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Drop-in Go library for TUI text selection + mouse scroll
A standalone Go package that provides in-app text selection functionality for TUI applications, solving the fundamental conflict between mouse-enabled scrolling and native terminal text selection. Targets developers building TUI tools with Bubble Tea and similar frameworks who currently must reverse-engineer custom solutions from other projects or wait indefinitely for framework-level support.
Why this matters
You are building a TUI application in Go and want users to scroll with their mouse wheel while also being able to select and copy text. When you enable mouse mode for scrolling, native terminal text selection completely breaks — a limitation across virtually all terminal emulators. You search for solutions and find that the framework maintainers acknowledge the problem but have no timeline for a fix. You dig through source code of other TUI projects and find custom implementations, but they are tightly coupled to those specific applications and cannot be reused. You end up writing a fragile workaround that toggles mouse modes on click events, producing a confusing UX where selections disappear when scrolling resumes. Each new terminal emulator your users report issues with sends you back to debugging escape sequences.
- · Built for Go developers and engineering teams building TUI-based products (AI coding agents, monitoring dashboards, CLI tools) using Bubble Tea, tview, or similar frameworks who need professional-grade text selection alongside mouse scrolling.
- · Most likely monetization: Dual-license: MIT for open-source projects, commercial license for enterprise/closed-source products, with optional paid support tiers.
The Pain · Narrative
You are building a TUI application in Go and want users to scroll with their mouse wheel while also being able to select and copy text. When you enable mouse mode for scrolling, native terminal text selection completely breaks — a limitation across virtually all terminal emulators. You search for solutions and find that the framework maintainers acknowledge the problem but have no timeline for a fix. You dig through source code of other TUI projects and find custom implementations, but they are tightly coupled to those specific applications and cannot be reused. You end up writing a fragile workaround that toggles mouse modes on click events, producing a confusing UX where selections disappear when scrolling resumes. Each new terminal emulator your users report issues with sends you back to debugging escape sequences.
Score Breakdown
Market Signal
Go-to-Market
Engineering teams at startups building AI-powered CLI/TUI coding assistants and developer tools using Go and the Charm ecosystem
~5,000 active Go TUI developers globally, with ~500-1,000 at companies that would pay for commercial licenses
GitHub open-source release with Show HN post, targeting the Charm/Bubble Tea community and adjacent Go TUI ecosystem
$499/year per commercial license, with a free MIT-licensed community edition for open-source projects
10 commercial license inquiries and 500 GitHub stars within 60 days of launch
MVP Scope · 1–2 weeks
- Implement core text selection state machine handling mouse click, drag, and release events in alternate screen buffer
- Build terminal detection layer identifying SGR mouse mode support across major terminals (iTerm2, Alacritty, Kitty, Windows Terminal, GNOME Terminal)
- Create minimal Bubble Tea integration example with a scrollable viewport and selectable text
- Set up automated test harness using headless terminal emulators for regression testing
- Write initial documentation covering integration steps and known terminal limitations
- Add clipboard integration for macOS (pbcopy), Linux (xclip/xsel/Wayland), and Windows (clip)
- Implement configurable selection modes: character, line, and rectangle selection
- Build compatibility matrix page documenting tested terminals and their feature support
- Create dual-licensing mechanism with license key validation for commercial builds
- Publish v0.1.0 to GitHub with example apps, README, and integration guide, then post to developer communities
Differentiation
Why This Might Fail
Self-rebuttal — the most important trust signal
- 1The Bubble Tea maintainers could prioritize and ship built-in text selection in v2 within 6-12 months, making a standalone library redundant — this is the existential risk since the framework has hundreds of contributors and community momentum.
- 2The total addressable market of Go developers building TUI apps that need text selection may be too small (likely under 2,000 paying customers) to justify ongoing maintenance of terminal-specific compatibility patches across 15+ emulators.
- 3Terminal emulator behavior is notoriously inconsistent and under-documented; a single macOS or Windows Terminal update could break selection rendering for a large portion of users, creating a support burden that outstrips revenue.
Evidence Summary
How AI synthesized this insight — no verbatim quotes
Approximately six commenters confirmed the fundamental conflict between mouse-enabled scrolling and native text selection in TUI applications. Multiple users referenced solutions in other projects (Claude Code, Crush, opencode) but noted these implementations are either not applicable to full-screen TUI apps or too customized to reuse. One commenter provided a technical workaround involving mouse mode toggling but acknowledged the UX is problematic and should not be a framework default. Framework maintainers confirmed a planned solution exists but described it as a large undertaking with no timeline. The frequency of feature requests and cross-project solution hunting indicates real developer pain, though no explicit payment signals were observed in the discussion.
Action Plan
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Recommended Next Step
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Landing Page Copy Kit
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Headline
Drop-in Go library for TUI text selection + mouse scroll
Sub-headline
A standalone Go package that provides in-app text selection functionality for TUI applications, solving the fundamental conflict between mouse-enabled scrolling and native terminal text selection. Targets developers building TUI tools with Bubble Tea and similar frameworks who currently must reverse-engineer custom solutions from other projects or wait indefinitely for framework-level support.
Who It's For
For Go developers and engineering teams building TUI-based products (AI coding agents, monitoring dashboards, CLI tools) using Bubble Tea, tview, or similar frameworks who need professional-grade text selection alongside mouse scrolling
Feature List
✓ Drop-in text selection component compatible with Bubble Tea View/Update pattern ✓ Automatic clipboard integration across macOS, Linux, and Windows ✓ Terminal emulator detection and protocol negotiation (SGR mouse, UTF-8 extended) ✓ Configurable selection modes (line, rectangle, word-boundary) ✓ Compatibility testing suite covering 15+ terminal emulators
Where to Validate
Share your landing page in r/GitHub · charmbracelet/bubbletea — that's exactly where these pain points were discovered.
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