Ratty is a GPU-rendered terminal emulator built in Rust with Ratatui, featuring a spinning rat cursor, inline 3D graphics, and multiple 3D presentation modes.
Key Takeaways
Built with Rust and Ratatui; GPU rendering enables inline 3D graphics directly in the terminal.
Offers multiple 3D presentation modes and a spinning rat cursor; inspired by TempleOS.
Introduces or references the Glyph Protocol, a newly proposed standard for richer terminal graphics.
Dependency count is notable enough that the project itself jokes about it in documentation.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters see Ratty as part of a broader terminal evolution alongside Kitty protocol extensions and projects like euporie; no single unified vision exists yet.
GPU acceleration raises a practical gap: SSH use cases are unaddressed, and high-quality 2D rasterization in terminals remains an open problem even with this approach.
A recurring meta-debate emerged over whether the terminal abstraction itself is still worth preserving, with some preferring a proper REPL model instead.
Notable Comments
@joouha: Flags the newly proposed Glyph Protocol for terminals as a missing standard he had identified six months prior.
@sigseg1v: Asks whether GPU rendering here could finally solve poor 2D image quality in terminals, and what happens to the GPU pipeline over SSH.
