WrithDeck is a distraction-free text editor designed for writers using a dedicated writerdeck, whether it's a DIY prototype or a computer configured specifically for that purpose. It's fast and easy to customize. WrithDeck can run as a clean graphical application or directly in a terminal or TTY, all from a single file with no installation required.
It includes customizable inline syntax highlighting, a file browser, split view, chapter navigation through a table of contents, and a fully themeable interface, all in under 3,800 lines (160 Kb) of Tcl/Tk.
Whether you're writing on a Raspberry Pi Zero with an E-ink screen, on a an android tablet, over SSH, or on your desktop, WrithDeck stays lightweight and lets you focus on your text.
It has GUI and TUI dual mode with similar behaviors, and is fully configurable.
You will need to have Tcl/Tk on your system. On Debian-based OS, just
apt install tk
On Windows you can get binaries for the Tcl runtime there: https://www.tcl-lang.org/software/tcltk/bindist.html
On Haiku OS, Tcl/Tk is available via HaikuPorts (pkgman install tcl tk). GUI and TUI modes both work.
Then:
wish writhdeck.tcl # GUI, file browser
wish writhdeck.tcl file.txt # GUI, open file directly
tclsh writhdeck.tcl --no-gui # TUI, file browser
tclsh writhdeck.tcl --no-gui file.txt # TUI, open file directly
you can also run it from the terminal with ./writhdeck.tcl or, better, copy it into your path (into /usr/local/bin/ for example) for a direct access.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--help, -h |
Show help and exit |
--gui |
Force GUI (Tk) mode — skip display socket detection |
--no-gui |
Force TUI (terminal) mode |
--tui, --ng |
Aliases for --no-gui |
When both --gui and --no-gui are given, --no-gui takes precedence.
- Plain
.txtfile editor focused on distraction-free writing - Documents stored in
~/Documents/writhdeck/(auto-created) - File browser: files sorted by modification date, open / create / rename / delete / scratchpad
- Word-wrapped display with configurable margins
- Inline syntax highlighting (GUI and TUI):
- Headings: configurable marker (
= title =) and Markdown (# title) - Comments: lines starting with
%(configurablecomment_marker) - Bold
**text**, italic//text//, underline__text__, strikethrough--text--— all markers configurable - Marker characters greyed out; styled text in a configurable
color_markup
- Headings: configurable marker (
- Table of contents overlay: jump to any heading (last selection remembered per session)
- Status bar: fully configurable zones (left / center / right) with tokens:
filename dirty sel ln col words chars clock help_bar space - Go to line
- UTF-8 input support
- Cursor position restored across sessions (
.cursors.json) - Configuration reloaded on each new document open (no restart needed)
- Dark/light theme toggle (
Ctrl+Dby default, configurable) - Interface language:
lang = enorfr - Unified browser behavior: after closing a file, both GUI and TUI return to the file browser (configurable via
browser) - Scratchpad: temporary in-memory buffer, no disk file until explicitly saved
- Help dialog: shows selection word/char count when text is selected (GUI and TUI)
~/Documents/writhdeck/writhdeck.ini — sections: [editor], [behaviour], [keys], [colors]
All keyboard shortcuts are configurable via the [keys] section.
