Testing & CLI

Charming apps are tested without a real terminal: a memory-backed runtime backend replays pre-seeded events, and TestHelper gives you one-liners for dispatching keys and asserting on responses. This page also lists the charming command-line interface. For testing patterns and worked examples, see Testing.

Runtime and testing backends

Apps normally use TTYBackend through Charming.run. Tests should use Charming::Internal::Terminal::MemoryBackend to avoid real terminal I/O. The runtime stops its loop when a test backend reports exhausted? (all pre-seeded events consumed), renders unhandled action exceptions as an ErrorScreen panel, and quits cleanly on SIGINT or an unbound ctrl+c.

TestHelper

require "charming/test_helper" and include Charming::TestHelper:

• build_controller(klass, app:, screen:, route:, event:) — controller with test defaults.
• key_event("ctrl+p") — KeyEvent from a human-readable string.
• press(klass, "q", app:) — dispatch one key press, returns the Response.
• press_sequence(klass, %w[down enter], app:) — multiple presses sharing the app session.
• memory_backend("up", "q", width: 80, height: 24) — pre-seeded MemoryBackend.

RSpec matchers (registered when RSpec is loaded): render_text("...") and render_match(/.../) compare against the ANSI-stripped body; navigate_to("/path") asserts navigation; be_quit / be_navigate are response predicates.

CLI

• charming new NAME [--database sqlite3] [--force] — scaffold an app.
• charming generate TYPE NAME [args] (g) — screen, controller, view, component, model, migration.
• charming console (c) — IRB with the app loaded and app available.
• charming db:COMMAND — see Database for the full command table.