03 / Projects · Software

GrimoireTUI

A cozy little writing desk for your novel that lives right in your terminal, built in Rust. It understands how a book comes together, from parts and chapters down to scenes and word goals, and it keeps every word in plain Markdown you can open with anything, even cat. No database, no lock-in, and every scene diffs cleanly in git.

When the book is done it compiles a submission manuscript in standard format with your contact block and a rounded word count, samples of the first chapters for agents, a print-ready paperback interior, and an EPUB. Keep the book in Dropbox, Google Drive, pCloud or Box and it catches every conflict copy and offline file instead of losing words.

The rest is for the hours in between: nineteen themes, each with its own Pomodoro world and music visualizer, focus mode, notes that never reach the book, and a spellbook heading the outline. Every feature is explained in the built-in help, opened with F1.

GrimoireTUI is free and made by Catfinity Studios, the makers of Catfinity, an idle cat RPG for iPhone and Android. A donation on Ko-fi is never required, but it is appreciated and goes toward its development. For teachers, there's A Week with Grimoire, a free five-day curriculum with a teacher guide and a printable student workbook.

Stack ····· Rust + Ratatui · Format ····· plain Markdown · License ····· MIT

grimoiretui.com Free curriculum Source on GitHub Support on Ko-fi

GrimoireTUI in the Lost Forest theme: a book's outline under a spellbook, a scene being written, the Pomodoro forest and the music pane — Fig. 01 — The desk — outline, prose, the Pomodoro, the music.

Three pages of a compiled manuscript in standard manuscript format: a title page with contact block and word count, a chapter opener, and a page with a scene break — Fig. 02 — Compiled for submission — standard manuscript format.

A spread from a 6×9 paperback interior: running heads, a chapter opening on a right-hand page with a drop cap — Fig. 03 — A print-ready paperback interior.

The export dialog: Word manuscript, PDF, paperback, EPUB and Markdown, with samples, look and author details — Fig. 04 — One dialog for every edition.

Nineteen small Pomodoro scenes, one per theme: a tower, snowy peaks, a castle, cats, the great wave, a neon grid and more — Fig. 05 — Every theme has its own Pomodoro world.

Nineteen music visualizers, one per theme: meters, beads, frost, a neon skyline, a rolling wave, a synthwave grid — Fig. 06 — And its own music visualizer.

The Rainbow theme: every accent a drifting spectrum and a rainbow of fine ribbons over the Pomodoro — Fig. 07 — Rainbow.

Settling a sync conflict: a Dropbox conflict copy shown beside its scene with take, keep or keep-both choices — Fig. 08 — Sync conflicts caught, never lost.

Focus mode in the Kanagawa theme: only the prose, centred — Fig. 09 — Focus mode.

Clicking a misspelled word opens suggestions right under it, with three ways to ignore it — Fig. 10 — Click a misspelling to fix it.

The custom theme editor: twelve colour swatches, then Kanagawa's Pomodoro paired with Synthwave '84's visualizer — Fig. 11 — Custom themes mix and match.

The help inside GrimoireTUI: topics down the left, the Writing topic open on the right — Fig. 12 — Every feature explained, one key away.