A cross-platform terminal for Windows and Linux that renders command output as structured markdown blocks instead of a raw text stream.
[ Brackets mean currently not implemented ]
- Any shell. PowerShell, bash, and zsh work today. [WSL distributions, Git Bash,
cmd, fish, Nushell, tcsh, Xonsh, dash, ksh, or any binary you point it at.] - [One terminal, both platforms. Identical functionality and visuals on Windows and Linux. No feature gaps, no "works better on X."]
- Markdown-structured output. Every command becomes a distinct block instead of a wall of text: the command renders as a
#heading behind a---divider, running output (downloads, progress bars, spinners) sits in a live-updating fenced code block so it can't break the layout, and completion closes it with a##heading, green for success, red for failure. - Typewriter reveal. Output animates in row by row as it arrives, with hard flood control so a
npm installnever falls behind reality. - Dark theme, muted accent colours, thin rounded borders.
- Font modes. Not a font picker, a rule about where each font applies. Mixed (default) puts mono outside modules and sans inside them; Mixed Reverse swaps that; Sans and Modern apply one font throughout. Code blocks, inline code, ASCII banners, and the raw view stay monospace in every mode, because alignment is load-bearing there.
- Sticky command lines. When a block's output runs taller than the screen, the command line that produced it pins to the top, so you always know what you're looking at.
- Full-screen app compatibility. Programs that take over the screen (
vim,htop,claude) fall back to a raw xterm.js view at native speed. Markdown rendering applies only to standard command output. - Every block can be toggled back to its raw bytes. If the renderer gets something wrong, one keystroke undoes it.
- [Live markdown rendering with interactive code blocks: copy, or run after an explicit confirmation showing exactly what will be sent.]
- [Collapsible output, with stack traces folded to the frames that matter.]
- [Mermaid diagrams, images, and video rendered inline in the block that printed them.]
- [AI output that reads like documentation.
claudeand friends emit markdown into terminals that cannot show it. This one will.] - [Split view rendered on one side, raw terminal on the other, so you can always see what was actually printed.]
- [Export any block or a whole session to Markdown, HTML, or PDF.]
- [Themes as data over a fixed token contract, hot-reloaded from a file.]
Existing terminals split along OS lines, the ones that feel good on Linux often don't exist or don't feel native on Windows, and vice versa. On top of that, raw terminal output is hard to scan: commands, logs, and results blur together with no visual separation.
VAD/OS solves both at once: one terminal, same experience on both platforms, with output that's actually readable. Markdown is entered on evidence, a program declaring it, or a detector clearing a high bar, never assumed, so plain and ANSI output still renders exactly as it is.
A terminal is used hundreds of times a day, so animation and block chrome are not allowed to cost anything you can feel. The project runs against a fixed budget table, 8 ms keystroke-to-glyph, 40 MB/s sustained throughput, 0.0 % idle CPU, bounded RSS across a full day of scrollback, measured against Windows Terminal and Alacritty on the same machine.
Last updated: 2026-08-06