[go-fan] Go Module Review: charmbracelet/bubbletea

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🐹 Go Fan Report: Bubble Tea

Module Overview

Bubble Tea is a powerful TUI (Terminal User Interface) framework based on The Elm Architecture that provides a functional, stateful approach to building terminal applications. With 37,996 GitHub stars, it's one of the most popular Go TUI frameworks and was updated just hours ago (2026-01-07T06:28:37Z)!

The framework follows the Model-Update-View pattern and includes production-ready features like framerate-based rendering, mouse support, keyboard enhancements, and cross-platform compatibility.

Current Usage in gh-aw

Overview

Bubble Tea is used in the pkg/console package to provide two interactive terminal components:

• Files: 2 files (spinner.go, list.go)
• Import Count: 2 direct imports
• Version: v1.3.10 (stable, September 2025)

Key APIs Used

1. Spinner Component (pkg/console/spinner.go)

Pattern: ⚠️ Non-idiomatic custom implementation

• Uses spinner.Model from bubbles package
• Implements custom goroutine-based animation loop
• Does NOT use tea.NewProgram()
• Manually executes model.Update() and model.View()
• Thread-safe with mutex protection

Key Features:

• TTY detection (disables in pipes/CI)
• Accessibility support (ACCESSIBLE env var)
• MiniDot animation style
• Clean start/stop API

2. Interactive List Component (pkg/console/list.go)

Pattern: ✅ Idiomatic Bubble Tea usage

• Full tea.Program with Model-Update-View
• Implements tea.Model interface properly
• Uses tea.NewProgram() with tea.WithAltScreen()
• Custom item delegate for styling
• Fallback to text-based list for non-TTY

Key Features:

• Arrow key navigation
• Search/filtering
• WindowSizeMsg handling
• Custom styling with lipgloss

API Usage Summary

// Core Bubble Tea APIs
tea.Cmd              // Command pattern for async operations
tea.Msg              // Event message type
tea.Model            // Application state interface  
tea.NewProgram()     // Program constructor
tea.WithAltScreen()  // Fullscreen option
tea.Quit             // Exit command
tea.KeyMsg           // Keyboard events
tea.WindowSizeMsg    // Terminal resize events

// Bubbles components
spinner.New()        // Create spinner
spinner.Model        // Spinner state
spinner.MiniDot      // Animation style

Research Findings

Repository Stats

• GitHub: https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea
• Stars: 37,996 ⭐ (top 0.1% of Go projects!)
• Last Updated: 2026-01-07T06:28:37Z (TODAY!)
• License: MIT
• Maintainer: Charm (charm.sh)
• Production Users: Microsoft Azure, Cockroach Labs, AWS, Ubuntu, NVIDIA

Recent Updates

v2.0.0-rc.2 Available! (November 2025)

Bubble Tea v2 is in Release Candidate stage with major improvements:

1. Synchronized Output Updates (Mode 2026)

   • Atomic terminal rendering for smoother updates
   • Eliminates flicker and tearing
   • Terminal capability detection

2. Declarative View API

   • Consolidates view properties into View struct
   • Replaces fragmented options/commands
   • Single source of truth for view state

type View struct {
    Layer               Layer        // Content
    Cursor              *Cursor      // Position, style, color
    BackgroundColor     color.Color  // Terminal background
    AltScreen           bool         // Fullscreen mode
    MouseMode           MouseMode    // Mouse events
    ReportFocus         bool         // Focus events
    // ... more fields
}

3. Module Migration

   • New import path: charm.land/bubbletea/v2
   • Official Charm domain

4. Message Type Changes

   • Several types changed from aliases to structs
   • Better extensibility and future compatibility
   • Example: PasteMsg now has .Content field

5. Renderer Improvements

   • Better resize handling
   • Optimized cursor visibility
   • Skip-flush performance optimization

Best Practices from Maintainers

1. ✅ Use the Full Program Pattern - Don't run custom update loops
2. ✅ Leverage Commands - Use tea.Cmd for async, not goroutines
3. ✅ Implement Model Interface - Proper Init/Update/View separation
4. ✅ Use Bubbles Components - Pre-built, tested components
5. ✅ Handle WindowSizeMsg - Always respond to terminal resizes
6. ✅ Use AltScreen for Fullscreen - Better UX
7. ✅ Test Across Terminals - Behavior varies

Improvement Opportunities

🏃 Quick Wins

1. Fix Spinner Implementation ⚠️ HIGH PRIORITY

Location: pkg/console/spinner.go:91-119

Current Issue: The spinner uses a custom goroutine with a manual update loop instead of the idiomatic Bubble Tea pattern:

