catype

A terminal typing practice app for developers. Practice typing prose, code, symbols, numbers, and vim/tmux key sequences — all from the terminal. Import your own documents for personalized practice.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 c a t y p e                  │
│  Hello, jixian                               │
│                                              │
│  ▸ Mode       ◂ Sentence ▸                  │
│    Category   [email]                        │
│    Order      [Sequential]                   │
│    Scope      [Whole category]               │
│    Length     [60s]                           │
│                                              │
│  j/k navigate   h/l change                  │
│  Enter start  p profile  d docs             │
│  q quit                                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Features

Four practice modes

• Word — individual words extracted from documents, optionally weighted by error history
• Phrase — multi-word chunks from documents
• Sentence — full sentences from documents
• Document — type an entire document sequentially

Category-based corpus — practice material is organized by category (e.g., email, academic, prompt). Built-in categories ship with the app; import your own documents to create custom categories.

Document import — import your own files for practice

• Supports txt, html, pdf, and docx formats
• Browse documents by category, configure session options, start typing
• Error-weighted document selection targets your weakest characters
• Infinite mode keeps generating prompts until you stop

Configurable sessions

• Timed (60s, 120s), fixed word count (60, 120), whole document, or infinite
• Custom passing thresholds (accuracy and WPM, adjustable in profile)
• Every keystroke counts — backspace corrections are penalized

Real-time feedback

• Character-level green/red coloring as you type
• Live WPM and accuracy display

Session tracking

• All sessions persisted to a local SQLite database
• Per-prompt error logs (which characters were wrong)
• Per-character accuracy stats across all sessions
• Daily practice time tracking
• Statistics view with session history, practice time chart, weakest keys

User profile

• Named profile with rename and reset
• Custom accuracy and WPM thresholds
• Daily practice goal
• Keyboard heatmap showing per-key accuracy and frequency

Install

Requires Rust toolchain.

git clone <repo-url> && cd catype
cargo build --release
# Binary at target/release/catype

Usage

TUI (default)

# Launch with defaults (Sentence mode, 60s timed)
catype

# Override via CLI flags
catype --mode sentence --time 30
catype --mode word --count 20
catype --min-accuracy 95 --min-wpm 40

Document Management

# Import files for typing practice
catype import --file essay.txt --category academic
catype import --file report.html --category work --title "Q4 Report"
catype import --file paper.pdf --category research
catype import --file notes.docx --category personal

# List imported documents
catype list
catype list --category academic

# Delete a document
catype delete 3

# Sync built-in corpus from index.csv into the database
catype sync
catype sync --dir src/corpus

# Clear data
catype clear --documents   # Remove all imported documents
catype clear --profile     # Clear sessions, stats, practice history

PDF imports include spell checking against the system dictionary — sentences with unrecognized words are flagged for review.

Controls

Screen	Key	Action
Menu	j/k, arrows	Navigate options
Menu	h/l, arrows	Cycle option values
Menu	Enter	Start session
Menu	p	Profile
Menu	s	Statistics
Menu	d	Document browser
Menu	q	Quit
Typing	(type normally)	Match the target text
Typing	Backspace	Delete last character
Typing	Esc	End session early
Results	r	Retry with same settings
Results	m	Back to menu
Doc Browser	j/k	Navigate within panel
Doc Browser	Tab	Switch between panels
Doc Browser	Enter	Select category/document
Doc Browser	Esc	Back to menu
Doc Viewer	j/k	Scroll through document
Doc Viewer	Esc	Back to browser
Profile	j/k	Navigate options
Profile	h/l	Adjust thresholds
Profile	Esc	Back to menu
Stats	j/k	Navigate sessions
Stats	Tab	Switch tabs
Stats	Enter	View session detail
Stats	Esc	Back to menu
Session Detail	Esc	Back to stats

Menu Options

The menu fields change based on the selected mode:

• Mode — Word, Phrase, Sentence, Document
• Category — cycles through available categories (built-in + imported)
• Order — Sequential or Random (hidden in Document mode)
• Scope — Random document or Whole category (hidden in Document mode)
• Focus — Uniform or Weak chars (only shown in Word mode)
• Length — 60s, 120s, 60w, 120w, Whole document, Infinite

Configuration

Optional config file at ~/.config/catype/config.toml:

mode = "sentence"

[session]
kind = { type = "Timed", value = 60 }

[thresholds]
accuracy = 98.0
wpm = 35.0

CLI flags override the config file, which overrides built-in defaults. Custom thresholds set in the profile menu are stored in the database and take precedence over config file defaults.

Scoring

• WPM: (correct_chars / 5) / elapsed_minutes. Timer starts on the first keystroke.
• Accuracy: correct_keystrokes / total_keystrokes * 100. Every key press counts, including ones corrected with backspace.
• Pass/Fail: Both accuracy and WPM must meet their thresholds independently.

Corpus

Built-in

Plain text files organized by category in src/corpus/, indexed by src/corpus/index.csv:

src/corpus/
├── index.csv                  # Maps categories to text files
├── academic/
│   ├── ensemble_fire_abstract.txt
│   ├── ensemble_fire_introduction.txt
│   ├── uncertainty_tube_abstract.txt
│   └── uncertainty_tube_method.txt
├── email/
│   ├── email1.txt
│   ├── email2.txt
│   ├── email3.txt
│   ├── email4.txt
│   └── email5.txt
└── prompt/
    ├── prompt1.txt
    ├── prompt2.txt
    ├── prompt3.txt
    └── skills1.txt

To add entries, create a text file in the appropriate category subdirectory, add a row to index.csv, and run catype sync.

Imported Documents

Import your own files for practice:

catype import --file myfile.txt --category mycategory

Supported formats: .txt, .html/.htm, .pdf, .docx

Documents are stored in the SQLite database as sequences of sentences. The document browser (press d from the main menu) lets you browse by category and view individual documents.

Data Storage

All data is stored in ~/.config/catype/catype.db (SQLite). The database is created automatically on first run. Use the profile screen (press p) to reset session data, or catype delete <id> to remove individual documents, or catype clear to bulk-clear data.