TUI Blender Launcher (Go Version)

A Terminal User Interface (TUI) application written in Go for finding, downloading, managing, and launching Blender builds.

Features

• Browse available Blender builds (daily, patch, and experimental builds)
• Filter builds by version number and build type
• Sort and navigate through builds with keyboard shortcuts
• Download Blender builds with real-time progress tracking
• Manage locally downloaded Blender installations
• Launch installed Blender versions directly from the TUI
• Clean up old builds to free disk space
• Configurable download directory
• Multi-platform support (Linux, Windows, macOS)

Blender BuildBot API

This application uses the official Blender BuildBot API to fetch available builds. The API provides access to daily, patch, and experimental builds in JSON format:

https://builder.blender.org/download/<category>/?format=json&v=1

Where <category> can be:

• daily - Latest development builds from the master branch
• patch - Patch builds from pull requests
• experimental - Experimental builds from specific branches

For more information about the Blender BuildBot and its API, visit the official documentation.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.18 or higher
• Git

Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dshot92/TUI-Blender-Launcher.git
cd TUI-Blender-Launcher

# Install dependencies
go mod tidy

# Run directly
go run main.go

# Or build the executable
go build -o tui-blender-launcher

# Run the built executable
./tui-blender-launcher

Configuration

On first run, the application will guide you through an initial setup. You can configure:

• Download directory for Blender builds
• Version filter (e.g., "4.0", "3.6", or empty for no filter)
• Build type (daily, patch, experimental)

Settings are saved in your system's user configuration directory:

• Linux: ~/.config/tui-blender-launcher/config.toml
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/tui-blender-launcher/config.toml
• Windows: %AppData%\tui-blender-launcher\config.toml

Default config.toml:

download_dir = "[HOME-DIR]/blender/blender-build"
version_filter = ""
build_type = "daily"
uuid = "e9b26094-0ecc-4177-8d9e-d13a440ab51e" # Random UUID generated on first run

Downloading builds will be stored in [download_dir]/.downloading.

Old builds after an update will be stored in [download_dir]/.oldbuilds.

Usage

Navigation

The application uses keyboard shortcuts for navigation:

• ⬆ / k: Move cursor up
• ⬇ / j: Move cursor down
• ⬅ / h: Previous sort column
• ⮕ / l: Next sort column

Builds Page

• f: Fetch online builds

• Enter: Launch selected build

• o: Open build directory

• x: Delete build (local builds) / Cancel download (for in-progress downloads)

• d: Download selected build (only for online/update builds)

• r: Reverse sort order

• s: Settings

• q: Quit application

Settings Page

• Enter: Edit selected setting

• s: Save and return to builds page

• c: Clean up old builds

• q: Quit application