// CURRENT (Anti-pattern)
func (s *SpinnerWrapper) animate() {
    msg := s.model.Tick()
    for {
        s.mu.Lock()
        var cmd tea.Cmd
        s.model, cmd = s.model.Update(msg)  // Manual update loop
        fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "\r%s %s", s.model.View(), s.message)
        s.mu.Unlock()
        // ... manual goroutine orchestration
    }
}

Problems:

• Bypasses Bubble Tea's rendering pipeline
• Requires manual mutex management
• Potential race conditions
• Doesn't leverage framerate optimization
• Hard to test

Recommended Fix: Use tea.NewProgram() with inline or headless rendering:

// RECOMMENDED Pattern 1: Headless mode
p := tea.NewProgram(
    spinnerModel{spinner: spinner.New()},
    tea.WithoutRenderer(),  // No altscreen, just inline
)
go p.Run()

// RECOMMENDED Pattern 2: Just use the component directly  
s := spinner.New()
ticker := time.NewTicker(time.Second / 10)
for range ticker.C {
    s, cmd := s.Update(s.Tick())
    fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "\r%s %s", s.View(), message)
    if cmd != nil {
        cmd()
    }
}

Benefits:

• Follows framework conventions
• Cleaner code (~30% less code)
• Better performance
• Easier to test
• Eliminates custom goroutine management

Effort: Medium (2-3 hours) - Requires refactoring SpinnerWrapper

2. Add WindowSizeMsg Handling to Spinner

Current: Spinner doesn't respond to terminal resizes
Fix: Handle tea.WindowSizeMsg if using full Program
Benefit: Better UX during terminal resizing
Effort: Low (30 minutes)

3. Use tea.Sequence for Coordinated Actions

Opportunity: Chain async operations cleanly
Example: tea.Sequence(cmd1, cmd2, cmd3)
Benefit: Cleaner async orchestration
Effort: Low (as needed)

✨ Feature Opportunities

1. Evaluate v2.0.0 Migration

Status: v2 at RC2, approaching stable release

Benefits:

• ✨ Synchronized output (smoother rendering)
• 🎨 Declarative View API (cleaner code)
• ⚡ Performance improvements
• 🏛️ Official charm.land domain

Risks:

• Breaking changes (import path, message types)
• RC stability (not production-ready yet)

Recommendation:

• Monitor v2 for stable release (likely Q1 2026)
• Test in development branch
• Plan migration once stable

Migration Effort: Medium (1-2 days for codebase changes + testing)

2. Add Progress Bars for Known Operations

Current: Only spinners for indefinite operations
Opportunity: Use bubbles/progress for operations with known duration

Use Cases:

• File uploads/downloads
• Compilation progress
• Test suite execution
• Batch processing

Example:

import "github.com/charmbracelet/bubbles/progress"

prog := progress.New(progress.WithGradient("#FF7CCB", "#FDFF8C"))
prog.SetPercent(0.75) // 75% complete
fmt.Println(prog.View())
// ████████████████░░░░ 75%

Benefit: Better UX for operations with predictable duration
Effort: Low (1-2 hours) - Similar API to spinner

3. Add Text Input Components

Current: List selection only
Opportunity: Use bubbles/textinput for user input

Use Cases:

• Prompts and confirmations
• Form input
• Search functionality
• Configuration input

Benefit: Richer interactive CLI experience
Effort: Low (2-3 hours per component)

4. Implement Viewports for Scrolling Content

Opportunity: Use bubbles/viewport for long content

Use Cases:

• Help text and documentation
• Log viewing
• Long lists exceeding screen size

Benefit: Better handling of content overflow
Effort: Low (2-3 hours)

📐 Best Practice Alignment

1. Spinner Architecture Refactor ⚠️ CRITICAL

Current Pattern: Manual goroutine + custom update loop (anti-pattern)
Impact: High - affects maintainability and introduces potential bugs

See "Quick Win #1" above for detailed analysis and fix.

2. Centralize Bubble Tea Initialization

Current: List creates Program ad-hoc (list.go:196)
Better: Extract Program options and configuration

// pkg/console/tea.go
func NewProgram(model tea.Model, opts ...tea.ProgramOption) *tea.Program {
    // Centralized logging, error handling, options
    defaultOpts := []tea.ProgramOption{
        tea.WithAltScreen(),
        // ... other common options
    }
    return tea.NewProgram(model, append(defaultOpts, opts...)...)
}

Benefit: Consistent behavior, easier testing
Effort: Low (1 hour)

3. Add Error Handling for Program.Run()

Current: Error handled but could be more robust
Enhancement: Add panic recovery, better error messages

result, err := p.Run()
if err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, tea.ErrProgramKilled) {
        // User interrupted
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("interactive list failed: %w", err)
}

