Files
codex/codex-rs/tui/Cargo.toml
Felipe Coury c4f1af7a86 feat(tui): syntax highlighting via syntect with theme picker (#11447)
## Summary

Adds syntax highlighting to the TUI for fenced code blocks in markdown
responses and file diffs, plus a `/theme` command with live preview and
persistent theme selection. Uses syntect (~250 grammars, 32 bundled
themes, ~1 MB binary cost) — the same engine behind `bat`, `delta`, and
`xi-editor`. Includes guardrails for large inputs, graceful fallback to
plain text, and SSH-aware clipboard integration for the `/copy` command.

<img width="1554" height="1014" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/38737a79-8717-4715-b857-94cf1ba59b85"
/>

<img width="2354" height="1374" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/25d30a00-c487-4af8-9cb6-63b0695a4be7"
/>

## Problem

Code blocks in the TUI (markdown responses and file diffs) render
without syntax highlighting, making it hard to scan code at a glance.
Users also have no way to pick a color theme that matches their terminal
aesthetic.

## Mental model

The highlighting system has three layers:

1. **Syntax engine** (`render::highlight`) -- a thin wrapper around
syntect + two-face. It owns a process-global `SyntaxSet` (~250 grammars)
and a `RwLock<Theme>` that can be swapped at runtime. All public entry
points accept `(code, lang)` and return ratatui `Span`/`Line` vectors or
`None` when the language is unrecognized or the input exceeds safety
guardrails.

2. **Rendering consumers** -- `markdown_render` feeds fenced code blocks
through the engine; `diff_render` highlights Add/Delete content as a
whole file and Update hunks per-hunk (preserving parser state across
hunk lines). Both callers fall back to plain unstyled text when the
engine returns `None`.

3. **Theme lifecycle** -- at startup the config's `tui.theme` is
resolved to a syntect `Theme` via `set_theme_override`. At runtime the
`/theme` picker calls `set_syntax_theme` to swap themes live; on cancel
it restores the snapshot taken at open. On confirm it persists `[tui]
theme = "..."` to config.toml.

## Non-goals

- Inline diff highlighting (word-level change detection within a line).
- Semantic / LSP-backed highlighting.
- Theme authoring tooling; users supply standard `.tmTheme` files.

## Tradeoffs

| Decision | Upside | Downside |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| syntect over tree-sitter / arborium | ~1 MB binary increase for ~250
grammars + 32 themes; battle-tested crate powering widely-used tools
(`bat`, `delta`, `xi-editor`). tree-sitter would add ~12 MB for 20-30
languages or ~35 MB for full coverage. | Regex-based; less structurally
accurate than tree-sitter for some languages (e.g. language injections
like JS-in-HTML). |
| Global `RwLock<Theme>` | Enables live `/theme` preview without
threading Theme through every call site | Lock contention risk
(mitigated: reads vastly outnumber writes, single UI thread) |
| Skip background / italic / underline from themes | Terminal BG
preserved, avoids ugly rendering on some themes | Themes that rely on
these properties lose fidelity |
| Guardrails: 512 KB / 10k lines | Prevents pathological stalls on huge
diffs or pastes | Very large files render without color |

## Architecture

```
config.toml  ─[tui.theme]─>  set_theme_override()  ─>  THEME (RwLock)
                                                              │
                  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┘
                  │
  markdown_render ─── highlight_code_to_lines(code, lang) ─> Vec<Line>
  diff_render     ─── highlight_code_to_styled_spans(code, lang) ─> Option<Vec<Vec<Span>>>
                  │
                  │   (None ⇒ plain text fallback)
                  │
  /theme picker   ─── set_syntax_theme(theme)    // live preview swap
                  ─── current_syntax_theme()      // snapshot for cancel
                  ─── resolve_theme_by_name(name) // lookup by kebab-case
```

Key files:

- `tui/src/render/highlight.rs` -- engine, theme management, guardrails
- `tui/src/diff_render.rs` -- syntax-aware diff line wrapping
- `tui/src/theme_picker.rs` -- `/theme` command builder
- `tui/src/bottom_pane/list_selection_view.rs` -- side content panel,
callbacks
- `core/src/config/types.rs` -- `Tui::theme` field
- `core/src/config/edit.rs` -- `syntax_theme_edit()` helper

## Observability

- `tracing::warn` when a configured theme name cannot be resolved.
- `Config::startup_warnings` surfaces the same message as a TUI banner.
- `tracing::error` when persisting theme selection fails.

## Tests

- Unit tests in `highlight.rs`: language coverage, fallback behavior,
CRLF stripping, style conversion, guardrail enforcement, theme name
mapping exhaustiveness.
- Unit tests in `diff_render.rs`: snapshot gallery at multiple terminal
sizes (80x24, 94x35, 120x40), syntax-highlighted wrapping, large-diff
guardrail, rename-to-different-extension highlighting, parser state
preservation across hunk lines.
- Unit tests in `theme_picker.rs`: preview rendering (wide + narrow),
dim overlay on deletions, subtitle truncation, cancel-restore, fallback
for unavailable configured theme.
- Unit tests in `list_selection_view.rs`: side layout geometry, stacked
fallback, buffer clearing, cancel/selection-changed callbacks.
- Integration test in `lib.rs`: theme warning uses the final
(post-resume) config.

