diff --git a/src/terminal/Terminal.zig b/src/terminal/Terminal.zig
index 43f486e1b..ef2cbcd51 100644
--- a/src/terminal/Terminal.zig
+++ b/src/terminal/Terminal.zig
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 const Terminal = @This();
 
 const std = @import("std");
+const testing = std.testing;
+const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
+const ansi = @import("ansi.zig");
+const Parser = @import("Parser.zig");
 
 /// Screen is the current screen state.
 screen: Screen,
@@ -15,13 +19,16 @@ cursor: Cursor,
 rows: usize,
 cols: usize,
 
+/// VT stream parser
+parser: Parser,
+
 /// Screen represents a presentable terminal screen made up of lines and cells.
 const Screen = std.ArrayListUnmanaged(Line);
 const Line = std.ArrayListUnmanaged(Cell);
 
 /// Cell is a single cell within the terminal.
 const Cell = struct {
-    /// Each cell contains exactly one character.
+    /// Each cell contains exactly one character. The character is UTF-8 encoded.
     char: u32,
 
     // TODO(mitchellh): this is where we'll track fg/bg and other attrs.
@@ -40,9 +47,136 @@ pub fn init(cols: usize, rows: usize) Terminal {
         .rows = rows,
         .screen = .{},
         .cursor = .{ .x = 0, .y = 0 },
+        .parser = Parser.init(),
     };
 }
 
-test {
-    _ = @import("Parser.zig");
+pub fn deinit(self: *Terminal, alloc: Allocator) void {
+    for (self.screen.items) |*line| line.deinit(alloc);
+    self.screen.deinit(alloc);
+    self.* = undefined;
+}
+
+/// Return the current string value of the terminal. Newlines are
+/// encoded as "\n". This omits any formatting such as fg/bg.
+///
+/// The caller must free the string.
+pub fn plainString(self: Terminal, alloc: Allocator) ![]const u8 {
+    // Create a buffer that has the number of lines we have times the maximum
+    // width it could possibly be. In all likelihood we aren't using the full
+    // width (of at least the last line) but the error margine here won't be
+    // much.
+    const buffer = try alloc.alloc(u8, self.screen.items.len * self.cols * 4);
+    var i: usize = 0;
+    for (self.screen.items) |line, y| {
+        if (y > 0) {
+            buffer[i] = '\n';
+            i += 1;
+        }
+
+        for (line.items) |cell| {
+            i += try std.unicode.utf8Encode(@intCast(u21, cell.char), buffer[i..]);
+        }
+    }
+
+    return buffer[0..i];
+}
+
+/// Append a string of characters. See appendChar.
+pub fn append(self: *Terminal, alloc: Allocator, str: []const u8) !void {
+    for (str) |c| {
+        try self.appendChar(alloc, c);
+    }
+}
+
+/// Append a single character to the terminal.
+///
+/// This may allocate if necessary to store the character in the grid.
+pub fn appendChar(self: *Terminal, alloc: Allocator, c: u8) !void {
+    const actions = self.parser.next(c);
+    for (actions) |action_opt| {
+        switch (action_opt orelse continue) {
+            .print => |p| try self.print(alloc, p),
+            .execute => |code| try self.execute(code),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+fn print(self: *Terminal, alloc: Allocator, c: u8) !void {
+    // Build our cell
+    const cell = try self.getOrPutCell(alloc, self.cursor.x, self.cursor.y);
+    cell.* = .{
+        .char = @intCast(u32, c),
+    };
+
+    // Move the cursor
+    self.cursor.x += 1;
+}
+
+fn execute(self: *Terminal, c: u8) !void {
+    switch (@intToEnum(ansi.C0, c)) {
+        .LF => self.linefeed(),
+        .CR => self.carriage_return(),
+    }
+}
+
+/// Carriage return moves the cursor to the first column.
+pub fn carriage_return(self: *Terminal) void {
+    self.cursor.x = 0;
+}
+
+/// Linefeed moves the cursor to the next line.
+pub fn linefeed(self: *Terminal) void {
+    // TODO: end of screen
+    self.cursor.y += 1;
+}
+
+fn getOrPutCell(self: *Terminal, alloc: Allocator, x: usize, y: usize) !*Cell {
+    // If we don't have enough lines to get to y, then add it.
+    if (self.screen.items.len < y + 1) {
+        try self.screen.ensureTotalCapacity(alloc, y + 1);
+        self.screen.appendNTimesAssumeCapacity(.{}, y + 1 - self.screen.items.len);
+    }
+
+    const line = &self.screen.items[y];
+    if (line.items.len < x + 1) {
+        try line.ensureTotalCapacity(alloc, x + 1);
+        line.appendNTimesAssumeCapacity(undefined, x + 1 - line.items.len);
+    }
+
+    return &line.items[x];
+}
+
+test {
+    _ = Parser;
+}
+
+test "Terminal: simple input" {
+    var t = init(80, 80);
+    defer t.deinit(testing.allocator);
+
+    // Basic grid writing
+    try t.append(testing.allocator, "hello");
+    try testing.expectEqual(@as(usize, 0), t.cursor.y);
+    try testing.expectEqual(@as(usize, 5), t.cursor.x);
+    {
+        var str = try t.plainString(testing.allocator);
+        defer testing.allocator.free(str);
+        try testing.expectEqualStrings("hello", str);
+    }
+}
+
+test "Terminal: multiline input" {
+    var t = init(80, 80);
+    defer t.deinit(testing.allocator);
+
+    // Basic grid writing
+    try t.append(testing.allocator, "hello\r\nworld");
+    try testing.expectEqual(@as(usize, 1), t.cursor.y);
+    try testing.expectEqual(@as(usize, 5), t.cursor.x);
+    {
+        var str = try t.plainString(testing.allocator);
+        defer testing.allocator.free(str);
+        try testing.expectEqualStrings("hello\nworld", str);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/terminal/ansi.zig b/src/terminal/ansi.zig
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..35735562b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/terminal/ansi.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+/// C0 (7-bit) control characters from ANSI.
+///
+/// This is not complete, control characters are only added to this
+/// as the terminal emulator handles them.
+pub const C0 = enum(u7) {
+    /// Line feed
+    LF = 0x0A,
+    /// Carriage return
+    CR = 0x0D,
+};