references/primitive-terminal.md

Terminal Window (CLI-chrome variant)

Optional full-page skin that wraps any diagram in a fake terminal window — titlebar with three dots, a $ prompt line, monospace type throughout. Use for dev-tool announcements, CLI-product posts, and technical social cards where a screenshot needs to read as "terminal," not "editorial doc."

This is a second, fixed skin — see style-guide.md § Terminal skin for the token table. It does not inherit from onboarding.md brand tokens and isn't part of the light/dark inversion rule; every terminal example uses the same nine tokens regardless of the host site's brand.

Grammar

<div class="terminal">
  <div class="titlebar">
    <div class="dot accent"></div>
    <div class="dot"></div>
    <div class="dot"></div>
    <div class="titlebar-name">loop.sh — self-improving-loop</div>
  </div>
  <main class="frame">
    <p class="prompt">
      <span class="sign">$</span> diagram-design render --type loop
    </p>
    <h1># The self-improving loop</h1>
    <svg>...</svg>
  </main>
</div>

body {
  background: var(--terminal-page);
}
.terminal {
  background: var(--terminal-paper);
  border: 1px solid var(--terminal-border);
  border-radius: 12px;
}
.titlebar {
  background: var(--terminal-bar);
  border-bottom: 1px solid var(--terminal-border);
}
.dot {
  background: var(--terminal-soft);
}
.dot.accent {
  background: var(--terminal-accent);
}

Inside the SVG, swap the default light/dark tokens 1:1 for their terminal-* equivalents: paper → terminal-paper, ink → terminal-ink, muted/soft → terminal-muted/terminal-soft, accent/accent-tint → terminal-accent/terminal-accent-tint. The hub/focal-node pattern (inverted fill for the one highlighted element) still applies.

Typography

Everything is monospace — this is the one variant where that's correct. Drop Instrument Serif and Geist sans entirely; set the page title in mono, bold, prefixed with # (reads as a comment line). The eyebrow becomes a shell prompt: $ in terminal-accent, the command in terminal-muted.

Run every text role about 1–2px above the default type scale in style-guide.md (e.g. node-name 12px → 14px, sublabel/arrow-label 8–9px → 9–10px, hub label 16px → 18px). Monospace at the default sizes reads small next to the sans/serif mix it's replacing, and these cards are usually viewed at social-feed scale, not full-bleed.

Titlebar dots

Three 10px circles, macOS-style. The 1-accent rule caps the color use here too: one dot is terminal-accent, the other two are terminal-soft. Do not use a red/yellow/green traffic-light triad — that's a second and third hue, which the palette forbids.

Critical rules

No pure black (#000000) — use terminal-page (#0a0a0a) / terminal-paper (#141414). Same rule as the default skin, same reason: true black clips on OLED and in print.
One accent only. If a diagram needs a second focal element, use terminal-ink (white) for emphasis via weight/size, not a second color.
Background dot-grid pattern (if used) stays rgba(255,255,255,0.06–0.08) — barely visible texture, not a visual competitor to the titlebar chrome.

When to use

Dev-tool / CLI-product launch posts (npm package, CLI flag, terminal-based workflow).
Technical social cards where "this is a tool for engineers" is part of the message.
Screenshots meant to pop in a dark-mode-heavy feed (X, Discord, dev blogs).

When not to use

Editorial / long-form posts — pair with the default light or full-editorial variant instead.
Brand-matched output from onboarding.md — terminal is a fixed skin, not brand-tokenized. Don't try to reconcile the two.
Any diagram where the audience isn't developer-coded to read $/#/titlebar-dots as chrome rather than content.