DalaDev TUI

A terminal-based interactive dashboard for the dala_dev toolkit, built on ExRatatui.

Navigate devices, run Mix tasks, trigger deployments, inspect logs, and debug remote applications — all without leaving the terminal.

Features

Four-tab layout: Devices, Tasks, Output, Debug
Device panel: List discovered Android/iOS devices and emulators with status, node info, and distribution ports
Tasks panel: Browse and run mix dala.* tasks by category
Output panel: View results from task runs
Debug panel: Inspect remote nodes — version info, screen state, memory usage, process count, latency
Keyboard-driven: Vim keybindings (j/k/h/l) and arrow keys
Status bar: Real-time connection info, dala version, OTP version
Help overlay: Press ? for keyboard reference
Mix task: mix dala_dev.tui

UI Layout

╭─ ⚡ DalaDev TUI  │  Debug > demo@localhost ──────────╮
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ Debug 1/1 connected ╮ ╭─ demo@localhost ──────────────═
│ 🟢 demo@localhost    │ │ Node:    demo@localhost        │
│   v0.8.0 (2.5ms)     │ │ Dala:    0.8.0                │
╰──────────────────────╯ │ OTP:     27                    │
                          │ ERTS:    15.0                  │
                          │ App:     0.1.0                 │
                          │ Latency: 2.5ms                 │
                          │                               │
                          │ Screen: HomeScreen             │
                          │                               │
                          │ Memory:                        │
                          │   total: 45.2 MB               │
                          │   processes: 12.1 MB            │
                          │   binary: 8.5 MB               │
                          │                               │
                          │ Processes: 150                 │
                          ╰───────────────────────────────╯
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────═
│ 🟢 Ready │ dala: 0.8.0 │ OTP: 27 │ devices: 2 │ nodes: 1│
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────═
│ j/k navigate ⏎ select i inspect Tab tabs ? help q quit │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Usage

Starting the TUI

mix dala_dev.tui

Keybindings

Navigation

Key	Action
`j` / `↓`	Move selection down
`k` / `↑`	Move selection up
`h` / `←`	Focus navigation panel
`l` / `→`	Focus detail panel
`Tab`	Cycle through tabs
`1`	Devices tab
`2`	Tasks tab
`3`	Output tab
`4`	Debug tab

Device Actions

Key	Action
`Enter`	Select device
`r`	Refresh device list
`d`	Deploy to selected device
`s`	Stream logs from selected device

Debug Actions

Key	Action
`i`	Inspect selected remote node (queries version, memory, screen)
`Enter`	Select remote node for inspection

Other

Key	Action
`?`	Toggle help overlay
`q`	Quit

Architecture

The TUI follows a clean architecture with pure state transformations:

mix dala_dev.tui
  → DalaDev.Tui.App (ExRatatui callback)
  → DalaDev.Tui.State (pure navigation logic)
  → DalaDev.Tui.Devices (device discovery)
  → DalaDev.Tui.Remote (remote node queries)
  → DalaDev.Tui.Tasks (task definitions)
  → DalaDev.Tui.Views.* (rendering)
  → DalaDev.Tui.Theme (colors/styles)

Modules

Module	Purpose
`DalaDev.Tui`	Public API, entry point
`DalaDev.Tui.App`	ExRatatui app callback
`DalaDev.Tui.State`	Pure navigation state and key handling
`DalaDev.Tui.Devices`	Device discovery with node/dist port metadata
`DalaDev.Tui.Remote`	Remote node queries (version, screen, memory, latency)
`DalaDev.Tui.Tasks`	Mix task definitions
`DalaDev.Tui.Theme`	Color palette and shared styles
`DalaDev.Tui.Views.NavPanel`	Left panel rendering
`DalaDev.Tui.Views.DetailPanel`	Right panel rendering
`DalaDev.Tui.Views.StatusBar`	Status bar with version/connection info
`DalaDev.Tui.Views.HelpOverlay`	Help overlay rendering

Remote Node Information

The Debug tab queries remote dala nodes via Erlang RPC to show:

Version Information

Dala framework version — queried via Application.spec(:dala, :vsn) on the remote node
OTP version — from :erlang.system_info(:otp_release)
ERTS version — from :erlang.system_info(:system_version)
App version — from the application's vsn

Screen Information

Current screen — queried via Dala.Test.screen/1
Screen info — queried via Dala.Test.screen_info/1
Assigns — queried via Dala.Test.assigns/1

Memory Usage

Total memory
Process memory
Binary memory
ETS memory
Atom memory

Connection

Latency — measured via RPC round-trip time
Process count — total processes on the remote node

Testing

The TUI is designed for testability:

State transitions are pure functions
Views are pure functions that return widget structs
The app can run in headless test_mode for testing

# Run TUI tests
mix test test/dala_dev/tui/

Configuration

The TUI reads device information from dala_dev's discovery modules:

Android: Uses DalaDev.Discovery.Android (via adb devices)
iOS: Uses DalaDev.Discovery.IOS (via xcrun simctl)
Remote nodes: Uses Erlang distribution Node.list(:connected) and RPC

No additional configuration is needed — the TUI automatically discovers available devices and connected nodes.

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