guid (short for graphical user interface dialogs) is a C++ tool that lets you create cross-platform graphical dialogs directly from the command line, usable from Bash, Python, or any scripting language.
guid was built to push the boundaries of what's possible with GUI scripting tools. It lets you build complete, interactive user interfaces (not just dialogs) with dynamic content, layout control, and logical flow.
Design powerful forms, lists, menus, tabs, and custom layouts, with live updates, persistent windows, command execution, file monitoring, and more. All from your terminal. Compatible with Linux, macOS, and Windows.
From script to full UI, here's a glimpse of what guid can create with minimal effort:
- Text entries (plain, password, float, integer)
- Checkboxes and radio buttons
- Combo boxes (static, editable, or populated from file)
- Lists with multiple columns, editable or read-only
- Sliders, spin boxes, and double spin boxes
- File and directory selectors
- Calendar and date pickers
- Color and font selectors
- Custom text areas with live content from file or URL (HTML or plain text)
- Static text blocks with formatting (bold, italics, small-caps, color, size...)
- QR codes
- Standard dialogs: info, warning, error, question
- Progress bars
- Notification icons that respond to stdin
- Menus (multi-level, with command execution and return codes)
- Groups (fieldsets), headers, tabs, and multi-column layouts
- Horizontal and vertical spacers, alignment control
- Horizontal rules
- Flexible console output (variable names, separators, prefixes, base64, etc.)
- Live replacement of markers using file or INI-style variables
- File monitoring for dynamic updates
- Execute shell commands on submit with control over dialog behavior
- Footer logs from file content or command output
- Comment-only arguments for structuring long command lines
- Custom window title, size, icon, modal behavior, and taskbar visibility
- Attach dialogs to a parent window or keep them always on top
- Optional minimize/maximize window buttons
- System tray integration: icon, close-to-tray behavior, and tray menu support
- Timeout handling, cancel button visibility
You can browse static builds ready for Linux, macOS and Windows on the Releases page.
To build guid on Linux:
git clone [email protected]:jpfleury/guid.git
cd guid
sudo apt-get install qtbase5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev
# Build using CMake
./build.sh -b cmake
# Build using qmake
./build.sh -b qmake
./guid --helpWe'll progressively build dialogs, from simple prompts to more advanced interfaces, to illustrate some typical use cases.
./guid --entry \
--title="Welcome aboard" \
--text="What is your name?" \
--entry-text="Default name" \
--ok-label="Continue"# Refer to https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qdate.html#toString for the date format.
./guid --forms \
--title="Basic profile" \
--add-text="Welcome to your personal setup!" \
--bold --italics --font-size=13 \
--foreground-color="#002B5C" --background-color="#F0F8FF" \
--add-entry="Full name" --var="name" \
--add-calendar="Date of birth" --forms-date-format="yyyy-MM-dd" --var="birth" \
--add-double-spin-box="Height" \
--value=1.72 --decimals=2 --suffix="m" --var="height" \
--add-double-spin-box="Weight" \
--value=70.5 --decimals=1 --suffix="kg" --var="weight" \
--add-entry="Age" --int=30 --var="age" \
--add-combo="Skill level" \
--combo-values="Beginner|Intermediate|Expert" --editable --var="skill" \
--ok-label="Submit info"./guid --forms \
--title="Enhanced Account Setup" --window-icon=":/info" --width=500 \
\
--header="backgroundColor=#ECEFF1@hideLabel=true" \
--add-text="image=:/info@Welcome to Account Setup!" \
--tooltip="Please fill in the details below to create your account." \
--font-size=14 --bold --align=center \
--header="stop=true" \
\
--group="hideLabel=true@Profile Information" \
--add-entry="Full Name:" --var="fullname" \
--add-entry="Public Nickname:" --var="nickname" \
--add-entry="Email Address:" --var="email" \
--add-file-selection="buttonText=Browse...@Select Profile Picture:" --var="picture" \
--group="stop=true" \
\
--group="hideLabel=true@Preferences" \
--add-combo="Interface Theme:" --combo-values="defaultIndex=2@Light|Dark|System Default" --var="theme" \
--add-checkbox="Receive email notification after account setup" --checked --var="email_notif" \
--group="stop=true" \
\
--col1 --add-password="Password:" --var="password" --field-width=240 \
--col2 --add-password="Confirm Password:" --var="confirm_password" \
--ok-label="Create Account" --cancel-label="Exit" \
--separator=$'\n' --output-prefix-ok=$'[ACCOUNT]\n' --output-prefix-err=$'[ACCOUNT-ERROR]\n'# Creating a sample file to show file monitoring in guid
plugins_file=guid_demo_active_plugins.txt
plugins=("Plugin A|1.0" "Plugin B|2.3" "Plugin C|1.5" "Plugin D|2.8.1" "Plugin E|3.20.12")
i=0
while ((i < 10)); do \
printf '%s\n' "${plugins[@]}" | shuf | tr $'\n' '|' > "$plugins_file"; \
((i++)); \
sleep 1; \
done &
# Running guid
./guid --forms \
--title="App Configuration Panel" --window-icon=":/app-icon" --width=500 \
\
--tab="General" \
