PrismTTY

PrismTTY is a fast terminal output highlighter focused on network devices and Linux/Unix administration. It is intended as a ChromaTerm-style CLI wrapper with network-focused built-in profiles.

Website: prismtty.com.

Preview

Synthetic terminal previews using documentation-only hostnames and addresses:

Install

Homebrew

Install the latest release from the PrismTTY Homebrew tap:

brew install inxbit/tap/prismtty

The Homebrew formula installs prismtty, ptty, ct, bundled profiles, and shell completions. It also installs the required PCRE2 runtime dependency.

Cargo

Install from crates.io:

cargo install prismtty

Cargo builds PrismTTY from source and installs the command binaries. You need Rust 1.85 or newer plus PCRE2 and pkg-config available on your system.

For cargo install on macOS, install the native build dependencies first:

brew install pcre2 pkg-config

For cargo install on Debian/Ubuntu, install:

sudo apt-get install libpcre2-dev pkg-config

GitHub Release

Prebuilt release archives and checksums are available on the GitHub releases page.

Each release archive contains the binaries, license/readme files, example profiles, shell completions, and a .tar.gz.sha256 checksum.

Usage

ptty /bin/zsh
ptty ssh router.example.net
show-tech.txt | prismtty --profile cisco
prismtty profiles test cisco fixtures/cisco.txt
prismtty --reload

The recommended interactive workflow is to start one wrapped shell from your terminal profile:

ptty /bin/zsh

From inside that shell, run normal ssh, telnet, or console-wrapper commands. PrismTTY dynamically switches profiles from observed login banners and prompts, then keeps the selected remote profile locked for the session.

Use pipe mode for noninteractive output:

show-tech.txt | prismtty --profile cisco
journalctl -xe | prismtty --profile linux-unix

Important options:

• -p, --profile <name> forces one or more profiles.
• --no-auto-detect uses only generic unless profiles are forced.
• --no-dynamic-profile disables profile switching inside wrapped interactive shells.
• -c, --config <file> loads a ChromaTerm-compatible YAML file.
• --strip-ansi removes existing ANSI before PrismTTY styles output.
• --show-profile prints profile selections and transitions to stderr.
• --local-echo locally echoes printable typed keys for no-echo device sessions.
• --trace-io <file> appends hex-encoded PTY input/output plus rendered-output diagnostics.
• -R, --rgb forces RGB color output.
• --pcre is accepted for ChromaTerm compatibility; PCRE2 is always used.
• -b, --benchmark prints per-rule timing and match-count data.
• -r, --reload asks running PrismTTY sessions to reload config.

Profile commands:

prismtty profiles list
prismtty profiles show cisco
prismtty profiles validate ~/.config/prismtty/profiles.d/my-vendor.yml
prismtty profiles test cisco fixtures/cisco.txt

Configuration

PrismTTY loads built-in profiles first, then user rules. By default it checks:

• ~/.chromaterm.yml
• ~/.chromaterm.yaml
• ~/.config/chromaterm/chromaterm.yml
• ~/.config/chromaterm/chromaterm.yaml
• ~/.config/prismtty/config.yml
• ~/.config/prismtty/config.yaml
• /etc/chromaterm/chromaterm.yml
• /etc/chromaterm/chromaterm.yaml
• ~/.config/prismtty/profiles.d/*.yml
• ~/.config/prismtty/profiles.d/*.yaml

ChromaTerm-style rules are supported directly:

rules:
  - description: IPv4
    regex: '\b192\.0\.2\.\d+\b'
    color: f#00ffff

Native profile files add metadata:

profile:
  name: custom-router
  inherits: [generic]
  detection:
    - CustomOS
rules:
  - description: custom interface
    regex: '\bcust\d+/\d+\b'
    color: f#00ffff bold

Profiles under ~/.config/prismtty/profiles.d/ are first-class profiles: they appear in profiles list, can be shown with profiles show, can inherit built-in or other user profiles, and participate in auto-detection through their detection hints.

More Information

• Website: prismtty.com
• Source: github.com/inxbit/prismtty
• Releases: github.com/inxbit/prismtty/releases