## Cargo Deny: Unmaintained Dependency Exceptions

This PR adds two `cargo deny` advisory exceptions for transitive
dependencies pulled in by `syntect v5.3.0`:

| Advisory | Crate | Status |
|----------|-------|--------|
| RUSTSEC-2024-0320 | `yaml-rust` | Unmaintained (maintainer
unreachable) |
| RUSTSEC-2025-0141 | `bincode` | Unmaintained (development ceased;
v1.3.3 considered complete) |

**Why this is safe in our usage:**

- Neither advisory describes a known security vulnerability. Both are
"unmaintained" notices only.
- `bincode` is used by syntect to deserialize pre-compiled syntax sets.
Again, these are **static vendored artifacts** baked into the binary at
build time. No user-supplied bincode data is ever deserialized. - Attack
surface is zero for both crates; exploitation would require a
supply-chain compromise of our own build artifacts.
- These exceptions can be removed when syntect migrates to `yaml-rust2`
and drops `bincode`, or when alternative crates are available upstream.
2026-02-21 20:26:58 -08:00

137 lines
4.3 KiB
TOML

[package]
name = "codex-tui"
version.workspace = true
edition.workspace = true
license.workspace = true
[[bin]]
name = "codex-tui"
path = "src/main.rs"
[lib]
name = "codex_tui"
path = "src/lib.rs"
[features]
# Enable vt100-based tests (emulator) when running with `--features vt100-tests`.
vt100-tests = []
# Gate verbose debug logging inside the TUI implementation.
debug-logs = []
[lints]
workspace = true
[dependencies]
anyhow = { workspace = true }
base64 = { workspace = true }
chrono = { workspace = true, features = ["serde"] }
clap = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
codex-ansi-escape = { workspace = true }
codex-app-server-protocol = { workspace = true }
codex-arg0 = { workspace = true }
codex-backend-client = { workspace = true }
codex-chatgpt = { workspace = true }
codex-cloud-requirements = { workspace = true }
codex-core = { workspace = true }
codex-feedback = { workspace = true }
codex-file-search = { workspace = true }
codex-login = { workspace = true }
codex-otel = { workspace = true }
codex-protocol = { workspace = true }
codex-shell-command = { workspace = true }
codex-state = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-approval-presets = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-absolute-path = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-cli = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-elapsed = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-fuzzy-match = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-oss = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-sandbox-summary = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-sleep-inhibitor = { workspace = true }
color-eyre = { workspace = true }
crossterm = { workspace = true, features = ["bracketed-paste", "event-stream"] }
derive_more = { workspace = true, features = ["is_variant"] }
diffy = { workspace = true }
dirs = { workspace = true }
dunce = { workspace = true }
image = { workspace = true, features = ["jpeg", "png", "gif", "webp"] }
itertools = { workspace = true }
lazy_static = { workspace = true }
pathdiff = { workspace = true }
pulldown-cmark = { workspace = true }
rand = { workspace = true }
ratatui = { workspace = true, features = [
"scrolling-regions",
"unstable-backend-writer",
"unstable-rendered-line-info",
"unstable-widget-ref",
] }
ratatui-macros = { workspace = true }
regex-lite = { workspace = true }
reqwest = { version = "0.12", features = ["json"] }
rmcp = { workspace = true }
serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
serde_json = { workspace = true, features = ["preserve_order"] }
shlex = { workspace = true }
strum = { workspace = true }
strum_macros = { workspace = true }
supports-color = { workspace = true }
tempfile = { workspace = true }
textwrap = { workspace = true }
thiserror = { workspace = true }
tokio = { workspace = true, features = [
"io-std",
"macros",
"process",
"rt-multi-thread",
"signal",
"test-util",
"time",
] }
tokio-stream = { workspace = true, features = ["sync"] }
toml = { workspace = true }
tracing = { workspace = true, features = ["log"] }
tracing-appender = { workspace = true }
tracing-subscriber = { workspace = true, features = ["env-filter"] }
syntect = "5"
two-face = { version = "0.5", default-features = false, features = ["syntect-default-onig"] }
unicode-segmentation = { workspace = true }
unicode-width = { workspace = true }
url = { workspace = true }
webbrowser = { workspace = true }
uuid = { workspace = true }
codex-windows-sandbox = { workspace = true }
tokio-util = { workspace = true, features = ["time"] }
[target.'cfg(unix)'.dependencies]
libc = { workspace = true }
[target.'cfg(windows)'.dependencies]
which = { workspace = true }
windows-sys = { version = "0.52", features = [
"Win32_Foundation",
"Win32_System_Console",
] }
winsplit = "0.1"
# Clipboard support via `arboard` is not available on Android/Termux.
# Only include it for non-Android targets so the crate builds on Android.
[target.'cfg(not(target_os = "android"))'.dependencies]
arboard = { workspace = true }
[dev-dependencies]
codex-cli = { workspace = true }
codex-core = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-cargo-bin = { workspace = true }
codex-utils-pty = { workspace = true }
assert_matches = { workspace = true }
chrono = { workspace = true, features = ["serde"] }
insta = { workspace = true }
pretty_assertions = { workspace = true }
rand = { workspace = true }
serial_test = { workspace = true }
vt100 = { workspace = true }
uuid = { workspace = true }