TCA Rust

March 28, 2026 · View on GitHub

CI tca-types on crates.io tca-ratatui on crates.io tca-cli on crates.io docs.rs License: MIT

Terminal Colors Architecture (TCA) for Rust: consistent, user-configurable theming for terminal applications.

For Developers

Add one line to your app and get beautiful theming with zero configuration:

let theme = TcaTheme::default();

Your app immediately works with 11 built-in themes and any theme the user installs. You don't have to ship themes or write config parsers - TCA handles it.

// Use resolved colors directly in ratatui
let style = Style::default()
    .fg(theme.ui.fg_primary)
    .bg(theme.ui.bg_primary);

let error_style = Style::default().fg(theme.semantic.error);
let border_style = Style::default().fg(theme.ui.border_primary);

For Users

Drop any .yaml theme file into ~/.local/share/tca/themes/ and it becomes available to every TCA-powered app on the system with no per-app configuration needed.

# Install a theme from the tca-themes collection
cp tokyo-night.yaml ~/.local/share/tca/themes/

# Your app picks it up automatically
myapp --theme tokyo-night

Browse available themes at tca-themes.

How Theme Resolution Works

TcaTheme::new(Some("name")) tries each step in order, falling back gracefully:

  1. User theme files - searches ~/.local/share/tca/themes/<name>.yaml, or accepts an exact file path
  2. Built-in themes - catppuccin-mocha, cyberpunk, dracula, everforest-dark, gruvbox-dark, mono, nord, one-dark, rose-pine, solarized-light, tokyo-night
  3. User preference - reads ~/.config/tca/tca.toml for a configured default
  4. Auto-detect - picks a dark or light built-in based on the terminal's background color

Passing None skips steps 1-2 and goes straight to the user's preference or auto-detection.

Packages

CratePurpose
tca-ratatuiRatatui integration - TcaTheme, widgets
tca-typesCore types and base24 YAML parsing
tca-cliCLI — validate, add, list, init

Getting Started

[dependencies]
tca-ratatui = "0.6"

use tca_ratatui::TcaTheme;
use ratatui::style::Style;

let theme = TcaTheme::new(None);

That's it. See tca-ratatui for the full guide.

Development

cargo build --workspace
cargo test --workspace
cargo clippy --workspace

License

MIT