ConsolePlus

A modern .NET library for building beautiful, cross-platform console applications.

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ConsolePlus is a .NET library that makes it easier to create beautiful, cross-platform console applications. It provides a rich, styled output engine (colors, markup, emoji, banners), robust input helpers, terminal-capability detection, ANSI escape sequence control, and screen/buffer management — all behind one clean, static entry point: ConsolePlus.

ConsolePlus is heavily inspired by the excellent Spectre.Console and serves as the core foundation for PromptPlus.

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✨ Highlights

Capability	What you get
🎨 Rich colors	148 CSS named colors, HEX, RGB, 4-bit/8-bit/24-bit (TrueColor) with automatic down-sampling
🏷️ Markup	Inline [red]...[/] style tags with auto-closing, background colors, hierarchical nesting, and raw fallback on errors
😀 Emoji	:smiley: shortcodes, typed names via EmojiName/EmojiValue, and public group helpers (EmojiTravelAndPlaces, EmojiSymbols, etc.)
🖋️ Styling	Foreground/background colors, inversion, and overflow strategies (crop / ellipsis)
🧱 Widgets	FIGlet banners and dash separators
⌨️ Input	Standard reads plus an Emacs-style line editor (sync & async)
🖥️ Screen control	Cursor movement, alternate/secondary buffer, clear, resize events
🧭 Capabilities	Automatic detection of ANSI, Unicode, color depth, TTY and CI environments
🔤 ANSI	Low-level IAnsiCommands emitter for direct escape-sequence control
🪟 Legacy Windows	Automatic ANSI support on pre-Windows 10 via bundled ANSICON
♿ Accessibility	WCAG luminance/contrast helpers to keep text readable

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📦 Installation

dotnet add package ConsolePlus

Or via the Package Manager Console:

Install-Package ConsolePlus

Supported target frameworks: .NET 8, .NET 9, .NET 10.

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🚀 Quick start

using ConsolePlusLibrary;

// Everything is exposed through the static ConsolePlus class.
ConsolePlus.Clear();

// Markup: foreground, background ("on"/":") and nesting
ConsolePlus.WriteLine("[Yellow]Hello, [Red on White]ConsolePlus!");

// A FIGlet banner
ConsolePlus.Banner("ConsolePlus", Color.Teal, DashOptions.SingleBorderUpDown);

// Styled output with a Style object
ConsolePlus.WriteLine("Styled text", new Style(Color.White, Color.Navy));

// Emoji (3 equivalent approaches)
ConsolePlus.WriteLine(":rocket: Ready to launch!");                              // 1) Shortcode
ConsolePlus.WriteLine($"{EmojiTravelAndPlaces.Rocket} Ready to launch!");       // 2) Group helper class
ConsolePlus.WriteLine($"{(EmojiValue)EmojiName.Rocket} Ready to launch!");      // 3) EmojiName + EmojiValue

// Another example with heart
ConsolePlus.WriteLine(":red_heart: I love ConsolePlus");
ConsolePlus.WriteLine($"{EmojiSmileysAndEmotion.RedHeart} I love ConsolePlus");
ConsolePlus.WriteLine($"{(EmojiValue)EmojiName.RedHeart} I love ConsolePlus");

// Read a line using the Emacs-style editor
var name = ConsolePlus.ReadLineEmacs();
ConsolePlus.WriteLine($"Welcome, [Aqua]{name}[/]!");

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📚 Documentation

Start here and follow the guides in order, or jump straight to the topic you need.

API Reference

• API Documentation — complete API reference (auto-generated from XML comments)

Fundamentals

• Getting Started — install, first app, and how initialization works
• Writing Output — Write, WriteLine, WriteFormat, blank lines, clearing
• Reading Input — keys, lines, and the Emacs-style editor

Styling & color

• Markup Language — inline color tags, escaping, and emoji
• Emoji — :shortcode: tokens, typed names (EmojiName/EmojiValue), group helper classes (EmojiActivities, EmojiTravelAndPlaces, ...), and the full emoji catalog by group
• Colors — color systems, factory methods, contrast helpers, and the full visual palette
• Styles & Overflow — the Style struct and text overflow strategies

Layout & terminal

• Widgets: Banners & Dashes — FIGlet banners and separators
• Cursor & Screen Control — cursor, buffers, resize events, ANSI commands
• Profiles & Capabilities — capability detection and configuration
• Environment Detection — automatic CI/CD and terminal detection

Ecosystem

• ConsolePlus + PromptPlus — add intelligent, professional interactive controls

Advanced

• Advanced API — driver access, thread-safe output, fragments, the Emacs buffer, and string/culture/key helpers

Development

• Test Driver Maintenance — how the VirtualTerminal test driver is kept in sync with PromptPlus (contributor-facing, not part of the public API)

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🧩 ConsolePlus + PromptPlus

ConsolePlus focuses on console fundamentals — styled output, colors, capabilities and screen control. When you need intelligent, professional interactive controls on top of that foundation (select lists, multi-select, inputs with validation, masked secrets, confirmations, calendars, progress bars, input history, and more), reach for PromptPlus.

PromptPlus is built directly on top of ConsolePlus and exposes it through PromptPlus.Console and PromptPlus.Widgets, so everything documented here is available while you build fully interactive command-line experiences.

using PromptPlusLibrary;

// PromptPlus surfaces ConsolePlus through PromptPlus.Console / PromptPlus.Widgets
PromptPlus.Console.WriteLine("[Green]Powered by ConsolePlus[/]");
PromptPlus.Widgets.Banner("PromptPlus", Color.Bisque);

👉 Learn more in the ConsolePlus + PromptPlus guide.

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📐 Architecture Decision Records (ADR)

ConsolePlus documents its significant architectural and design decisions as Architecture Decision Records (ADR), following the AdrPlus convention. Each record captures the context, the decision, the alternatives considered, and the consequences — so the reasoning behind the library's design stays traceable over time.

👉 See the ADR index for the full list of decisions.

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📄 License

ConsolePlus is licensed under the MIT License.

Portions are inspired by and adapted from Spectre.Console (© 2020 Patrik Svensson, Phil Scott, Nils Andresen), also under the MIT license.

Emoji-datasource is licensed under the UNICODE LICENSE V3.

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_{Maintained by the PromptPlus project • © 2026 Fernando Cerqueira}