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Public story · 2026-08-23 · high
terminal-code streams the Electron UI through the kitty graphics protocol, and Hacker News can't agree if that's clever or backwards.
Why now: The project was sitting at 93 points on Show HN as of August 23, with the comment thread still active.
terminal-code streams the VS Code interface into a terminal as live graphics, using the kitty protocol instead of text cells, per its Show HN post. The real stakes came up in the comments. VS Code often lags over RDP or X11, and streaming rendered frames through a terminal beat that remote path for some users.
The kitty graphics protocol lets a terminal display images and video frames inline, instead of only text characters. terminal-code uses it to pipe the rendered VS Code UI into that terminal, so what looks like an app is really a fast-updating picture.
Reaction split. One camp called it clever, pointing to that RDP and X11 case. The other asked why run a full Electron app through a graphics protocol when Neovim already handles terminal editing without the overhead.
That split isn't really about performance. Wanting VS Code's extensions and ecosystem badly enough to tunnel it through a terminal says the editor's pull beats the format argument around it.
The timing adds an edge. This posted the same week Thomas Ptacek argued that coding agents removed the last excuse for building terminal UIs. terminal-code took the opposite bet, building a TUI that renders a GUI app inside itself.
Each link below shares sources, entities, or timing with this story.
Claude Code uses VS Code / Shared entities / Shared topic / Earlier coverage / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (Claude Code uses VS Code); both cover Electron, VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, code, coding, terminal).
Linked by a graph relationship (Claude Code uses VS Code); both cover Electron, VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, code, coding).
VS Code supports Claude / Shared entity: Show HN / Same source domain / Shared topic / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (VS Code supports Claude); both cover Show HN; reported by the same outlet (news.ycombinator.com).
VS Code uses Copilot / Shared entities / Shared topic / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (VS Code uses Copilot); both cover Electron, VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, code).
VS Code supports Codex / Shared entity: VS Code / Shared topic / Earlier coverage / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (VS Code supports Codex); both cover VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, between, code, terminal).
Claude Code uses VS Code / Shared entity: VS Code / Shared topic / Earlier coverage / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (Claude Code uses VS Code); both cover VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, code, coding, over).
Anthropic partners with VS Code / Shared entity: VS Code / Shared topic / Earlier coverage / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (Anthropic partners with VS Code); both cover VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, between, code).
VS Code supports Claude / Shared entity: VS Code / Shared topic / Earlier coverage / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (VS Code supports Claude); both cover VS Code; overlapping topics (agent, code, coding).