Spectre.Console Documentation

Create beautiful, cross-platform console applications with Spectre.Console.

Start Here

Get Spectre.Console running in seconds:

dotnet add package Spectre.Console

Then try this quick example that demonstrates styled text, a table, and a status spinner:

// Styled text with markup
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold blue]Welcome[/] to [green]Spectre.Console[/]!");
  
// A simple table
var table = new Table()
    .AddColumn("Feature")
    .AddColumn("Description")
    .AddRow("[green]Markup[/]", "Rich text with colors and styles")
    .AddRow("[blue]Tables[/]", "Structured data display")
    .AddRow("[yellow]Progress[/]", "Spinners and progress bars");
AnsiConsole.Write(table);
  
// Status spinner for work
AnsiConsole.Status()
    .Start("Processing...", ctx =>
    {
        Thread.Sleep(2500);
    });
  
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[green]Done![/]");

You're application should look something like this:

Explore the Documentation

Whether you're just getting started or looking to master advanced features, we've organized everything to help you find what you need. Start with the tutorials to build a solid foundation, then dive into specific topics as your projects grow.

Tutorials

Building a Rich Console App - A beginner-friendly tutorial that walks through creating a simple console application using Spectre.Console
Asking User Questions - Learn to ask the user simple questions and use their answers
Showing Status and Spinners - Display animated spinners while operations are running
Showing Progress Bars - A beginner-friendly tutorial that walks through creating animated progress bars to track long-running operations
Creating a Custom IRenderable - Build a reusable Pill widget by implementing the IRenderable interface

How-To Guides

Prompt for User Input - Collect input from users with text prompts, confirmations, and selection menus
Display Tabular Data - Display structured data in tables with borders, alignment, and styling
Show Progress Bars - Display progress bars for long-running operations with percentage completion
Show Activity Status - Display a spinner for operations without measurable progress
Escape Markup - Safely display user input, array indexers, and JSON without markup parsing errors
Write Exceptions - Display formatted exception details with stack traces, colors, and clickable links
Display Hierarchical Data - Visualize nested structures using tree views with customizable styling
Organize Layout - Arrange content using panels, columns, grids, and alignment
Update Content Live - Update console output in-place without scrolling
Run Tasks with a Spinner - Show a spinner animation while awaiting async operations
Draw Charts - Visualize data with bar charts, breakdown charts, and calendars
Test Console Output - Write unit tests for console applications using TestConsole
Create Custom Renderables - Build your own widgets by implementing IRenderable

Widgets

Text Widget - Render styled text with precise control over formatting and overflow
Markup Widget - Render styled text using an inline markup syntax
Panel Widget - Create bordered boxes around content with customizable headers, padding, and styles
TextPath Widget - Display file paths with intelligent truncation and component styling
Table Widget - Display tabular data with customizable columns, rows, borders, and styling
Tree Widget - Display hierarchical data structures with expandable tree views
Columns Widget - Display content side-by-side in columns with automatic width distribution
Rule Widget - Create horizontal dividers and section separators with optional titles
Grid Widget - Arrange content in rows and columns without visible borders for flexible layouts
Rows Widget - Stack multiple renderables vertically with consistent spacing
Layout Widget - Create complex multi-section layouts with the flexible Layout widget
Padder Widget - Add padding around any renderable content
Align Widget - Control horizontal and vertical alignment of content
FigletText Widget - Create large ASCII art text banners using FIGlet fonts
BarChart Widget - Display data as horizontal bars with labels, values, and colors
BreakdownChart Widget - Display proportional data as a colored bar chart with optional legend
Calendar Widget - Display monthly calendars with highlighted dates and events
JsonText Widget - Render JSON data with syntax highlighting and customizable colors
Canvas Widget - Draw pixel-level graphics and patterns in the console
CanvasImage Widget - Display image files in the console using pixel-based rendering

Prompts

TextPrompt - Prompt users for text input with validation and default values
SelectionPrompt - Let users select a single option from a list with keyboard navigation
MultiSelectionPrompt - Allow users to select multiple options from a list

Live Rendering

Progress Display - Show progress bars and task status for long-running operations
Status Display - Show animated status indicators with spinners for ongoing operations
Live Display - Update and refresh any renderable content dynamically in real-time

Explanation

Understanding Spectre.Console's Rendering Model - An in-depth explanation of how Spectre.Console renders text and widgets to the terminal

Reference

Color Reference - A comprehensive reference of color usage in Spectre.Console
Markup Reference - Complete reference for Spectre.Console's inline markup syntax including tags, colors, styles, links, and escaping
Box Border Reference - A complete reference of all box border styles available in Spectre.Console
Text Style Reference - A comprehensive reference of text styles and decoration options in Spectre.Console
Capabilities Reference - Complete reference for terminal capabilities, environment variables, and CI detection in Spectre.Console
Table Border Reference - A complete reference of all table border styles available in Spectre.Console
Spinner Styles Reference - A reference of built-in spinner animations available for the Status and Spinner APIs
Tree Guide Reference - A complete reference of all tree guide styles available in Spectre.Console
Emoji Reference - A list of all emoji shortcodes supported by Spectre.Console's Markup