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textual-scaffolder

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Generate Textual (Python) TUI application structure with widgets, screens, and CSS styling.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter/blob/HEAD/library/specializations/cli-mcp-development/skills/textual-scaffolder/SKILL.md

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Textual Scaffolder

Generate Textual TUI applications with Python and modern async patterns.

Capabilities

  • Generate Textual project structure
  • Create custom widgets and screens
  • Set up CSS-based styling
  • Implement reactive attributes
  • Create component composition
  • Set up testing with textual.testing

Usage

Invoke this skill when you need to:

  • Build terminal UIs in Python
  • Create interactive CLI with CSS styling
  • Implement multi-screen TUI applications
  • Set up Textual project structure

Inputs

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
projectNamestringYesProject name
screensarrayNoScreen definitions
widgetsarrayNoCustom widget definitions

Generated Patterns

Main Application

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import Header, Footer, Static, Button, Input
from textual.containers import Container, Horizontal, Vertical
from textual.screen import Screen

class MainScreen(Screen):
    """Main application screen."""

    CSS = """
    MainScreen {
        layout: grid;
        grid-size: 2;
        grid-gutter: 1;
    }

    #sidebar {
        width: 30;
        background: $surface;
        border: solid $primary;
    }

    #content {
        background: $surface;
        border: solid $secondary;
    }
    """

    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Header()
        yield Container(
            Static("Sidebar", id="sidebar"),
            Static("Content", id="content"),
        )
        yield Footer()


class MyApp(App):
    """Main TUI application."""

    BINDINGS = [
        ("q", "quit", "Quit"),
        ("d", "toggle_dark", "Toggle dark mode"),
    ]

    CSS_PATH = "styles.tcss"

    def on_mount(self) -> None:
        self.push_screen(MainScreen())

    def action_toggle_dark(self) -> None:
        self.dark = not self.dark


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = MyApp()
    app.run()

Custom Widget

from textual.widget import Widget
from textual.reactive import reactive
from textual.message import Message

class Counter(Widget):
    """A counter widget with increment/decrement."""

    value = reactive(0)

    class Changed(Message):
        """Counter value changed."""
        def __init__(self, value: int) -> None:
            self.value = value
            super().__init__()

    def render(self) -> str:
        return f"Count: {self.value}"

    def increment(self) -> None:
        self.value += 1
        self.post_message(self.Changed(self.value))

    def decrement(self) -> None:
        self.value -= 1
        self.post_message(self.Changed(self.value))

CSS Styles (styles.tcss)

Screen {
    background: $surface;
}

Header {
    dock: top;
    background: $primary;
}

Footer {
    dock: bottom;
    background: $primary;
}

Button {
    margin: 1;
}

Button:hover {
    background: $primary-lighten-1;
}

Input {
    margin: 1;
    border: tall $secondary;
}

Input:focus {
    border: tall $primary;
}

.error {
    color: $error;
}

.success {
    color: $success;
}

Data Table Widget

from textual.widgets import DataTable
from textual.app import ComposeResult

class DataScreen(Screen):
    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield DataTable()

    def on_mount(self) -> None:
        table = self.query_one(DataTable)
        table.add_columns("Name", "Email", "Role")
        table.add_rows([
            ("Alice", "alice@example.com", "Admin"),
            ("Bob", "bob@example.com", "User"),
            ("Charlie", "charlie@example.com", "User"),
        ])

Dependencies

[project]
dependencies = [
    "textual>=0.40.0",
]

[project.optional-dependencies]
dev = [
    "textual-dev>=1.0.0",
]

Target Processes

  • tui-application-framework
  • interactive-form-implementation
  • dashboard-monitoring-tui