accelr8

Collaborative ascii canvas in your terminal. A real CLI app: mouse-driven TUI, real multiplayer, and live cursors that glide as your friends move them.

   ('-.                                ('-.               _  .-')
  ( OO ).-.                          _(  OO)             ( \( -O )
  / . --. /    .-----.     .-----.  (,------.  ,--.       ,------.    .-----.
  | \-.  \    '  .--./    '  .--./   |  .---'  |  |.-')   |   /`. '  /  .-.  \
.-'-'  |  |   |  |('-.    |  |('-.   |  |      |  | OO )  |  /  | | |   \_.' /
 \| |_.'  |  /_) |OO  )  /_) |OO  ) (|  '--.   |  |`-' |  |  |_.' |  /  .-. '.
  |  .-.  |  ||  |`-'|   ||  |`-'|   |  .--'  (|  '---.'  |  .  '.' |  |   |  |
  |  | |  | (_'  '--'\  (_'  '--'\   |  `---.  |      |   |  |\  \   \  '-'  /
  `--' `--'    `-----'     `-----'   `------'  `------'   `--' '--'   `----''

Install

npm install -g accelr8

Use

accelr8                 # open the app
accelr8 join XYMRAU     # jump straight into a friend's project
accelr8 --name pat      # pick your display name (remembered)

Create a project in the Projects tab, paint on the Canvas by clicking and dragging (right-click erases), and grab the join code from the Members tab. Everyone in a project sees everyone else's cursor move live.

 accelr8   collaborative ascii canvas                               you ●
  Projects     Canvas     Members                                  ● live
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 brush  █ ▓ ▒ ░ ● ◆ ★ ▲ ■ · # @ *  ⌫ erase                        clear
┌─ canvas 100×30 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│      █                                                                 │
│       █                    ▲ alice                                     │
│        █                                                               │
│                                       ▲ bob                            │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 landing page redesign  ·  code XYMRAU  ·  3 online      [tab] switch  [q] quit

Controls

| Input | Action | |---|---| | Mouse click | tabs, buttons, project rows, palette | | Click + drag on canvas | paint with the current brush | | Right-click on canvas | erase a cell | | Tab / 1 2 3 | switch tabs | | q / Ctrl-C | quit |

How the live cursors work

The terminal reports mouse motion via ANSI escape sequences (any-event tracking, ESC[?1003h). The app:

1. Throttles outgoing cursor positions to ~25/sec.
2. Interpolates on the receiving side: each remote cursor lerps toward its last reported position every frame (x += (target - x) * 0.35), so it glides smoothly instead of teleporting between throttled updates.

Sparse sends plus client-side smoothing is what makes it feel live.

Sync server

By default the CLI talks to the hosted sync server (a Cloudflare Worker with a Durable Object, source in worker/). You can point it anywhere:

accelr8 --server ws://localhost:8787      # or export ACCELR8_SERVER=...

Self-hosting

accelr8 serve                 # starts a sync server on :8787
accelr8 serve --port 9000     # custom port

Expose it beyond your machine with a quick tunnel:

cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8787
# friends then run: accelr8 --server wss://something.trycloudflare.com

Deploy your own copy of the hosted worker:

cd worker && npx wrangler deploy

Development

npm install
npm run dev              # run the TUI from source
npm run serve            # run the sync server from source
npm run smoketest        # headless two-client sync test (needs a server)
npm run rendertest       # headless frame dumps of every screen
npm run build            # bundle dist/cli.js

Layout:

• src/protocol.ts shared wire types + constants (fixed 100×30 logical canvas)
• src/cli.ts entry point, arg parsing
• src/client.ts the TUI: mouse/keyboard, flicker-free rendering, cursor lerp
• src/server.ts self-host sync server (Node, ws)
• worker/ hosted sync server (Cloudflare Worker + Durable Object)