boo

boo occupies a narrow but valuable niche: developers and sysadmins who rely on GNU screen but are frustrated by its outdated terminal emulation and flaky redraws. By leveraging Ghostty's libghostty-vt, boo ensures that when you reattach to a session, you see exactly what you left—styles, cursor, scrollback, and all. This is a genuine improvement over screen and even tmux in some edge cases. The automation API is a standout feature: commands like `send`, `peek`, `wait`, and `--json` output make it easy to script interactive terminal workflows or build AI agents that read and write terminal state without a TTY. This could be a game-changer for CI/CD pipelines that need to interact with tools like `make`, `npm`, or `ssh` in a headless environment. That said, boo is still very early. Version numbers aren't advertised, documentation is limited to the README, and community support is nascent. It deliberately skips features like tmux-style pane splitting and session sharing, which limits its appeal for teams or complex layouts. Windows support is absent, and there's no plugin ecosystem. For now, boo is best suited for single-session-per-task workflows—think remote development over SSH, automated testing, or monitoring daemons. If you need robust session management with automation-first design, boo is worth a look. If you need split panes, mature tooling, or cross-platform support, stick with tmux or screen.

boo is a terminal multiplexer that reimagines GNU screen's model with modern terminal emulation from Ghostty's libghostty-vt core, written in Zig. It provides persistent sessions that survive disconnects, faithful screen redraws including styles, cursor, and scrollback, and agent-friendly automation primitives. Ideal for developers, sysadmins, and AI/scripting workflows who need a reliable session manager with headless operation. Key features include session detach/reattach, a full-screen session manager (`boo ui`), and automation commands like `send`, `peek`, `wait` with JSON output and exit codes. Unlike tmux, boo keeps screen's minimalist prefix-key model but replaces its outdated emulator with Ghostty's accurate VT parser, ensuring modern TUI compatibility.