English documentation · runtime 7.24.4 · SDK 2.6.7. Content is maintained with runtime development; see each guide's scope and review date.

TUI opening and ending animations

Status: Current Scope: TUI opening and ending animations and rendering fallbacks Last reviewed: 2026-10-09 Owner: AX Code TUI maintainers

See Terminal rendering for automatic terminal profiles, manual overrides, and the difference between pixel graphics and text rendering.

Each TUI launch randomly selects one of thirty-six animation pairs with equal probability (1/36 each):

• Digital Code: purple/blue falling code for the opening, reverse code for the ending.
• Foliage: classic autumn leaves for the opening, golden leaves for the ending.
• Bench: Midnight Dream for the opening, Sunset Serenade for the ending.
• Fuji Mountain: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Mahjong: four-seat match for the opening, final point ledger for the ending.
• City: neon night skyline for the opening, dawn skyline for the ending.
• Festival: fireworks for the opening, rising lanterns for the ending.
• Snow: pine snowfall for the opening, winter night for the ending.
• Volcano: eruption for the opening, calm crater for the ending.
• Big Ben: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Taipei 101: daytime for the opening, neon night for the ending.
• Great Wall: dawn for the opening, dusk for the ending.
• Torii Gate: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Taegeuk: the South Korean flag for both the opening and the ending; the emblem turns once and settles into its official orientation.
• Sagrada Familia: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Corcovado: daytime for the opening, golden hour for the ending.
• Eiffel Tower: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Brandenburg Gate: night for the opening, dawn for the ending.
• Onion Domes: snowfall for the opening, clear sky for the ending.
• Borobudur: mist for the opening, noon for the ending.
• Balloons: night for the opening, dawn for the ending.
• Mekong: dawn for the opening, dusk for the ending.
• Colosseum: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Space: rocket launch for the opening, starfield drift for the ending.
• Dungeon: torch-lit descent for the opening, treasure chamber for the ending.
• Castle: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Floating Islands: daytime for the opening, dusk for the ending.
• Jungle: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Coral Reef: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Pyramids: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Aurora: night for the opening, dawn for the ending.
• Lighthouse: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Waterfall: daytime for the opening, moonlit night for the ending.
• Steppe: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Canyon: daytime for the opening, night for the ending.
• Singapore: Marina Bay daytime for the opening, illuminated bay for the ending.

Fuji Mountain includes a snow-capped mountain, a reflective lake, cherry blossoms, falling petals, and a Shinkansen travelling across the foreground. The 74-column, 20-row artwork is centered without changing its proportions; narrow terminals crop the text fallback. Daytime uses a purple-to-amber sunset sky, a setting sun above the summit with a horizon glow, warm snow, and sunset-pink blossoms; night uses a dark sky, stars, and moon with moonlit water. Both platform rows above the train are preserved. The train keeps its left-facing nose and travels nose-first from right to left, repeating its journey with motion based on elapsed time and clipping safely at the screen edges. Petal positions derive from elapsed time alone, so the scene loops with the train cycle; petals stay below the static sun, star, and moon rows. Local alternate-screen terminals with confirmed Kitty graphics support and reported pixel dimensions use freeform HD painting (gradient sky, shaded slopes, shimmering lake, shinkansen livery) driven by the same scene model — palette, train phase, and petal paths — as the text fallback, so both show the same scene for the same millisecond. Fuji pixel frames are bounded to 1920x1080. Unsupported terminals, remote sessions, multiplexers, and graphics failures use the native ASCII fallback. Ghostty uses the same capability checks; its name alone does not enable graphics.

Bench uses a tropical shoreline with swaying palm fronds and rolling waves. Midnight Dream has a moonlit navy sky, twinkling stars plus a faint offset star layer, and a fixed haloed moon; Sunset Serenade has warm colors, drifting clouds, and a haloed sun that descends toward the horizon and settles while the surf keeps moving. The sun and moon cast a shimmering reflection on the surf, the palm carries coconuts, and the sand holds shells above a darker wet band. Both use freeform HD painting (gradient sky, stars, sun/moon disk, palm, surf, sand, title) driven by the same scene model — palette, layout anchors, and elapsed-time phases — as the text fallback, so both show the same scene for the same millisecond, bounded to 1920x1080. The text fallback adapts the 70x23 composition to narrow screens. Native text remains the fallback when graphics are unavailable; no graphics protocol is required.

The selected pair stays fixed for the lifetime of the TUI. Ending playback never makes a separate random choice. Replaying previews or completing tasks does not change the selected pair. Animation opt-outs do not trigger another selection.

Foliage leaves fall downward with different speeds, sizes, and gentle sideways sway. Leaf parameters derive from a fixed per-variant seed and positions from elapsed time alone, so the text outlines and the HD silhouettes show the same leaves for the same millisecond and the full scene loops with its cycle. Each frame is cleared so leaves leave no trails. On animated pixel terminals, a hazy autumn grove sits behind near, middle, and far leaves with curved silhouettes, branching veins, curled edges, and directional highlights. The golden ending uses warmer grove lighting; the text fallback shares the leaf paths and depth colors.

