dotnet-spectre-console

Spectre.Console Patterns

Patterns for Spectre.Console (rendering) and Spectre.Console.Cli (CLI framework), used in scripts/diag.cs.

Package versions (as of 2026-03)

• Spectre.Console@0.54.0 — rendering (Panel, Table, BarChart, Layout, Live, Markup)
• Spectre.Console.Cli@0.53.1 — CLI framework (CommandApp, Command). Separate repo, versioned independently.

Markup escaping

Spectre markup uses [style]text[/] syntax. Literal square brackets must be doubled:

// WRONG — Spectre tries to parse "x" as a color
cols.Add($"[bold red]{cursor}[{check}][/]");

// RIGHT — renders literal [x] or [ ]
cols.Add($"[bold red]{cursor}[/][[{check}]]");

IRenderable namespace

IRenderable is in Spectre.Console.Rendering, not Spectre.Console. Add the using when returning renderables from helper methods:

using Spectre.Console.Rendering;

Command.Execute signature

In Spectre.Console.Cli 0.53.1, the Execute override requires three parameters:

public override int Execute(CommandContext context, TSettings settings, CancellationToken ct)

The two-parameter overload no longer compiles.

Live display — avoid first-frame flash

Populate the Layout with real data before calling AnsiConsole.Live(layout).Start(). If you initialize with placeholder Markup ("Loading..."), it flashes for one frame.

// Populate BEFORE entering Live
RefreshDisplay(layout, cpuSampler, killMode);

AnsiConsole.Live(layout)
    .AutoClear(true)
    .Start(ctx => { /* loop */ });

Layout structure

Layout divides terminal space using Ratio(). Use SplitRows for vertical and SplitColumns for horizontal division. Access children by name:

var layout = new Layout("Root")
    .SplitRows(
        new Layout("Header").Ratio(1),
        new Layout("Content").Ratio(4));

layout["Header"].Update(new Panel(...));