Show HN: Foretype: type on remote machines at local speed

Type on remote machines at local speed.

A Rust tool that forecasts your typing, drawing each key before the server echoes it back.

_{Top: plain ssh. Bottom: foretype. Same keys at the same moment, to a deliberately laggy server ~440 ms away.}

                       without     with foretype
bash over ssh           160 ms        10 ms
coding agent over ssh   148 ms        11 ms
any laggy console       158 ms        10 ms

_{A separate measurement, server ~150 ms away. Median time from keypress until the character is on screen; with foretype that is the locally drawn prediction, and the real echo still arrives at network speed. Measured with scripts/latency.py.}

git clone https://github.com/itsfabioroma/foretype && cd foretype
./install.sh

To try it without installing, run cargo build --release, then FORETYPE_SHELL=$SHELL ./target/release/foretype shell. That runs your shell inside foretype in the current terminal; exit leaves.

Open a new terminal tab. That's it. Typing into anything slow now feels instant: ssh, kubectl exec, docker exec, a coding agent on a far box. Nothing to install on the server, and your shell, prompt and config stay the same.

foretype status             # is this tab boosted?
sudo foretype uninstall     # put your old shell back

foretype is a single Rust binary. foretype install copies it to /usr/local/bin, adds foretype-shell to /etc/shells, makes that your login shell with chsh, and saves your old shell in ~/.config/foretype/shell. Every new terminal tab, tmux pane and editor terminal then starts foretype, which runs your real shell in a pseudo-terminal and forwards every byte unchanged. It mirrors the screen with vt100 and times how long each key takes to echo. When the program in front is slower than 30 ms, foretype draws your keys itself, then checks them against the real echo.

• Only interactive terminals are wrapped. -c commands, scripts and pipes get your real shell directly.
• ssh, your shell config and the server are untouched. Root is only needed to install and uninstall.
• Predicts only after the program has echoed on that line, so passwords stay hidden.
• Asks the terminal for its cursor position (ESC [6n ) before drawing.
• Restores the cursor before forwarding output, so the program's bytes land untouched.
• Takes a prediction back if the echo differs, or if none arrives within about three round trips (750 ms at least, 5 s at most).
• s on Enter, editing keys, paste and resize.
• Hides typing lag, not network lag.

Apache-2.0