Appleskin
Appleskin is a minimal, modal, home‑row‑driven shell designed to work everywhere—from full GUI terminals to raw TTY rescue environments. It uses only ANSI escape codes for its interface, making it fully compatible with serial consoles, initramfs shells, and macOS/Linux recovery terminals.
Core Concepts
Top‑Anchored Prompt
- Always visible at the top of the screen.
- Shows the current mode (e.g.,
[NAV] ->,[BUILTINS] ->). - Never scrolls away, keeping the user oriented.
Bottom Status Bar
- A single line fixed at the bottom of the screen.
- Flashes green on success and red on failure.
- Visible in peripheral vision without requiring direct attention.
- Displays contextual information such as mode, cwd, git branch, or selection count.
Middle Output Region
- All command output appears between the prompt and status bar.
- No panels, splits, or alternate screen buffers.
- Ideal for TTYs and minimal environments.
Home‑Row Interaction Model
Appleskin keeps all interaction on the home row:
- Left side (
a s d f): navigation, movement, selection. - Right side (
h j k l): actions, transforms, operations. - Center (
g): toggles session search mode (speedgrep) and returns to the prompt on a second press.
This creates a consistent mental model:
left = navigation, right = action, g = go.
Modal Workflow
Appleskin uses explicit modes to reduce ambiguity:
- NAV mode — movement, jumping, selecting.
- BUILTINS mode — internal Appleskin commands.
- EXTERNALS mode — system binaries.
- SEARCH mode — incremental searching.
- VISUAL mode — operate on selections.
Modes are always visible in both the prompt and status bar.
TTY‑Native Design
Appleskin relies only on:
- ANSI cursor movement
- ANSI colors
- a top prompt
- a bottom status bar
- raw keyboard input
This makes it fully functional in:
- Linux TTYs
- macOS Recovery Terminal
- rescue shells
- embedded systems
- SSH sessions
- minimal initramfs environments
Why Appleskin Feels Fast
- Eyes stay anchored on the top prompt.
- Hands stay anchored on the home row.
- Peripheral cues handle success/failure.
- Modal design reduces typing overhead.
- No UI clutter, no mouse, no scrolling required.
Appleskin aims to be a shell that is minimal, ergonomic, and universally compatible, while delivering a fast and intentional workflow.
