termal

termal is a terminal-based viewer for multiple sequence alignments (MSAs). It provides a smooth interface to explore alignments directly from the command line — especially useful when working over SSH or in headless environments.

Installation

cargo install termal-msa

Quick Usage

Once installed, run:

termal <my-alignment>

where my-alignment is a multiple alignment in Fasta or Stockholm format.

For help, run

termal -h

Or press ? while running to see key bindings.

Features

• Zoomed-in and zoomed-out views of the alignment
• Consensus sequence display
• Sequence metrics such as ungapped length and similarity to consensus
• Ordering by metrics
• Conservation indicators
• Color maps for nucleotides and amino acids
• Color themes
• Full keyboard control, no mouse required

Best results in a dark-themed terminal.

More Info

• Source, releases, and test data:
  https://github.com/sib-swiss/termal

• Platform-specific binaries (Linux, macOS, Windows) available on the Releases page.

📝 License

MIT