--header="backgroundColor=#EEEEEE@hideLabel=true" \
--add-text="General Preferences" --bold --font-size=13 \
--header="stop=true" \
--add-combo="Interface language" \
--combo-values="defaultIndex=1@English|Español|Français" --var="lang" \
--add-checkbox="Enable notifications" --checked --var="notify" \
\
--tab="selected=true@Editor" \
--group="Font & Tabs" \
--add-entry="Editor font string (e.g., Monospace 10)" --var="font" \
--add-text="(Use '--font-selection' for help)" --italics --font-size=10 \
--add-spin-box="Tab size" --min-value=2 --max-value=8 --value=4 --var="tabsize" \
--group="stop=true" \
--add-text="Active Editor Plugins (live refresh)" --font-size=13 --bold --align=center \
--add-vspacer="15" \
--add-list="excludeFromOutput=true@hideLabel=true" \
--column-values="Plugin Name|Version" --show-header \
--list-values-from-file="monitor=true@sep=|@$plugins_file" \
\
--tab="stop=true" \
--ok-label="Apply" --no-cancel# Can be dynamically populated files
cities_file=guid_demo_cities.txt
user_file=guid_demo_user.ini
echo $'Montréal\nParis\nTokyo' > "$cities_file"
echo $'auth=Connected\nstatus=Writing post...' > "$user_file"
# Running guid
./guid --forms \
--title="Profile Completion" --width=550 \
--header="backgroundColor=#157db9@foregroundColor=#ffffff@hideLabel=true" \
--add-text="monitorMarkerFile1=$user_file@monitorMarkerFile2=$user_file@monitorVarName1=auth@monitorVarName2=status@Live Status: GUID_MARKER_1 (GUID_MARKER_2)" \
--font-size=13 --bold \
--header="stop=true" \
--add-combo="Choose a city" \
--combo-values-from-file="monitor=true@$cities_file" \
--editable --var="city" \
--add-entry="Email" --var="email" \
--add-entry="Phone number" --var="phone" \
--action-after-ok-click="keepOpen=true@valuesToFooter=true@command=echo<>GUID_VALUES" \
--footer-name="Latest submissions" --footer-entries=4Editable file-based notes:
# Sample file
notes_file=guid_demo_notes.txt
for i in {1..10}; do echo $'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.\n' >> "$notes_file"; done
# Running guid
user_values=$(./guid --forms \
--title="Edit Notes" --font="Monospace, 12pt" --width=600 \
--comment="First field: editable text information" \
--add-text-info="Text notes" --filename="$notes_file" --editable \
--comment="Second field: checkbox" \
--add-checkbox="I have reviewed my edits" \
--comment="Custom separator (form feed) used to split the fields in the output" \
--separator=$'\f' \
--ok-label="Save")
# Getting the second field value
[[ ${user_values##*$'\f'} == true ]] && echo "The user has reviewed the notes." || echo "The user has not reviewed the notes."Display web HTML content:
./guid --forms \
--title="Online Documentation" --width=500 --height=500 \
--add-text-browser="hideLabel=true" --url="https://example.org/user-guide"Confirmation prompt:
./guid --question \
--title="Enable Advanced Mode?" \
--text="Do you want to activate advanced settings?<br>A restart may be required." \
--ok-label="Enable Now" --cancel-label="Later"Warning dialog:
./guid --warning \
--title="Action Required" \
--text="This change cannot be undone.<br>Proceed with caution."Error alert:
./guid --error \
--title="Connection Error" \
--text="Unable to reach the server.<br>Please check your network connection."Progress indicator (pulsating):
./guid --progress \
--title="Processing" \
--text="Installing components..." \
--pulsate --auto-close --timeout=5Progress updates via stdin:
for i in {1..100}; do \
echo "$i"; \
sleep 0.05; \
done | \
guid --progress \
--title="Processing" \
--text="Installing components..." \
--auto-closeColor selection:
./guid --color-selection \
--title="Pick a Color" \
--color="#0000ff"
fi# Sample file
manual_file=guid_demo_manual_file.txt
echo "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet." > "$manual_file"
# Running guid
./guid --forms \
--title="Control Panel" --width=600 \
--win-min-button --win-max-button --always-on-top \
--systray-icon=":/info" --close-to-systray \
--add-menu="File#Open Manual;-1;xdg-open<>$manual_file|Exit;1" \
--header="backgroundColor=#DDDDDD@hideLabel=true" \
--add-text="System Control Center" --font-size=14 --bold --align=center \
--header="stop=true" \
--add-scale="CPU Throttle" --min-value=0 --max-value=100 --step=5 --value=80 --var="cpu_throttle" \
--add-scale="RAM Limit (GB)" --min-value=1 --max-value=10 --step=1 --value=3 --var="ram_limit" \
--add-qr-code="size=150@https://example.com/dashboard" --align=center \
--action-after-ok-click="keepOpen=true@valuesToFooter=true@command=echo<>GUID_VALUES" \
--footer-name="Latest settings" --footer-entries=5The file help-all.md contains the complete and verbose output of the guid --help-all command.
Copyright (C) 2021-2025 Jean-Philippe Fleury https://github.com/jpfleury
Copyright (C) 2014 Thomas Lübking [email protected]
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
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guid was forked from qarma in 2021 and has since evolved independently.
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guid includes the QR Code generator library, developed by the Nayuki project and released under the MIT license.