# Leaves

> **TL;DR.** Leaves is an open-source, Rust-built command-line tool that turns disk usage into a text-mode treemap, drawing nested rectangles sized by file and directory weight directly inside a terminal, including over SSH on headless servers where GUI analyzers can't run.

- **Category:** Developer Tools / CLI / Systems Utilities
- **Stage:** emergent
- **Age:** 19 days
- **Origin date:** 2026-07-06
- **First detected:** 2026-07-17
- **Canonical URL:** https://earlyterms.com/term/leaves
- **Sources:** 4 primary URLs

## Definition

Leaves is an open-source, Rust-built command-line tool that turns disk usage into a text-mode treemap, drawing nested rectangles sized by file and directory weight directly inside a terminal, including over SSH on headless servers where GUI analyzers can't run.

Developer patonw shipped Leaves' first release, v0.1.0, on July 6, 2026, inspired by classic GUI tools WinDirStat and QDirStat and built to handle millions of files via Rust's multi-threading. A July 16 Show HN post pushed it to 85 points and 25 comments, with reviewers comparing it directly to ncdu, WizTree, and GrandPerspective.

## Analogy

Think of it as WinDirStat's colored rectangles redrawn with keyboard-driven terminal blocks instead of a GUI window.

## Why it's emerging now

Rust developer patonw shipped Leaves v0.1.0 on July 6, then hit the Hacker News front page on July 16 with 85 points, drawing praise as an SSH-friendly, terminal-native answer to GUI disk analyzers like WinDirStat and QDirStat.

## Related terms

- *competitor:* ncdu
- *competitor:* dua-cli
- *competitor:* gdu
- *competitor:* dust
- *related:* WinDirStat
- *related:* QDirStat
- *competitor:* WizTree
- *competitor:* GrandPerspective
- *related:* ratatui
- *parent:* treemap visualization

## Sources

1. [patonw/leaves — GitHub repository](https://github.com/patonw/leaves)
2. [Show HN: Leaves – A text-UI disk usage treemap visualizer](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936389)
3. [Leaves release history (v0.1.0 to v0.2.0-cross)](https://github.com/patonw/leaves/releases)
4. [QDirStat's Treemap.md — the algorithm Leaves credits as inspiration](https://github.com/shundhammer/qdirstat/blob/master/doc/Treemap.md)

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_Generated by EarlyTerms · https://earlyterms.com/term/leaves_