Command Line Desktop

A terminal-based desktop environment simulator in C++17.

Turn your terminal into a pseudo-desktop with overlapping windows, a taskbar, start menu, file manager, and app launcher — all rendered via FTXUI over SSH-capable terminal escape sequences.

Quick Start

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt install libftxui-dev

# Build
cmake -B build && cmake --build build

# Run
./build/cld

Usage

Key	Action
F1	Open Start Menu
F4	Close focused window
Tab / Shift+Tab	Cycle window focus
Ctrl+Q	Quit
Mouse drag titlebar	Move window
Mouse drag edge	Resize window

The Start Menu supports type-to-search filtering. File Manager supports arrow navigation and Enter to enter directories.

Configuration

Edit config.yaml to customize colors, dock height, and app list. Apps are also auto-detected from $PATH and .desktop files.

background_color: "#1a1a2e"
apps:
  - name: Terminal
    command: xterm
  - name: File Manager
    command: ""
    internal: true
dock:
  height: 2

Requirements

• C++17 compiler
• CMake 3.14+
• FTXUI v5.x (libftxui-dev on Debian)

License

MIT