Terminal Launcher

Minecraft in your terminal. Fast, keyboard-first, written in Rust.

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Screenshots

 

 

   

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Highlights

Loaders	Vanilla · Fabric · Quilt · Forge · NeoForge
Modpacks	Modrinth & CurseForge search + install, local import (.mrpack / MultiMC / CF zip)
Mods & more	Browse mods, resource packs, shaders — filtered to version & loader
Themes	Built-in palettes + custom HEX theme editor
Servers	Saved list, status ping, quick-join / direct-connect
Accounts	Microsoft (device code) + offline
Safety	Blocks delete / edit / reinstall / copy while the game is running
Updates	Header badge when a new GitHub release is out (click / U)

Performance

Measured with cargo run --release --bin mctui-perf (20s samples, Windows, headless UI only — no Minecraft JVM).

Scenario	CPU % (1 core)	RAM (working set)	Notes
Idle (no redraw)	~0.08%	~10.2 MiB	Quiet event loop
Scroll @ 60 FPS (400 mods)	~6.6%	~10.9 MiB	Realistic continuous scroll
Scroll max (stress)	~98%	~10.9 MiB	Upper bound — redraw as fast as possible

Release binary	~12.6 MiB on disk

How CPU % is calculated (correct, not Task Manager “guess”):
100 × (process CPU time ÷ wall time) using Windows GetProcessTimes (user + kernel).
100% = one full logical core. RAM is process working set (K32GetProcessMemoryInfo), same as Task Manager Memory.

Re-run on your machine:

cargo run --release --bin mctui-perf
# longer sample:
$env:MCTUI_PERF_SECS=60; cargo run --release --bin mctui-perf

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Install

Windows

Portable .exe — no installer.

1. Latest release
2. Download Terminal-Launcher-windows-x64.zip
3. Run Terminal-Launcher.exe

Linux

Portable binary (x86_64, glibc — works on Arch, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and most other distros).

1. Latest release
2. Download Terminal-Launcher-linux-x64.tar.gz
3. Extract and run:

tar -xzf Terminal-Launcher-linux-x64.tar.gz
chmod +x Terminal-Launcher
./Terminal-Launcher

Needs a terminal with Unicode, a JRE 21+ for Minecraft, and (for Microsoft login token storage) a desktop keyring / Secret Service (gnome-keyring, kwallet, etc.).

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Foxemsx/Terminal-Launcher.git
cd Terminal-Launcher
cargo build --release
# Windows → target/release/mctui.exe
# Linux   → target/release/mctui

On Linux you may need: pkg-config, OpenSSL headers (libssl-dev / openssl-devel / openssl).

CurseForge API key (optional)

Get an org key at console.curseforge.com, then either:

• Settings → curseforge field, or
• Windows: $env:MCTUI_CURSEFORGE_KEY = '$2a$10$…' (PowerShell: single quotes)
• Linux: export MCTUI_CURSEFORGE_KEY='$2a$10$…'

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Quick start

Step	Keys
Microsoft login	2 accounts → a
New instance / modpack	1 → n
Install & play	i then ↵
Browse mods	o open instance → / search
Saved servers	3 → n add · ↵ join

1–4 switch tabs · q quit · tab next tab

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Authentication

Microsoft login uses the device-code flow with our own Azure app registration (client ID baked into the build). No third-party launcher client ID is used.

You can override it with the MCTUI_MS_CLIENT_ID environment variable if you register your own Azure app (supported account types: Personal Microsoft accounts only, with the nativeclient redirect URI).

Offline accounts never contact Microsoft.

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Data

%LOCALAPPDATA%\mctui\ on Windows · ~/.local/share/mctui/ on Linux

Instances live under instances/<name>/.minecraft/.

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Support

If Terminal Launcher helps you, you can support development:

Also available in-app: Settings → community → ☕ support us / ⬡ github.

Disclaimer

Unofficial community project — not affiliated with Mojang / Microsoft.
You need a legitimate Minecraft Java Edition copy for online play.

License

MIT