grid

my-grid

A spatial canvas editor for your terminal. Think vim meets infinite whiteboard, with live terminal zones and system monitoring built in.

"Navigate to information, don't open windows." – Inspired by Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface

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Why my-grid?

Traditional terminals are linear. my-grid gives you infinite 2D space where you can:

• ✏️ Draw and diagram directly in ASCII
• 📊 Embed live terminals (PTY zones) anywhere on the canvas
• 🔄 Monitor commands that auto-refresh (watch zones)
• 🗺️ Spatially organize your development workspace
• 🚀 Navigate like vim with bookmarks and modal editing

Perfect for:

• DevOps dashboards (disk usage, logs, git status in one spatial view)
• System administration (live terminals + monitoring + notes)
• ASCII art and diagramming
• Spatial note-taking and documentation
• Terminal-native project workspaces

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🎬 Demo

# Demo recording coming soon!
# Run: asciinema rec demo/basic-usage.cast

Try it yourself:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python mygrid.py
:layout load devops    # Load DevOps monitoring layout

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⚡ Quick Start

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jcaldwell-labs/my-grid.git
cd my-grid

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the editor
python mygrid.py

First Steps

# Navigate with vim keys or arrows
wasd / ←↓↑→

# Enter edit mode and type
i
Hello World!
<Esc>

# Draw a rectangle
:rect 20 10

# Create a live terminal zone (Unix/WSL)
:zone pty TERM 80 24

# Save your work
:w myproject.json

# Load a pre-built workspace
:layout load development

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🎯 Core Features

Infinite Canvas

• Sparse storage – Only stores non-empty cells, unlimited space
• Configurable origin – Y-up (mathematical) or Y-down (screen) coordinates
• Grid overlay – Major/minor grid lines for alignment

Vim-Style Navigation

• Modal editing – NAV, EDIT, PAN, COMMAND, VISUAL, DRAW modes
• Bookmarks – Quick jump with m/' + 36 slots (a-z, 0-9)
• Fast movement – WASD for 10x speed

Dynamic Zones (The Killer Feature)

Zone Type	Description	Use Case
PIPE	One-shot command output	tree, ls, snapshot data
WATCH	Auto-refreshing commands	git status, df -h, monitoring
PTY	Live interactive terminal	Full shell, Python REPL, vim
FIFO	Named pipe listener (Unix)	External process communication
SOCKET	TCP port listener	Remote control, API integration

Example: DevOps Dashboard

:zone watch DISK 40 10 30s df -h
:zone watch GIT 50 15 5s git status --short
:zone pty TERM 80 24
:zone create NOTES 0 0 40 20

Layouts (Workspace Templates)

• Save/load zone configurations
• Pre-built layouts: devops, development, monitoring
• YAML format – Easy to share and version control

Visual Selection & Drawing

• Visual mode – Select rectangular regions, yank/delete/fill
• Draw mode – Trace lines with box-drawing characters
• Box tools – Integrate boxes, figlet for ASCII art

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🎮 Key Bindings

Navigation Mode (default)

Key	Action
wasd / arrows	Move cursor
WASD	Fast move (10x)
i	Enter edit mode
p	Toggle pan mode
v	Visual selection mode
D	Draw mode
: or /	Command mode
m + key	Set bookmark (a-z, 0-9)
' + key	Jump to bookmark
g / G	Toggle grid
0	Toggle origin marker
Esc	Exit current mode

Edit Mode

Key	Action
Type	Insert characters
Esc	Return to NAV mode

Visual Mode

Key	Action
wasd / arrows	Extend selection
y	Yank (copy)
d	Delete selection
f	Fill with character
Esc	Cancel

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📝 Essential Commands

File Operations