opentui-component.md

OpenTUI component

dunkdiff/opentui exports DunkDiffView, a reusable terminal diff component built from the same renderer as the dunk CLI.

Use it when you want dunk's split or stack diff view inside your own OpenTUI app.

Install

npm i dunkdiff @opentui/core @opentui/react react

dunk declares OpenTUI and React as peer dependencies, so install them in your app.

Quick start

import { createCliRenderer } from "@opentui/core";
import { createRoot } from "@opentui/react";
import { DunkDiffView, parseDiffFromFile } from "dunkdiff/opentui";

const metadata = parseDiffFromFile(
  {
    cacheKey: "before",
    contents: "export const value = 1;\n",
    name: "example.ts",
  },
  {
    cacheKey: "after",
    contents: "export const value = 2;\nexport const added = true;\n",
    name: "example.ts",
  },
  { context: 3 },
  true,
);

const renderer = await createCliRenderer({
  useAlternateScreen: true,
  useMouse: true,
  exitOnCtrlC: true,
});
const root = createRoot(renderer);

root.render(
  <DunkDiffView
    diff={{
      id: "example",
      metadata,
      language: "typescript",
      path: "example.ts",
    }}
    layout="split"
    width={88}
    theme="midnight"
  />,
);

In a real app, derive width from your layout or useTerminalDimensions().

Building the diff input

DunkDiffView renders one file at a time. Pass a diff object shaped like this:

type DunkDiffFile = {
  id: string;
  metadata: FileDiffMetadata;
  language?: string;
  path?: string;
  patch?: string;
};

From before/after contents

Use parseDiffFromFile(...) when you already have the old and new file contents.

import { parseDiffFromFile } from "dunkdiff/opentui";

const metadata = parseDiffFromFile(beforeFile, afterFile, { context: 3 }, true);

From unified diff text

Use parsePatchFiles(...) when you already have a patch string.

import { parsePatchFiles } from "dunkdiff/opentui";

const parsed = parsePatchFiles(patchText, "example:patch", true);
const metadata = parsed.flatMap((entry) => entry.files)[0];

if (!metadata) {
  throw new Error("Expected at least one diff file.");
}

Props

Prop	Type	Default	Notes
diff	DunkDiffFile	undefined	File to render. When omitted, the component shows an empty-state message.
layout	"split" | "stack"	"split"	Chooses side-by-side or stacked rendering.
width	number	—	Required content width in terminal columns.
theme	"graphite" | "midnight" | "paper" | "ember"	"graphite"	Matches dunk's built-in themes.
showLineNumbers	boolean	true	Toggles line-number columns.
showHunkHeaders	boolean	true	Toggles @@ ... @@ hunk header rows.
wrapLines	boolean	false	Wraps long lines instead of clipping horizontally.
horizontalOffset	number	0	Scroll offset for non-wrapped code rows.
highlight	boolean	true	Enables syntax highlighting.
scrollable	boolean	true	Set to false if your parent view owns scrolling.
selectedHunkIndex	number	0	Highlights one hunk as the active target.

Other exports

• parseDiffFromFile
• parsePatchFiles
• FileDiffMetadata
• DUNK_DIFF_THEME_NAMES
• DunkDiffThemeName
• DunkDiffLayout
• DunkDiffFile
• DunkDiffViewProps

parseDiffFromFile, parsePatchFiles, and FileDiffMetadata are re-exported from @pierre/diffs so you can build metadata without adding a second diff dependency.

Examples

• Runnable demo overview: examples/README.md
• Component demos: examples/7-opentui-component/README.md

The in-repo demos import from ../../src/opentui so they run from source. Published consumers should import from dunkdiff/opentui.