API

Find a symbol

Generated Noir reference on pub.dev — every published class, member, and signature. Match it to the version in your pubspec.lock; this repository can be ahead of the latest published version.
noir_signals hooks contract — hook order, replacement keys, effect timing, and cleanup rules.
noir_signals Signals contract — ownership, observation, and disposal for signals and computed values.
Widget catalog — start here when you know the job but not the type name.

The companion’s generated symbol reference is on pub.dev . Its two Markdown documents above remain the canonical contract.

Choose a package surface

Most applications need only package:noir/noir.dart. Import a lower-level library only when your code accepts the matching framework or native responsibility.

package:noir/noir.dart: Applications and ordinary widgets. Includes TuiApp, the widget framework, layout, focus, input, painting values, and standard controls. Supported high-level surface
package:noir_signals/noir_signals.dart: SignalWidget, reusable lifecycle hooks, and Signals reactive state.

A separate optional package for local state, controllers, cleanup, and reactive values. Noir never depends on it. Published companion prerelease
package:noir/noir_low_level.dart: Advanced hosting and custom RenderObjects. Exposes supported renderer, buffer, binding, and render-object protocols for code that accepts their ownership responsibilities. Supported advanced surface
package:noir/noir_ffi.dart: Guarded raw bindings. Tracks the OpenTUI C ABI and can change when that ABI changes. Application code should prefer a higher layer. ABI-unstable surface

For the ownership boundaries behind these surfaces, read Architecture.

Commands shipped with Noir

Command	Purpose	What it does not prove
`dart run noir:run <entrypoint> [arguments]`	Run an app with source watching and hot reload	Real-terminal behavior still depends on the current terminal
`dart run noir:health_check`	Verify native-asset resolution and a headless render lifecycle	It does not enter raw mode or validate terminal protocols

The development runner

dart run noir:run <entrypoint> starts the app and watches Dart files under lib/ and beside the entry point. On a change it asks the Dart VM to swap the sources, then tells Noir to rebuild, lay out, and paint the retained tree.

Arguments after the entry-point path go to the application unchanged. See Parse command-line arguments.
A source that does not compile leaves the last good app running.
Edits are compiled incrementally. An edit whose file timestamp is not newer than the last successful reload, for example a file restored with its original timestamp, is recompiled in full and takes longer. The runner log names the path taken.
The watcher compares file timestamps and sizes. An edit preserving both is invisible to it; save the file with an updated timestamp to trigger reload.
Reload does not rerun main() or initState(). It calls reassemble on retained state.
Adding, removing, or reordering hooks needs a full restart, and so do live stack signature changes, enum-to-class changes, and native library changes.
Runner diagnostics go to .dart_tool/noir/run.log, outside the alternate-screen UI.

Noir Driver is repository-only and is not a public widget-test harness. See Test an app.

Evaluate repository source

Dependency setup now lives on one page: Installation. It covers the published package, the checkout path for noir_signals, and the checkout path for an unreleased Noir API on its own.