diff --git a/build.zig b/build.zig
index 8869bef..f8c55ef 100644
--- a/build.zig
+++ b/build.zig
@@ -99,6 +99,12 @@ fn buildTui(b: *Build, target: ResolvedTarget, optimize: OptimizeMode) !void {
         .optimize = optimize,
     });
 
+    const vaxis_dep = b.dependency("vaxis", .{
+        .target = target,
+        .optimize = optimize,
+    });
+    tui.root_module.addImport("vaxis", vaxis_dep.module("vaxis"));
+
     b.installArtifact(tui);
     b.step("run-tui", "Run TUI").dependOn(&b.addRunArtifact(tui).step);
 }
diff --git a/build.zig.zon b/build.zig.zon
index 51b1b1e..9d26fdd 100644
--- a/build.zig.zon
+++ b/build.zig.zon
@@ -14,5 +14,9 @@
         .cimgui = .{
             .path = "3rd-party/cimgui",
         },
+        .vaxis = .{
+            .url = "git+https://github.com/rockorager/libvaxis?ref=main#235e0bb27bc89655d8c66fc6378b31d4a98a117a",
+            .hash = "1220fef553676a4c90035db27c13ad609d5823198a94cc971e95ab9c680e3dcd2df0",
+        },
     },
 }
diff --git a/src/tui/main.zig b/src/tui/main.zig
index a0aa24c..47d24a0 100644
--- a/src/tui/main.zig
+++ b/src/tui/main.zig
@@ -1,11 +1,196 @@
+// const std = @import("std");
+
+// pub fn main() !void {
+//     const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();
+//     try stdout.print("Can spawn process: {}\n", .{std.process.can_spawn});
+
+//     var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
+//     const alloc = gpa.allocator();
+//     var lldb_child = std.process.Child.init(&[_][]const u8{"lldb-vscode"}, alloc);
+//     _ = try lldb_child.spawnAndWait();
+// }
+
 const std = @import("std");
+const vaxis = @import("vaxis");
 
+/// Set the default panic handler to the vaxis panic_handler. This will clean up the terminal if any
+/// panics occur
+pub const panic = vaxis.panic_handler;
+
+/// Set some scope levels for the vaxis scopes
+pub const std_options: std.Options = .{
+    .log_scope_levels = &.{
+        .{ .scope = .vaxis, .level = .warn },
+        .{ .scope = .vaxis_parser, .level = .warn },
+    },
+};
+
+/// Tagged union of all events our application will handle. These can be generated by Vaxis or your
+/// own custom events
+const Event = union(enum) {
+    key_press: vaxis.Key,
+    key_release: vaxis.Key,
+    mouse: vaxis.Mouse,
+    focus_in, // window has gained focus
+    focus_out, // window has lost focus
+    paste_start, // bracketed paste start
+    paste_end, // bracketed paste end
+    paste: []const u8, // osc 52 paste, caller must free
+    color_report: vaxis.Color.Report, // osc 4, 10, 11, 12 response
+    color_scheme: vaxis.Color.Scheme, // light / dark OS theme changes
+    winsize: vaxis.Winsize, // the window size has changed. This event is always sent when the loop
+    // is started
+};
+
+/// The application state
+const MyApp = struct {
+    allocator: std.mem.Allocator,
+    // A flag for if we should quit
+    should_quit: bool,
+    /// The tty we are talking to
+    tty: vaxis.Tty,
+    /// The vaxis instance
+    vx: vaxis.Vaxis,
+    /// A mouse event that we will handle in the draw cycle
+    mouse: ?vaxis.Mouse,
+
+    pub fn init(allocator: std.mem.Allocator) !MyApp {
+        return .{
+            .allocator = allocator,
+            .should_quit = false,
+            .tty = try vaxis.Tty.init(),
+            .vx = try vaxis.init(allocator, .{}),
+            .mouse = null,
+        };
+    }
+
+    pub fn deinit(self: *MyApp) void {
+        // Deinit takes an optional allocator. You can choose to pass an allocator to clean up
+        // memory, or pass null if your application is shutting down and let the OS clean up the
+        // memory
+        self.vx.deinit(self.allocator, self.tty.anyWriter());
+        self.tty.deinit();
+    }
+
+    pub fn run(self: *MyApp) !void {
+        // Initialize our event loop. This particular loop requires intrusive init
+        var loop: vaxis.Loop(Event) = .{
+            .tty = &self.tty,
+            .vaxis = &self.vx,
+        };
+        try loop.init();
+
+        // Start the event loop. Events will now be queued
+        try loop.start();
+
+        try self.vx.enterAltScreen(self.tty.anyWriter());
+
+        // Query the terminal to detect advanced features, such as kitty keyboard protocol, etc.
