Textual

This gives Claude the context to help you build terminal UIs with Textual's Python framework. It covers the full architecture from reactive state management and event handling to screens, custom widgets, and TCSS styling. The reference sheets for built-in widgets and CSS properties are especially handy when you're mid-build and can't remember if a DataTable emits RowSelected or CellSelected. Use this when you're scaffolding a new TUI app, debugging layout issues, or trying to figure out why your reactive variable isn't triggering a watch method. It's dense but organized well enough that Claude can pull what's relevant without drowning in the full Textual docs.

skills.sh installs: 258
GitHub stars: 21
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add johnlarkin1/claude-code-extensions --skill textual --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Textual TUI Framework

Build terminal applications with Textual's web-inspired architecture: App → Screen → Widget.

Quick Start

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import Header, Footer, Static

class MyApp(App):
    CSS_PATH = "styles.tcss"
    BINDINGS = [("q", "quit", "Quit"), ("d", "toggle_dark", "Dark Mode")]

    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Header()
        yield Static("Hello, World!")
        yield Footer()

    def action_toggle_dark(self) -> None:
        self.theme = "textual-dark" if self.theme == "textual-light" else "textual-light"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    MyApp().run()

Core Concepts

Widget Lifecycle

__init__() → compose() → on_mount() → on_show()/on_hide() → on_unmount()

Reactivity

from textual.reactive import reactive, var

class MyWidget(Widget):
    count = reactive(0)  # Triggers refresh on change
    internal = var("")   # No automatic refresh

    def watch_count(self, new_value: int) -> None:
        """Called when count changes."""
        self.styles.background = "green" if new_value > 0 else "red"

SKILL.md on GitHub