# gum

> MIT scriptable prompts, filters, and spinners for shell UX

**Category:** Rust  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://github.com/charmbracelet/gum  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/charmbracelet/gum  
**Added:** 2026-09-10

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## The Hook

gum is Charm’s glue for pretty interactive shells — choose, filter, input, spin — without rewriting the script in a TUI framework.

## What's Good

MIT. charmbracelet/gum. Composable CLI widgets: `gum choose`, `filter`, `input`, `write`, `confirm`, `spin`, `style`, and friends. Bubble Tea / Lip Gloss DNA in single-purpose binaries you drop into bash/zsh/fish. Makes ops scripts feel like products.

## The Catch

Vs Starship (prompt *theme*): gum is scriptable interaction widgets, not your PS1 theme. Adds a Charm binary dependency to scripts that used to be pure POSIX. Non-interactive CI still needs flags/`--` paths that skip the TUI.

## Verdict

MIT shell UX toolkit. Free forever; use when a script needs a real prompt, not another echo menu.