, SSH, IPC commands)
src/ Svelte 5 frontend (terminal rendering, tabs, panes, preferences)
docs/ Project documentation
scripts/ CI and development scripts
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, coding standards, and pull request guidelines.
Roadmap
Planned for future releases:
- Session persistence across restarts
- Pane maximize/restore without destroying splits
- SSH jump host (ProxyJump) support
- OSC 8 hyperlinks in terminal output
- OSC 1337 inline images
- GPG-signed releases with SHA256SUMS verification
- Windows 11 support
Acknowledgments
TauTerm is built on the work of many open-source projects and their maintainers:
- Tauri — application framework
- Svelte and SvelteKit — frontend framework
- Tailwind CSS — utility-first CSS
- Bits UI — headless UI primitives
- Paraglide JS (inlang) — i18n
- vte — VT parser
- portable-pty — cross-platform PTY management
- russh — pure-Rust SSH implementation
- Tokio — async runtime
- secret-service — D-Bus Secret Service client
- Lucide — icon set
And to every crate and package in the dependency tree that makes this possible — thank you.
License