[editor]
| Key | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
heading_marker |
= |
Heading delimiter (= title =) |
comment_marker |
% |
Line comment prefix; set to 0 or leave empty to disable |
bold_marker |
** |
Bold inline marker; set to 0 or leave empty to disable |
italic_marker |
// |
Italic inline marker; set to 0 or leave empty to disable |
underline_marker |
__ |
Underline inline marker; set to 0 or leave empty to disable |
strikethrough_marker |
-- |
Strikethrough inline marker; set to 0 or leave empty to disable |
margin_width |
60 |
Horizontal padding (px, GUI) |
margin_cols |
6 |
Horizontal margin (cols, TUI) |
font_size |
13 |
Font size (GUI) |
font_family |
Mono |
Font family (GUI); Tk resolves Mono to the best available monospace per OS — override with e.g. JetBrains Mono, Consolas, Fira Code |
line_spacing |
100 |
Line spacing in % (GUI) |
[behaviour]
| Key | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
browser |
1 |
Return to file browser after closing a file |
watch_file |
1 |
Detect external file modifications and prompt to reload; 0 to disable |
split_shrink_margin |
1 |
Halve margin_width in split view (GUI); 0 to keep the full margin |
console_center_alert |
1 |
Center confirm dialogs (TUI); 0 = bottom bar |
block_cursor_gui |
1 |
Block cursor in GUI mode |
block_cursor_console |
1 |
Block cursor in TUI mode |
blink_cursor |
0 |
Blinking cursor |
line_numbers |
0 |
Show line numbers |
cursor_restore |
1 |
Restore cursor position on reopen |
lang |
en |
Interface language (en or fr) |
dark_mode |
1 |
Dark theme; 0 = light (Solarized-style) |
[keys] — all actions are rebindable: key_save, key_close, key_find, key_replace, key_goto, key_open, key_undo, key_redo, key_help, key_toc, key_line_numbers, key_fullscreen, key_split, key_split_focus, key_dark_toggle, key_next_space, key_prev_space. Use Tk key names (Control-s, Alt-Return, F11, etc.).
[colors] — color_heading, color_comment, color_markup, color_bg, color_fg, color_bg_bar, color_fg_bar, color_bg_sel + _alt variants for light mode.
It is the default, and requires Tk
Display
- Graphical window with scrollable editor and file browser
- Configurable pixel margins, font size, font family, line spacing, colors (via INI)
- Inline syntax highlighting: headings, comments, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough
- Line numbers: synchronized with scroll (
line_numbers = 1) - Dynamic font resize: Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- (keyboard and numpad)
- Fullscreen toggle (default: Alt+Enter, configurable)
- Built-in Solarized Light theme (toggle with
dark_modeorCtrl+D) - Optional second docs folder (
docs_dir), shown as two labeled sections in the browser - Clock (HH:MM) in status bar: add
clocktoken to a status zone - Block cursor: rectangle with inverted colors (
block_cursor_gui = 1) - Configurable status bar height (
bar_height); font size adapts automatically - Vertical split view (F3): divide the editor into two independent panes on the same document; each pane scrolls and positions the cursor independently; F4 cycles focus between panes; the active pane is highlighted with a border
- Confirm dialogs:
Tabto move between buttons,Returnto confirm,Escapeto cancel,y/nfor direct answer
Shortcuts — Editor
Those are the default keys. Most of them are fully customisable in the writhdeck.ini configuration file!
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save as… (with overwrite confirmation) |
| Ctrl+Q | Close file, return to browser |
| Ctrl+F | Find (inline bar, live highlight, match counter) — operates on the focused pane in split view |
| Ctrl+R | Find & Replace (inline bar; Enter: replace one, Ctrl+Enter: all) |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+Y | Redo |
| Ctrl+O | Open any file (system dialog) |
| Ctrl+G | Go to line — jumps in the focused pane |
| Ctrl+H | Help dialog (date/time, file stats, selection stats if text selected) |
| Ctrl+L | Toggle line numbers |
| Ctrl+D | Toggle dark/light theme |
| Ctrl+Space | Jump to next space |
| Ctrl+Shift+Space | Jump to previous space |
| F11 | Table of contents — jumps in the focused pane |
| F3 | Split view toggle (GUI only) |
| F4 | Split view — cycle focus between panes |
| Alt+Enter | Fullscreen toggle |
| Tab | Insert 4 spaces |
| Shift+↑↓←→ | Extend selection |
Shortcuts — Browser
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter / double-click | Open file |
| n | New file |
| t | Scratchpad (in-memory buffer, no disk file; Ctrl+S prompts for a name to save) |
| d | Delete file |
| r | Rename file |
| h / Ctrl+H | Help |
| Ctrl+O | Open any file (system dialog) |
| Ctrl+D | Toggle dark/light theme |
| Alt+Enter | Fullscreen toggle |
| q | Quit |
Split view notes
- F3 splits the current document into two side-by-side panes; press F3 again to close the split
- F4 cycles focus between the two panes (configurable via
key_split_focus) - The active pane is highlighted with a colored border; the inactive pane has none
- Both panes share the same text — edits in one are immediately visible in the other
- Cursor, scroll position, and undo history are independent per pane
- Find, Replace, Go to line, and TOC all operate on the pane that had focus when they were opened
- Line numbers are hidden while split is active
Activated through --no-gui / --tui / --ng, or if no windowing system is available. It's pure TTY/terminal via ANSI escapes.
