nats-tui 0.3.0

A terminal UI for NATS cluster management

NATS TUI

A terminal user interface for NATS cluster management, built with Textual.

Features

• Connection Management: Connect to NATS servers with optional authentication
• TLS Support: Secure connections with CA certificates, mutual TLS, and insecure mode for self-signed certs
• Subject Browser: Discover and browse subjects with hierarchical tree view
• Message Publishing: Publish messages with custom payloads and headers
• Message Subscribing: Subscribe to subjects with wildcard support and real-time display
• JetStream Streams: Create, delete, purge, and manage JetStream streams
• JetStream Consumers: Create, delete, pause/resume consumers
• Theming: 19+ built-in themes including light and dark modes
• Configuration: TOML-based config with named connection profiles

Installation

pip install nats-tui

Quick Start

# Connect to local NATS server
nats-tui -s nats://localhost:4222

# Connect with TLS
nats-tui -s tls://server:4222 --tls --tls-ca-cert /path/to/ca.crt

# Use a saved connection profile
nats-tui -P prod

# Launch with a specific theme
nats-tui -t nats-tui-light

Usage

nats-tui [OPTIONS]

Connection:
  -s, --server URL      NATS server URL (nats:// or tls://)
  -P, --profile NAME    Connection profile name from config file

TLS:
  --tls                 Enable TLS connection
  --tls-ca-cert PATH    Path to CA certificate file
  --tls-cert PATH       Path to client certificate (for mutual TLS)
  --tls-key PATH        Path to client key (for mutual TLS)
  --tls-insecure        Disable certificate verification (insecure)

Configuration:
  -c, --config PATH     Path to config file (TOML)
  -t, --theme NAME      Theme name (see --help for available themes)
  --version             Show version and exit
  --help                Show help and exit

TLS Connections

nats-tui supports secure TLS connections to NATS servers.

Basic TLS with CA Certificate

nats-tui -s tls://server:4222 --tls --tls-ca-cert /path/to/ca.crt

TLS with Self-Signed Certificates (Insecure)

nats-tui -s tls://server:4222 --tls --tls-ca-cert /path/to/ca.crt --tls-insecure

Mutual TLS (mTLS) with Client Certificates

nats-tui -s tls://server:4222 --tls \
  --tls-ca-cert /path/to/ca.crt \
  --tls-cert /path/to/client.crt \
  --tls-key /path/to/client.key

TLS in Configuration Profiles

[profiles.prod]
server = "tls://prod.example.com:4222"
tls = true
tls_ca_cert = "/path/to/ca.crt"

[profiles.dev]
server = "tls://dev.example.com:4222"
tls = true
tls_ca_cert = "/path/to/ca.crt"
tls_insecure = true  # For self-signed certificates

[profiles.mtls]
server = "tls://secure.example.com:4222"
tls = true
tls_ca_cert = "/path/to/ca.crt"
tls_cert = "/path/to/client.crt"
tls_key = "/path/to/client.key"

TLS is automatically enabled when using tls:// URLs.

Key Bindings

Key	Action
q	Quit
? / F1	Show help
c	Open connection dialog
d	Disconnect
r	Refresh current view
Escape	Go back
j	Switch to JetStream view
p	Publish message
s	Subscribe to subject
u	Unsubscribe
n	Create new stream/consumer
Delete	Delete selected item
Space	Pause/resume consumer
Shift+P	Purge stream
Enter	View consumers (in stream view)

Configuration

NATS TUI looks for configuration files in the following locations (in order of priority):

1. ~/.config/nats-tui/config.toml
2. ./pyproject.toml (under [tool.nats-tui])
3. ./.nats-tui.toml
4. ./nats-tui.toml
5. NATS_TUI_CONFIG environment variable (if set)
6. -c / --config CLI option (highest priority)

Environment Variable

You can set the NATS_TUI_CONFIG environment variable to specify a config file path:

export NATS_TUI_CONFIG=/path/to/config.toml
nats-tui  # Will use the config from env var

This is useful for containerized deployments where you want to pre-configure the config path.

Example Configuration

# Default profile to use when none specified
default_profile = "local"

# Default theme
theme = "nats-tui"

# Connection profiles
[profiles.local]
server = "nats://localhost:4222"

[profiles.prod]
server = "tls://prod.example.com:4222"
username = "admin"
password = "secret"
tls = true
tls_ca_cert = "/etc/nats/ca.crt"

[profiles.staging]
server = "tls://staging.example.com:4222"
tls = true
tls_ca_cert = "/etc/nats/ca.crt"
tls_insecure = true

# Custom key bindings (optional)
[keybindings]
quit = "ctrl+q"

Using Profiles

# Use the default profile from config
nats-tui

# Use a specific profile
nats-tui -P prod

# Override profile server with CLI flag
nats-tui -P prod -s tls://different-server:4222

Themes

NATS TUI includes 19+ themes. Use -t or --theme to select:

# Dark theme (default)
nats-tui -t nats-tui

# Light theme
nats-tui -t nats-tui-light

# Built-in Textual themes
nats-tui -t dracula
nats-tui -t monokai
nats-tui -t nord

Run nats-tui --help to see all available themes.

Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/coreyellis/nats-tui.git
cd nats-tui

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows

# Install in development mode
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Tests

pytest tests/ -v

Running the App

# From source
nats-tui

# Or directly
python -m nats_tui

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• NATS server (for actual usage)

Dependencies

• Textual - TUI framework
• nats-py - NATS client
• rich-click - CLI with Rich formatting
• tomlkit - TOML parsing
• platformdirs - Platform-specific directories

License

MIT

Related Projects

• NATS - The NATS messaging system
• nats-py - Python client for NATS
• Harlequin - SQL IDE for the terminal (inspiration for this project)