Benefit: More resilient CLI
Effort: Low (30 minutes)

4. Document TTY Detection Rationale

Current: Good implementation, light documentation
Enhancement: Explain why TTY check matters

Rationale to document:

• Pipes and redirects: gh aw | tee output.txt
• CI/CD environments: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
• Automated scripts: No user interaction
• Accessibility: Screen readers need fallback

Effort: Very Low (15 minutes)

🔧 General Code Improvements

1. Consolidate Bubble Tea Usage

Observation: Mixed patterns (full Program vs manual loop)
Recommendation: Standardize on full Program pattern for all TUI

Benefits:

• Consistent architecture
• Easier to extend with new components
• Better testability

Effort: Medium (4-6 hours) - Refactor spinner

2. Extract Common TUI Patterns

Opportunity: Create shared utilities

// pkg/console/tea.go
func WithTTYFallback(interactive func() error, fallback func() error) error {
    if tty.IsStderrTerminal() {
        return interactive()
    }
    return fallback()
}

Benefit: DRY principle, easier to add new components
Effort: Low (2 hours)

3. Add Unit Tests for Bubble Tea Models

Current: No visible tests for listModel
Opportunity: Test Init(), Update(), View() methods

Testing Pattern: Bubble Tea models are pure functions!

func TestListModel_Update(t *testing.T) {
    m := listModel{list: list.New(items, delegate, 80, 20)}
    
    // Test key press
    updated, cmd := m.Update(tea.KeyMsg{Type: tea.KeyEnter})
    
    assert.NotNil(t, cmd) // Should return Quit command
    assert.NotEmpty(t, updated.(listModel).choice)
}

Benefit: Confidence in TUI behavior
Effort: Low (3-4 hours for comprehensive tests)

4. Consider Tea Testing Package

Tool: github.com/charmbracelet/x/exp/teatest
Purpose: End-to-end testing of Bubble Tea programs

import "github.com/charmbracelet/x/exp/teatest"

func TestListInteraction(t *testing.T) {
    tm := teatest.NewTestModel(t, listModel{...})
    tm.Send(tea.KeyMsg{Type: tea.KeyDown})
    tm.Send(tea.KeyMsg{Type: tea.KeyEnter})
    
    teatest.WaitFor(t, tm.Output(), func(bts []byte) bool {
        return bytes.Contains(bts, []byte("selected"))
    })
}

Benefit: Integration tests for interactive components
Effort: Low (2-3 hours)

Recommendations

Priority 1: Fix Spinner Implementation

The current spinner implementation is an anti-pattern that should be refactored to use Bubble Tea idiomatically. This is the most impactful change.

Action: Refactor SpinnerWrapper to use tea.NewProgram() or direct component usage
Timeline: Sprint priority
Risk: Low (well-documented pattern)

Priority 2: Add Tests

Unit tests for Bubble Tea models will prevent regressions and make future refactoring safer.

Action: Add tests for listModel and new spinner implementation
Timeline: Same sprint as spinner refactor
Risk: Very low

Priority 3: Monitor v2 Release

Bubble Tea v2 offers significant improvements, but should only be adopted after stable release.

Action:

1. Monitor v2 release announcements
2. Test v2 in development branch when stable
3. Create migration plan
4. Execute migration in dedicated sprint

Timeline: Q1 2026 (when v2 stable)
Risk: Medium (breaking changes, testing required)

Priority 4: Expand TUI Components

Consider adding progress bars, text inputs, and viewports as new features are developed.

Action: Evaluate on a per-feature basis
Timeline: Ongoing, as features require them
Risk: Low (well-documented components)

Next Steps

1. Immediate (This Week):

   • Review spinner implementation with team
   • Plan refactoring approach
   • Create GitHub issue for spinner refactor

2. Short-term (Next Sprint):

   • Refactor spinner to use idiomatic Bubble Tea pattern
   • Add unit tests for TUI components
   • Document TTY detection rationale

3. Medium-term (Next Month):

   • Centralize Bubble Tea initialization
   • Extract common TUI patterns
   • Consider new components (progress bars)

4. Long-term (Q1 2026):

   • Monitor Bubble Tea v2 stable release
   • Plan and execute v2 migration
   • Leverage synchronized output and new features

---

Module summary saved to: specs/mods/charmbracelet-bubbletea.md

References:

• Bubble Tea Repository
• v2.0.0-rc.2 Release Notes
• Bubbles Components Library

AI generated by Go Fan

[pelikhan]

/plan do the spinner

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🎉 Yo ho ho! Plan Command found the treasure and completed successfully! ⚓💰