# Ink Projects at AI Tinkerers

> Canonical HTML: https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/ink
> Markdown URL: https://aitinkerers.org/technologies/ink.md
> Technology record last updated: 2026-04-17T22:55:25Z
> Generated: 2026-09-21T20:40:17Z

Ink is a React-based command-line interface framework that replaces traditional terminal output with dynamic, component-driven layouts.

Ink brings the declarative power of React to the terminal. It leverages a custom Yoga-based layout engine to translate JSX components into ANSI escape codes, allowing developers to build complex CLI tools with interactive states and flexbox styling. Instead of manually managing stdout streams or clearing lines, you use familiar hooks like useEffect and useState to handle real-time data. Major projects like Gatsby and Prisma rely on Ink to deliver polished, high-performance terminal experiences (15k+ stars on GitHub).

- Official technology site: https://ink.dev
- Public AI Tinkerers demos and talks: 1
- Result page: 1 of 1

## Recent Public Talks and Demos

### [Building a Real-Time Terminal Messenger on LinkedIn's Private APIs with Bun, Ink, and a Git-Backed Message Store](https://seattle.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_0AqXN-gxTTM)

Allman is a two-layer system for LinkedIn messaging from the terminal: a CLI that syncs, sends, and streams LinkedIn messages into a git-versioned file store, and a TUI that renders it as a full two-pane Ink/React terminal messenger with live updates, auto-backfill, and real-time presence. The demo shows the TUI in action — navigating conversations, composing replies, watching the status bar update as messages stream in over LinkedIn's SSE channel, and kicking off a sync that backfills an entire conversation history while showing live progress counts. Under the hood, the TUI never touches the network directly. Every write — sends, syncs, searches — shells out to the lilac binary, which is embedded inside the compiled TUI executable as a bundled asset. Every read — conversation list, message thread, slug lookup — goes straight to JSONL files on disk, so navigation is instant with zero subprocess overhead per keystroke. The key learning or takeaway is that private APIs, even when obfuscated, are easily reverse-engineered by coding harnesses. Claude Opus 4.6 processed the compiled LinkedIn binary overnight, completely autonomously.

- Event context: AI Tinkerers Seattle: GTM Engineering — April Meetup — 2026-04-23 — Seattle
- Public talk page: https://seattle.aitinkerers.org/talks/rsvp_0AqXN-gxTTM

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