discourse-tui

A terminal user interface for browsing Discourse forums.

Screenshots

Forum Picker

Add Forum

Main Screen

Topic View

Features

• Browse multiple Discourse instances
• View topics and posts with raw markdown display
• Infinite scroll pagination (auto-loads posts when scrolling)
• Reply to topics and quote posts with vim-style modal composer
• Category filtering with real API queries
• Full post view for long content
• Vim-style keybindings (j/k navigation)
• Config file storage for API credentials

Installation

From source

git clone https://github.com/ducks/discourse-tui
cd discourse-tui
cargo build --release
./target/release/discourse-tui

From releases

Download the latest binary for your platform from the releases page.

Usage

On first run, you'll be prompted to add a forum. You can add multiple forums and switch between them.

Keybindings

Forum Picker (Screen 5)

• j/k or arrow keys: Navigate forums
• a: Add new forum
• d: Delete selected forum
• Enter: Select forum
• 1: Switch to main screen (if forum selected)
• q: Quit

Main Screen (Screen 1)

• j/k or arrow keys: Navigate topics/sidebar
• n/p: Next/previous page of topics
• Tab: Switch between sidebar and topics
• Enter: Open selected topic or apply filter
• 5: Switch to forum picker
• Esc: Return to forum picker
• q: Quit

Topic View

• j/k or arrow keys: Navigate posts (auto-loads more when scrolling near edges)
• r: Reply to topic
• q (on a post): Quote selected post in reply
• Space or Enter: View full post
• Esc: Return to main screen
• q: Quit

Composer (Reply/Quote)

• i: Enter insert mode to type your message
• Esc: Exit insert mode (or close composer from normal mode)
• Enter: Submit post (from normal mode)
• Starts in normal mode (vim-style modal editing)

Post View

• j/k or arrow keys: Scroll post
• Esc: Return to topic view
• q: Quit

Configuration

Forums are stored in ~/.config/discourse-tui/config.toml:

[current]
selected = "meta"

[[forums]]
id = "meta"
name = "Discourse Meta"
url = "https://meta.discourse.org"
api_key = "your-api-key"  # optional
username = "your-username"  # optional

Getting API Keys

To browse private forums or post content, you'll need an API key:

1. Go to your forum's user preferences
2. Navigate to the API section
3. Generate a new user API key
4. Add it to the config along with your username

Anonymous browsing works for public forums without API credentials.

Dependencies

Built with:

• ratatui - Terminal UI framework
• discourse-api-rs - Discourse API client
• tokio - Async runtime
• serde - Config serialization

License

MIT