Typeburn

A Monkeytype-style terminal typing test built with Go and Bubble Tea v2. Distraction-free, keyboard-driven, and works on any ANSI terminal.

Features

• Four test modes: Time (15/30/60/120 s), Words (10/25/50/100 words), Quote (short/medium/long/epic), Code (your own text via --text or in-app paste)
• Live stats: WPM, raw WPM, accuracy, and consistency updated every keystroke
• Result screen: big wpm + acc hero, dual-axis WPM/errors line graph that fills its panel, aligned stats column, most-missed keys — the panel is capped and centred so it reads the same on a laptop and a full-screen terminal
• Subtle motion: animated caret (blink + fade), result reveal (WPM count-up, graph draw-in), new-best celebration, and Typing→Result transition — always on, auto-adapts to NO_COLOR (layout never shifts)
• History: scrollable table of all past tests with personal-best markers (★) for eligible runs: Time/Words by mode + length and Quote by mode; Code and Strict runs never qualify
• Themes: default, mono, solarized-dark, solarized-light, dracula, nord, gruvbox-dark, gruvbox-light; mono is a grayscale color palette
• Strict mode: optional letter-strict mode that blocks wrong keypresses at the cursor, logging errors for keystroke-level accuracy, and excluding strict runs from personal best (★) records.
• Punctuation & numbers: optional Settings toggles that mix commas/periods/capitalization and random numbers into Words/Time mode tests.
• NO_COLOR support: any non-empty NO_COLOR value forces a fully attribute-only render (reverse, bold, underline, faint; no color codes), regardless of the selected theme
• Minimum terminal: 60 columns × 20 rows; graceful degraded notice below that
• XDG-compliant paths: settings and history go to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME / $XDG_DATA_HOME

Installation

1. Quick install (Linux/macOS, no Go toolchain):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bavanchun/Typeburn/main/install.sh | sh

Detects your OS/arch, downloads the matching release archive, verifies its sha256 against checksums.txt, and installs typeburn into ~/.local/bin (no sudo). Override the target with BIN_DIR=… or pin a tag with VERSION=vX.Y.Z.

Trust boundary — read before piping any script to a shell. The sha256 check defends against a corrupted or man-in-the-middled download. It does not make curl … | sh inherently safe: the script, the archive, and checksums.txt all come from the same GitHub release (and checksums.txt is unsigned), so a compromised release would be self-consistent. If that boundary matters to you, use the non-piped audit path instead:

curl -fsSL -o install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bavanchun/Typeburn/main/install.sh
less install.sh        # read it
sh install.sh          # then run it

Windows is not covered by install.sh (POSIX sh only) — use the manual archive below.

2. go install (latest tagged release):

go install github.com/bavanchun/Typeburn/v2/cmd/typeburn@latest

The module path is case-sensitive — the capital T in Typeburn is required. go install installs an executable named typeburn (lowercase) into $(go env GOPATH)/bin.

A freshly published release may lag the Go module proxy by up to ~1 hour; until the proxy ingests the tag, go install ...@vX.Y.Z can 404. Downloading the release binary (below) is immediate and unaffected.

Requires Go 1.25+.

3. Download a pre-built binary:

Grab the archive for your OS/arch from the latest release (linux/darwin/windows × amd64/arm64), verify it against checksums.txt, extract, and run the typeburn binary (all install channels produce a lowercase typeburn).

4. Build from source:

make build            # → ./bin/typeburn (lowercase, local convention)
# or
go build -o typeburn ./cmd/typeburn
make run               # run without installing (or: go run ./cmd/typeburn)

5. Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew install bavanchun/tap-typeburn/typeburn

A cask wrapping the prebuilt release archive (no Go/Xcode toolchain needed).

Usage

typeburn                         # open the TUI Home screen
typeburn -h                      # styled help with subcommands
typeburn run --mode time --duration 30 --theme nord
typeburn history --json
typeburn config set theme nord
typeburn replay testdata/sample-keystroke-log.json --json
typeburn --version               # v1-compatible alias
typeburn --text snippet.go       # v1-compatible Code mode alias

In Code mode you type the supplied text exactly — every space, tab, and line break — and the test finishes on an exact match. Without --text, tab to the Code row and press enter to open the in-app paste screen, bracket-paste a snippet, then press enter to start. Code runs appear in History but never set a ★ personal best.

See docs/cli-reference.md for the full subcommand surface, JSON shapes, exit codes, and raw --no-tui limitations.

Check for updates

typeburn version --check-update          # always hits network, human-readable
typeburn version --check-update --json   # machine-readable JSON

Opt-in automatic check on TUI launch (result cached 24 h):

typeburn config set update_check on

When enabled, every TUI launch runs a background check with an 800 ms timeout. If a newer stable release is found, the Result screen shows a muted footer hint: ↑ v2.1.0 available — run "typeburn update".

Self-update

typeburn update            # confirm, then download + install the latest release
typeburn update --check    # report availability only, never installs
typeburn update --yes      # skip the confirmation prompt (needed for non-interactive use)

update downloads the matching release archive, verifies it against the published SHA-256 checksums.txt over HTTPS, then atomically replaces the running binary in place. Integrity rests on TLS + checksums — the same trust model as curl install.sh | sh. Release binaries are unsigned, so this detects a corrupted or truncated download, not a compromised release host (see SECURITY.md).

Builds installed by a package manager are not self-updated: a Homebrew or go install binary prints the matching upgrade command (brew upgrade typeburn / go install github.com/bavanchun/Typeburn/v2/cmd/typeburn@latest) and exits without touching anything. On a non-interactive stream (pipe/redirect) update refuses unless --yes is passed, rather than blocking on a prompt.

The minimum usable terminal size is 60 columns × 20 rows. If the terminal is too small the app shows a resize prompt and resumes automatically once you resize.

Keybindings

Global (every screen)

Key	Action
ctrl+c	Quit immediately
esc	Back / cancel (on Home: shows quit prompt)
ctrl+r	Restart with fresh test
1	Go to Home
2	Go to Settings
3	Go to History

Home / Welcome

Key	Action
tab / shift+tab	Cycle mode forward / backward (Time → Words → Quote → Code)
← → / h l	Change length option
enter / space	Start test

Typing Test

Key	Action
(any printable)	Type that character
backspace	Delete last character
tab	Restart same test
ctrl+r	New test (re-pick words)
esc	Abort → Home

Result Summary

Key	Action
tab / enter	Restart same mode and length
ctrl+r	New test
esc / 1	Back to Home
3	View History

Settings

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / k j	Move selection
← → / h l / enter	Cycle / toggle selected value
esc / 1	Save and back to Home (auto-persists)

History

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / k j	Scroll rows
g	Jump to top
G (shift+g)	Jump to bottom
esc / 1	Back to Home

Configuration & Data Paths

Settings and history follow the XDG Base Directory Specification.

File	Default path (macOS / Linux)	Override
Settings	~/.config/typeburn/settings.json	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME
History	~/.local/share/typeburn/history.json	$XDG_DATA_HOME
Update-check cache	~/.local/state/typeburn/update-check.json	$XDG_STATE_HOME

A history file that cannot be parsed is never overwritten: it is renamed to history.json.corrupt-<timestamp> beside the original and the app says so, so the records stay recoverable by hand.

Development

make test        # go test ./...
make test-race   # go test ./... -race -count=1
make lint        # gofmt -l check + go vet
make fmt         # gofmt -w .
make build       # ./bin/typeburn
make clean       # remove ./bin/

CI runs on ubuntu-latest and macos-latest via GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/ci.yml). Steps: build → vet → gofmt check → test with race detector.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.