Coming from ink

controlroom/ink is ink 8.0.0's API, graded by ink's own test suite at 1304 of 1304 cases and by @inkjs/ui 2.0.0's at 102 of 102 (Compatibility). Your components, hooks and props stay as they are.

Migrate from ink: one importCopy Anchor Link

- import { render, Box, Text, useInput } from 'ink';
+ import { render, Box, Text, useInput } from 'controlroom/ink';

npm install controlroom react-reconciler
npm uninstall ink

ink installs React's reconciler for you; controlroom/ink renders your React through React's own reconciler, so you install it yourself. react and react-reconciler are optional peers of controlroom: if either is missing, controlroom/ink refuses on first import with E_PEER_MISSING, and its fix is the install line. The rest of controlroom never loads them.

burgee migrate does this for you on a project whose ink is 8.x: it rewrites each 'ink' import to 'controlroom/ink', and its report's next step is npm install controlroom@^<version> react-reconciler && npm uninstall ink. A project still on ink 6 is reported and left alone, because ink 6's suite grades the drop-in at 540 / 584.

It renders the sameCopy Anchor Link

A component written for ink, rendered by the drop-in:

import { createElement as h } from 'react';
import { Box, renderToString, Text } from 'controlroom/ink';

const Summary = ({ passed, failed }) =>
  h(
    Box,
    { borderStyle: 'round', paddingX: 1, flexDirection: 'column' },
    h(Text, { bold: true }, 'Test run'),
    h(Text, null, `${passed} passed, ${failed} failed`),
  );

console.log(renderToString(h(Summary, { passed: 41, failed: 1 }), { columns: 32 }));

╭──────────────────────────────╮
│ Test run                     │
│ 41 passed, 1 failed          │
╰──────────────────────────────╯

(createElement stands in for JSX so the file runs with plain node; with your JSX build the component is the one you already have.) The border is flagstaff's, the bold is roundel's, and the box was laid out by controlroom's port of yoga's flexbox: there is no yoga in the install.

What is in itCopy Anchor Link

render, renderToString, Box, Text, Static, Transform, Newline, Spacer, every ink hook (useInput, useApp, useFocus, useFocusManager, useCursor, useStdin, useStdout, useStderr, useIsScreenReaderEnabled, useAnimation, usePaste, useBoxMetrics and useWindowSize), and measureElement. ink 8's additions are there too: the alternateScreen and interactive options, wrap="hard", suspendTerminal and waitUntilRenderFlush on useApp, and kitty keyboard negotiation. The API reference lists every export with its signature.

Packages written for inkCopy Anchor Link

ink-spinner, ink-text-input, ink-select-input and @inkjs/ui import 'ink', not 'controlroom/ink'. They run unchanged when 'ink' resolves to the drop-in. An npm: alias cannot do that, because it names a package and not a subpath. A two-file package of your own can:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "ink": "file:./ink",
    "controlroom": "*",
    "react": "^19.3.0",
    "react-reconciler": "^0.34.0"
  }
}

// ink/index.js
export * from 'controlroom/ink';

// ink/package.json
{ "name": "ink", "version": "8.0.0", "type": "module", "exports": "./index.js" }

The version is the ink API the drop-in implements, so every component's peer range on ink is met and npm installs no other ink. examples/ink-ecosystem runs ink-spinner, ink-text-input and ink-select-input that way, as published, and examples/chat-cli-ink is a whole Ink chat app on the drop-in. @inkjs/ui's suite passes 102 / 102 the same way.

What changesCopy Anchor Link

• Colour comes from the environment. ink colours through chalk, so setting chalk.level on the chalk module ink shares changes ink's colour. The drop-in colours through roundel, whose level is the family's output policy, read from the environment: NO_COLOR, FORCE_COLOR, a pipe and --json decide it, and an assignment to chalk does not. Set FORCE_COLOR instead.
• ink 8's behaviour, not ink 6's. Where the two majors disagree, the drop-in follows 8: Delete is not read as Backspace, and a non-interactive debug run ends with a newline.
• Smaller. With react and react-reconciler bundled, the drop-in is 0.790× of ink + react, and installs 10 packages where ink + react install 40 (Why controlroom).

Going further: the native APICopy Anchor Link

controlroom/ink is the way in. A new screen can be written against open() instead, without React: its root bundles at 0.061× of ink alone, every pane gets a static projection for pipes and CI, --json gives an agent events, and no call waits on a key nobody can press. Getting started is the native API's first page.