Installation

Requirements

• Julia 1.12 or later

• A terminal emulator with Unicode support (virtually all modern terminals)

Install

Install Tachikoma from the repository:

using Pkg
Pkg.add(url="https://github.com/kahliburke/Tachikoma.jl")

Or in the Pkg REPL (press ]):

pkg> add https://github.com/kahliburke/Tachikoma.jl

For development:

Pkg.develop(url="https://github.com/kahliburke/Tachikoma.jl")

Terminal Recommendations

Tachikoma works in any terminal that supports VT100 escape sequences (basically everything). For the best experience:

Pixel Graphics Support

For pixel-perfect rendering with PixelImage and PixelCanvas, use a terminal with Kitty or sixel graphics support:

Terminal	Platform	Pixel Graphics
kitty	Cross-platform	Kitty graphics (fastest)
iTerm2	macOS	Sixel
WezTerm	Cross-platform	Sixel
foot	Linux (Wayland)	Sixel
mlterm	Cross-platform	Sixel

Standard Terminals

Braille and block rendering work everywhere. These terminals are well-tested:

• Terminal.app (macOS) — braille and block backends

• GNOME Terminal / Konsole — full support, no pixel graphics

• Windows Terminal — full support, no pixel graphics

• Alacritty — fast, no pixel graphics

Optional Extensions

Tachikoma uses Julia's package extension system for optional features. Each extension loads automatically when its dependencies are imported, or you can activate it explicitly with a helper function.

GIF Export

Record and export animated GIF files from app recordings and widget demos. Requires FreeTypeAbstraction and ColorTypes:

using Pkg
Pkg.add(["FreeTypeAbstraction", "ColorTypes"])

Activate with:

using Tachikoma
enable_gif()

# Then use export_gif, export_gif_from_snapshots, etc.

Tables.jl Integration

Enables DataTable to accept any Tables.jl-compatible source (DataFrames, CSV, etc.):

using Pkg
Pkg.add("Tables")

Activate with:

using Tachikoma
enable_tables()

# Then pass any Tables.jl source to DataTable
using Tables
dt = DataTable(my_dataframe)

DataTable supports sorting, selection, column resize, and horizontal scrolling:

dt = DataTable(
    [DataColumn("Package", Any["Tachikoma", "Makie", "Plots", "Genie", "HTTP"]),
     DataColumn("Stars", Any["120", "4.8k", "3.2k", "2.1k", "850"]; align=col_right),
     DataColumn("Type", Any["TUI", "Plotting", "Plotting", "Web", "HTTP"])];
    selected=2,
    block=Block(title="Julia Packages"),
)

Markdown Rendering

Enables the MarkdownPane widget for rendering CommonMark content in the terminal. Requires CommonMark:

using Pkg
Pkg.add("CommonMark")

Activate with:

using Tachikoma
enable_markdown()

# Then use MarkdownPane
pane = MarkdownPane("# Hello\n\nSome **bold** text")

MarkdownPane renders CommonMark with styled headings, lists, code blocks with syntax highlighting, and more:

enable_markdown()
pane = MarkdownPane("# Hello\n\n**Bold**, *italic*, and `code`.")

All extensions can also be activated by directly importing their dependencies (using FreeTypeAbstraction, ColorTypes, using Tables, or using CommonMark) before or after using Tachikoma.

Verify Installation

using Tachikoma

# Check that the module loads and themes are available
println("Tachikoma v", pkgversion(Tachikoma))
println("Active theme: ", theme().name)
println("Themes: ", join([t.name for t in ALL_THEMES], ", "))