Coming from Spectre.Console | ConsoleMonster guides

Spectre.Console is a widely used .NET library for rich console output, and its markup syntax is familiar to many .NET developers. ConsoleMonster is a separate library with its own parser and renderer. Its markup follows the same dialect, so a reader who knows one can read the other. This page maps the concepts from one to the other and notes where they behave differently.

markup.ps1 PowerShell 7.6

Markup in the Spectre.Console dialect: cadetblue, grey50, deepskyblue3
#ff8800, rgb(120,200,90), color(208) and  theme roles 
[brackets] are literal, unknown tags keep their text, and links use OSC 8

PowerShellmarkup.ps1

Write-ConsoleMarkup '[bold red]Markup[/] in the [italic]Spectre.Console[/] dialect: [cadetblue]cadetblue[/], [grey50]grey50[/], [deepskyblue3]deepskyblue3[/]'
Write-ConsoleMarkup '[#ff8800]#ff8800[/], [rgb(120,200,90)]rgb(120,200,90)[/], [color(208)]color(208)[/] and [white on fail] theme roles [/]'
Write-ConsoleMarkup '[[brackets]] are literal, [nosuchcolour]unknown tags[/] keep their text, and [link=https://consolemonster.dev]links[/] use OSC 8'

Write-ConsoleMarkup in PowerShell 7: palette names, hex and rgb() colours, theme roles as backgrounds, escaped brackets, an unknown tag and a link.

Markup

Spectre.Console	ConsoleMonster	Notes
`[bold]`, `[dim]`, `[italic]`, `[underline]`, `[strikethrough]`, `[invert]`	the same	Combined the same way, as in `[bold red on blue]`.
`[/]`, `[[` and `]]`	the same	`[/]` closes the innermost tag.
Colour names, `[#ff8800]`, `[rgb(1,2,3)]`, `[color(208)]`	the same, plus `[208]` and `[default]`	Names are the 256 xterm names. A name that appears twice in the xterm list takes `_1`, `_2`, as in `[blue3_1]`. Colours are reduced to what the console can show.
`[link=https://example.com]text[/]`, `[link]…[/]`	the same	OSC 8 hyperlinks in terminals that support them, plain text elsewhere. Only absolute `http`, `https`, `mailto` and `ftp` targets link.
`:emoji:` shortcodes	not supported	Write the emoji character itself; it is measured as two cells.
An unknown style is an error	removed, its text kept	An unknown tag that is never closed stays literal, since it is most likely text such as `[x]`. `Markup.Strict = true` throws a `FormatException` instead, and `Markup.Validate` reports the first problem without throwing.
—	theme roles: `[pass]`, `[fail]`, `[warn]`, `[muted]`, `[accent]` and others	Roles follow the active theme and also work as backgrounds (`[white on fail]`).

In markup, a colour name is the 256-colour palette name, so [darkred] is palette colour 52 and [grey] palette colour 8. ConsoleMonster's PowerShell cmdlets also take -Color and -BackgroundColor parameters, where a name keeps its Write-Host meaning. Either meaning can be asked for in either place: console.<name> is the ConsoleColor as Write-Host shows it ([console.darkred] in markup), and palette.<name> is the palette colour (-Color palette.darkred).

Name	Markup `[name]`	`-Color name`
`red` / `blue`	bright red / bright blue (ANSI 9 / 12)	the same
`darkred` / `darkblue`	palette 52 / 18	ANSI red / blue (1 / 4)
`grey`, `gray`	ANSI 8	ANSI 7 (Write-Host Gray)
`darkgray`	ANSI 8	ANSI 8