Display
- Identical feature set to the GUI editor, rendered in the terminal
- Browser with
»selection marker; section headers for dual-folder mode - Vim-style navigation (j/k) + arrow keys, Home/End, PgUp/PgDn
- Inline syntax highlighting: headings (bold), comments (dim), bold/italic/underline/strikethrough
- Scroll indicator:
▐/│bar in the rightmost column when content overflows - Line numbers: left column (
line_numbers = 1), shown on first visual row of each paragraph - Status bar: filename, position, word/char count, clock
- Help dialog shows selection word/char count when text is selected
- Cursor shape configurable: block or bar, blinking or steady (
block_cursor_console,blink_cursor) - Confirm dialogs centered on screen by default (
console_center_alert = 1) - Confirm dialogs:
y/nto answer directly,Escapeto cancel,Returnto confirm the focused button - After closing a file, returns to browser if
browser = 1(default)
Shortcuts — Editor
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | Save (scratchpad: prompts for filename, then saves to disk) |
| Ctrl+Q / Esc | Close file, return to browser |
| Ctrl+F | Find (prompt; repeat to find next) |
| Ctrl+R | Find & Replace (global, with replacement counter) |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo (100-state stack) |
| Ctrl+Y | Redo |
| Ctrl+O | Save and return to browser |
| Ctrl+G | Go to line |
| Ctrl+H | Help (date/time, file stats, selection stats if text selected) |
| Ctrl+L | Toggle line numbers |
| Ctrl+D | Toggle dark/light theme (reverse video) |
| Ctrl+Space | Jump to next space |
| F11 | Table of contents (Esc / Ctrl+Q to close, Enter to jump) |
| Ctrl+A | Select all |
| Ctrl+K | Toggle sticky selection (first press: set anchor; second press: cancel) |
| Shift+↑↓←→ | Extend selection |
| Ctrl+C | Copy (via xclip / xsel / wl-copy) |
| Ctrl+X | Cut |
| Ctrl+V | Paste (multi-line supported) |
| Tab | Insert 4 spaces |
Shortcuts — Browser
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter | Open file |
| n | New file |
| t | Scratchpad (in-memory buffer, no disk file; Ctrl+S prompts for a name to save) |
| d | Delete file |
| r | Rename file |
| h / Ctrl+H | Help |
| q / Ctrl+Q | Quit |
WrithDeck running on a Raspberry Zero W (goto chapter mode):
WrithDeck running within termux on a Meebook M6 Android eBook Reader, using a bluetooth keyboard:
- In GUI mode, end of lines inside a wrapped text can lead to inconsistent block cursor appearence. To fix it, use non-block cursor in the .ini file (block_cursor_gui = 0).
- There is sometimes a slight delay to show the inverted letters under the block cursor in GUI mode. See fix above or use TUI mode.
- In TUI mode sometimes when you resize the terminal window, some artefacts might appear. Just load the help with ctrl+h twice, it will refresh the screen.
- There is no non-wrap mode (and it's not a planned feature).
- There is no tab mode (and it's not a planned feature).
- The split window mode is only for GUI (might be adapted to TUI later)
- On very long texts (above 80,000 words) and slow CPU computer (1.1 Ghz Celeron from 2013), the cursor and typing might be slowed down. It has been optimized in comparison to first version, but if necessary turn off the words and chars count in the status bar. You can still access writing statistics in the help.
Based on https://github.com/lallero7/writerdeckForCMD, itself based on https://github.com/shmimel/bee-write-back/
Designed to run on Tcl/Tk with the help of LLM (Claude Code).
Tcl is an amazing language! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl_(programming_language)
Nano, micro or scite are also great tools for a simple writerdeck.
Copyright (C) 2026 by Luginfo
BSD Zero Clause License
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose
with or without fee is hereby granted.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE
FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.