+        // This will automatically enable the features in the screen you are in, so you will want to
+        // call it after entering the alt screen if you are a full screen application. The second
+        // arg is a timeout for the terminal to send responses. Typically the response will be very
+        // fast, however it could be slow on ssh connections.
+        try self.vx.queryTerminal(self.tty.anyWriter(), 1 * std.time.ns_per_s);
+
+        // Enable mouse events
+        try self.vx.setMouseMode(self.tty.anyWriter(), true);
+
+        // This is the main event loop. The basic structure is
+        // 1. Handle events
+        // 2. Draw application
+        // 3. Render
+        while (!self.should_quit) {
+            // pollEvent blocks until we have an event
+            loop.pollEvent();
+            // tryEvent returns events until the queue is empty
+            while (loop.tryEvent()) |event| {
+                try self.update(event);
+            }
+            // Draw our application after handling events
+            self.draw();
+
+            // It's best to use a buffered writer for the render method. TTY provides one, but you
+            // may use your own. The provided bufferedWriter has a buffer size of 4096
+            var buffered = self.tty.bufferedWriter();
+            // Render the application to the screen
+            try self.vx.render(buffered.writer().any());
+            try buffered.flush();
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Update our application state from an event
+    pub fn update(self: *MyApp, event: Event) !void {
+        switch (event) {
+            .key_press => |key| {
+                // key.matches does some basic matching algorithms. Key matching can be complex in
+                // the presence of kitty keyboard encodings, this will generally be a good approach.
+                // There are other matching functions available for specific purposes, as well
+                if (key.matches('c', .{ .ctrl = true }))
+                    self.should_quit = true;
+            },
+            .mouse => |mouse| self.mouse = mouse,
+            .winsize => |ws| try self.vx.resize(self.allocator, self.tty.anyWriter(), ws),
+            else => {},
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Draw our current state
+    pub fn draw(self: *MyApp) void {
+        const msg = "Hello, world!";
+
+        // Window is a bounded area with a view to the screen. You cannot draw outside of a windows
+        // bounds. They are light structures, not intended to be stored.
+        const win = self.vx.window();
+
+        // Clearing the window has the effect of setting each cell to it's "default" state. Vaxis
+        // applications typically will be immediate mode, and you will redraw your entire
+        // application during the draw cycle.
+        win.clear();
+
+        // In addition to clearing our window, we want to clear the mouse shape state since we may
+        // be changing that as well
+        self.vx.setMouseShape(.default);
+
+        const child = win.child(.{
+            .x_off = (win.width / 2) - 7,
+            .y_off = win.height / 2 + 1,
+            .width = .{ .limit = msg.len },
+            .height = .{ .limit = 1 },
+        });
+
+        // mouse events are much easier to handle in the draw cycle. Windows have a helper method to
+        // determine if the event occurred in the target window. This method returns null if there
+        // is no mouse event, or if it occurred outside of the window
+        const style: vaxis.Style = if (child.hasMouse(self.mouse)) |_| blk: {
+            // We handled the mouse event, so set it to null
+            self.mouse = null;
+            self.vx.setMouseShape(.pointer);
+            break :blk .{ .reverse = true };
+        } else .{};
+
+        // Print a text segment to the screen. This is a helper function which iterates over the
+        // text field for graphemes. Alternatively, you can implement your own print functions and
+        // use the writeCell API.
+        _ = try child.printSegment(.{ .text = msg, .style = style }, .{});
+    }
+};
+
+/// Keep our main function small. Typically handling arg parsing and initialization only
 pub fn main() !void {
-    const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();
-    try stdout.print("Can spawn process: {}\n", .{std.process.can_spawn});
-
     var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
-    const alloc = gpa.allocator();
-    var lldb_child = std.process.Child.init(&[_][]const u8{"lldb-vscode"}, alloc);
-    _ = try lldb_child.spawnAndWait();
+    defer {
+        const deinit_status = gpa.deinit();
+        //fail test; can't try in defer as defer is executed after we return
+        if (deinit_status == .leak) {
+            std.log.err("memory leak", .{});
+        }
+    }
+    const allocator = gpa.allocator();
+
+    // Initialize our application
+    var app = try MyApp.init(allocator);
+    defer app.deinit();
+
+    // Run the application
+    try app.run();
 }