Writing output

Spectre.Console	ConsoleMonster	Notes
`AnsiConsole.Write(renderable)`	`Terminal.Write(widget)`	Widgets measure themselves for the console width.
`AnsiConsole.Markup(...)` / `MarkupLine(...)`	`Terminal.WriteMarkup(...)` / `Terminal.WriteMarkupLine(...)`	`WriteMarkup` does not end the line.
`Markup.Escape(value)`	`Markup.Escape(value)` or `value.EscapeMarkup()`
`AnsiConsole.MarkupInterpolated($"...")`	`Markup.Interpolate($"...")`	Escapes every argument after its format specifier.
`AnsiConsole.Clear()`	`Terminal.Clear()`
`AnsiConsole.WriteException(ex)`	`Terminal.Write(new ExceptionView(ex))`
`AnsiConsole.Profile.Capabilities`	`CapabilityDetector` and `TerminalProfile`	Colour depth, glyph tier, links and interactivity; see capability detection.

Terminal.WriteMarkupLine(Markup.Interpolate($"[pass]{server}[/] answered in [muted]{elapsed:N1}s[/]"));

Widgets

Spectre.Console	ConsoleMonster	Notes
`Table`	`Table`	Columns carry a priority, a minimum and maximum width and an overflow rule. Tables fit the console width, and below a set width rows become cards; see tables.
`Tree`	`Tree`
`Panel`	`Panel`
`Rule`	`Rule`
`BarChart` / `BreakdownChart`	`BarChart` / `StackedBar`	ConsoleMonster also has `Sparkline`, `Histogram` and `LineChart`.
`Columns`, `Rows`, `Grid`, `Padder`, `Align`	`Columns`, `Rows`, `Grid`, `Stack`, `Align`
`Layout`	`Dashboard` and `DashboardBuilder`	Named panels in a header, body and footer, sized to the window.
`FigletText`	`Logo`	Pixel lettering in a built-in font.
`Canvas`	`PixelCanvas`, `BrailleCanvas`, `HalfBlockCanvas`, `CharacterCanvas`
`JsonText` (Spectre.Console.Json)	`CodeView` with `JsonHighlighter`, `Format-ConsoleJson` in PowerShell
`Calendar`	—	No counterpart.

The widget gallery shows each ConsoleMonster widget with its C# and PowerShell source.

Status, progress and live output

Spectre.Console	ConsoleMonster	Notes
`AnsiConsole.Status().Start(...)`	`Terminal.Status("...", ctx => ...)`, `Terminal.StatusAsync`
`AnsiConsole.Progress().Start(...)`	`Lanes` and `ProgressBar`, usually in a `LiveSession`	Progress columns are a column model; see live sessions.
`AnsiConsole.Live(renderable).Start(ctx => ...)`	`LiveSession`	Updates are events addressed to widgets by name and can come from any thread.
`AnsiConsole.Record()` / `ExportHtml()`	`ConsoleExporter.ToHtml(...)`, `LiveRecorder`	Exports a frame, or records a session's events for replay and export.

Terminal.Status("Resolving…", ctx => {
    foreach (string dc in controllers) {
        ctx.Update(Markup.Interpolate($"Querying [accent]{dc}[/]"));
        Query(dc);
    }
});

Terminal.Status draws a one-line spinner as an inline live area. Console output written meanwhile scrolls above it, and the line is removed when the work ends, also when it throws. Redirected output, CI logs and plain mode get each new status text once, as a plain line.

Prompts

Spectre.Console	ConsoleMonster
`TextPrompt<T>`	`TextPrompt`, `NumberPrompt`, `PathPrompt`
`SelectionPrompt<T>`	`SelectPrompt<T>`
`MultiSelectionPrompt<T>`	`MultiSelectPrompt<T>`
`ConfirmationPrompt`	`ConfirmPrompt`, `TypedConfirmPrompt`

ConsoleMonster also has forms, menus and a grid; the interactive page shows them.

Outside this mapping

Spectre.Console.Cli parses command lines and maps them to commands. ConsoleMonster has no command-line parser and can be used next to one.
Testing. Spectre.Console.Testing provides a TestConsole. ConsoleMonster renders to a fixed profile in memory: TerminalProfile.Fixed with ConsoleExporter.ToText, and ScreenCapture with scripted keys for prompts.