FIDS-TUI

A beautiful terminal-based Flight Information Display System (FIDS) that shows real-time flight departure information using the FlightAware API.

Features

• ✈️ Real-time Flight Departures - View scheduled departures from any airport
• 🎨 Beautiful TUI - Terminal user interface with split-flap display aesthetics
• 🔄 Auto-refresh - Automatically updates flight information at configurable intervals
• 📄 Pagination - Navigate through multiple pages of flights with automatic rotation
• 🎭 Animations - Smooth character animations for a retro display feel
• 🌍 Timezone Support - Automatically displays times in the airport's local timezone
• ⌨️ Interactive - Change airports on the fly with simple keyboard commands
• 🚦 Status Indicators - Color-coded status lights (green/yellow/orange/red) for flight status

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24 or later
• A FlightAware API key (Get one here)

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/SalmanHasib/FIDS-TUI.git
cd FIDS-TUI
go build -o fids-tui

Using Go Install

go install github.com/SalmanHasib/FIDS-TUI@latest

Configuration

Environment Variables

The application can be configured using environment variables:

Variable	Description	Default
FLIGHTAWARE_API_KEY	Required - Your FlightAware API key	-
AIRPORT_CODE	Default airport code (3-letter IATA code)	-
UPDATE_INTERVAL	How often to fetch new flight data	10m
PAGE_ROTATION_INTERVAL	How often to rotate to next page	15s
MAX_PAGES	Maximum number of pages to fetch from API	3

Command Line Arguments

fids-tui -airport JFK

• -airport: Airport code (3-letter IATA code, e.g., JFK, LAX, LHR)

Usage

1. Set your FlightAware API key:

   export FLIGHTAWARE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

2. Run the application:

   ./fids-tui -airport JFK

   Or use the default airport from environment:

   export AIRPORT_CODE="JFK"
   ./fids-tui

3. Keyboard Controls:

   • a - Change airport (enter a 3-letter airport code)
   • q or Ctrl+C - Quit the application

Display Information

The FIDS board displays the following information for each flight:

• Status - Color-coded status indicator:
  • 🟢 Green: On Time
  • 🟡 Yellow: Taxiing / Left Gate
  • 🟠 Orange: Delayed or Taxiing / Delayed
  • 🔴 Red: Cancelled
• Flight Number - Airline code and flight number
• Time - Scheduled departure time (in airport local timezone)
• Destination - Destination airport code and city
• Gate - Gate assignment
• Remarks - Flight status remarks (e.g., "Delayed EST: 14:30")

Project Structure

FIDS-TUI/
├── api/              # FlightAware API integration
│   ├── flightaware.go
│   └── timezone.go
├── config/           # Configuration management
│   └── config.go
├── models/           # Data models
│   └── flight.go
├── ui/               # Terminal UI components
│   ├── animation.go
│   ├── board.go
│   ├── flight_row.go
│   └── styles.go
├── main.go           # Application entry point
├── go.mod
└── go.sum

Dependencies

• Bubble Tea - TUI framework
• Lip Gloss - Styling library

API Rate Limits

Please be aware of FlightAware API rate limits. The application is configured with reasonable defaults, but you may need to adjust UPDATE_INTERVAL based on your API plan.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• FlightAware for providing the AeroAPI
• Charm for the amazing Bubble Tea TUI framework
• Inspired by classic airport split-flap displays

Troubleshooting

"API authentication failed"

• Verify your FLIGHTAWARE_API_KEY environment variable is set correctly
• Check that your API key is valid and has not expired

"Airport not found"

• Ensure you're using a valid 3-letter IATA airport code
• Some smaller airports may not be available in the FlightAware database

No flights displayed

• The airport may not have any scheduled departures in the configured time window
• Try adjusting the UPDATE_INTERVAL or check the airport code

Screenshots

Example: FIDS-TUI displaying departures from LAX airport

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Made with ❤️, Go, and Cursor
An experiment on working with AI tools to quickly prototype a TUI. A more comprehensive (and hand built) version is in the works.