Explicit theme previews do not change this launch’s selected pair.

Press Ctrl+P (the default command-palette key) and search Digital Code, Foliage, Bench, Fuji Mountain, Mahjong, and more. All seventy-two opening/ending previews are available independently of the launch selection. Family names remain searchable in all fourteen interface languages.

These previews are also available in the command palette. Opening and ending playback each last 3 seconds. Startup then plays the existing short AX Code logo handoff. Existing animation preferences and startup opt-out remain effective. Task-completion playback remains opt-in.

Local alternate-screen terminals with confirmed Kitty graphics support display colored leaf silhouettes. Other terminals use colored ASCII leaf outlines. Emoji fonts are not required. The animation resizes with the terminal. Escape or a mouse click dismisses playback; ending playback captures input until it finishes so keystrokes and pasted text cannot start new work during shutdown.

Mahjong uses a dark green table with an inner border, concealed opponent hands, suit-colored visible tiles, rotating discards with a latest-discard marker, a wall progress bar, and a spotlight pill on the turn seat. This is a decorative match animation, not an interactive game. Its ending shows a fixed ranked medal ledger between decorative rules and never starts another round during exit. Preview with /mahjong or /mahjong-ending (also searchable as Mahjong in Ctrl+P).

On confirmed local graphics terminals, Mahjong uses freeform HD painting (felt gradient, table frame, labels, tile faces with pips, bars, and honor plates) driven by the same scene model — palette, layout anchors, match phase, and blink phase — as the text fallback, so both show the same scene for the same millisecond, bounded to 1920x1080. Terminal emoji fonts and ambiguous glyph widths do not affect it. Text fallback uses ASCII suit codes (1C, 2B, RD, GD, WD) and ## for concealed tiles. Narrow text screens crop the centered scene. Resize, missing graphics capability, and image cleanup follow the same lifecycle as Fuji and Bench.

Singapore uses an illustrated Marina Bay composition: a Merlion fountain in the foreground, the three Marina Bay Sands towers and boat-shaped SkyPark, Supertree crowns, a distant skyline, and a moving bay boat. The daytime opening has a warm tropical sky and turquoise water; the night ending has gold windows, purple and cyan Supertree lights, sweeping SkyPark light-show beams, a rocket-launched fireworks burst, and shimmering reflections. The fountain, boat, palette, and layout are shared by the native ASCII fallback and the existing freeform HD renderer. Both use the existing three-second playback and terminal lifecycle; there are no downloaded video files or audio. Preview with /singapore or /singapore-ending, or search Singapore in the command palette. Explicit previews do not change the launch’s selected pair.

City uses a night skyline with a moon, twinkling stars, and twinkling windows for the opening, and a dawn skyline with a low sun for the ending. Rooftop beacons blink on the tallest towers while two cars cross the street in opposite directions. Both share one scene model — palette, tower layout, window phases, beacons, cars, and street lamps — so the text fallback and the freeform HD painting show the same scene for the same millisecond, bounded to 1920x1080. Preview with /city or /city-ending.

Festival opens with three staggered fireworks bursts looping on a shared cycle, each heralded by an ascending rocket and an ignition flash, and ends with flickering capped lanterns rising past the moon. Burst positions, particle stages, rocket paths, lantern paths, and town lights come from one scene model shared by the text fallback and the freeform HD painting, bounded to 1920x1080. Preview with /festival or /festival-ending.

Snow opens with pine snowfall under a pale haloed sun and ends on a starry winter night over the same forest. Three snow-capped ridge peaks stand behind the pines while near and far flakes fall with gusting sway and twinkle below the static celestial rows; pine tiers alternate snow and pine edges over deep interiors, shadows pool beneath the trunks, and the ground sparks glint. The full sky loops with the flake cycle. Text fallback and freeform HD painting share the scene model, bounded to 1920x1080. Preview with /snow or /snow-ending.

Volcano opens on an eruption — breathing heat halo, pulsing crater with lit rim lips, surging lava flow, drifting smoke, shimmering lava pool, and rising embers — and ends on a calm crater under twinkling stars and a fixed moon. Cone shape, crater glow, lava channel, and particle paths come from one scene model shared by the text fallback and the freeform HD painting, bounded to 1920x1080. Preview with /volcano or /volcano-ending.

Sagrada Familia uses a taller central pair of bell towers, shorter outer towers, mosaic finials, projecting facade ribs, sculptural niches, pointed carved portals, and stained-glass rose-window tracery in its pixel scenes. The text fallback shares the tower-height composition. Preview with /sagrada or /sagrada-ending.

Waterfall uses broken gorge edges shared by text and pixels. Its pixel scenes add recessed rock ledges, fissures, moss, and close fern fronds framing the cascade and misty pool. Preview with /falls or /falls-ending.

Space opens with one ascent during the three-second playback. The rocket rises for 2.4 seconds and holds its final altitude without returning to the launch pad; stars and atmospheric effects continue moving. Its drift ending retains the looping environment. Preview with /space or /space-ending.