An open-source toolkit for preserving and extending the Minitel ecosystem.
Quick start · Constitution · Architecture · Roadmap · Getting started
Minitel Workbench is a toolkit for Minitel owners, whether they connect by telephone or by USB cable, or don't own a terminal yet. It provides a service directory, documentation, an offline demo, session recording, a Mac-side mirror of what the terminal shows, and — for owners with a USB adapter — a direct bridge to Minitel services such as Retrocampus and MiniPavi.
It began as a debugging session that got a 1984 Radiotechnique Minitel back onto
today's Internet. See docs/design/design-notebook.md.
Most working Minitels still dial in by telephone; only a few have the USB adapter. Existing tools tend to assume the adapter. Workbench does not: it is usable with no cable, and the adapter adds further tools (live mirror, recording, diagnostics, benchmark). The design rules it follows — no "recommended" labels, no lecturing about old hardware, an interface that talks about services rather than sockets — are set out in the Constitution.
Requires Python 3.11+. No third-party packages are needed for the offline demo — the core runs on the standard library alone.
git clone <your-fork-url> minitel-workbench
cd minitel-workbench
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e ".[serial,ws]" # extras are optional
# See what's available and check your setup (works with no hardware):
minitel list
minitel doctor
# Try the whole stack offline — no Minitel, no Internet:
minitel demoIf you have the USB adapter and a Minitel powered on at F (local mode):
minitel scan # find the serial device (no jargon)
minitel connect retrocampus # or: minitel connect minipaviThere is no need to press Connexion/Fin on the terminal — leave it at F.
Full walkthrough: docs/guides/getting-started.md.
| Service | What it is | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Retrocampus | BBS by Francesco Sblendorio — forums, files, games, AI (Mistral, ChatGPT for Patreon supporters). Free to access. | WebSocket · telephone |
| MiniPavi | Gateway/directory to hundreds of Minitel services. | Telnet go.minipavi.fr:516 · telephone |
| Local Demo | Pages served from inside Workbench — no network, no service. That makes it the answer to "is it me, or is it them?": if the demo draws correctly on your Minitel, the fault is out on the network, not on your desk. Its display test (page 5) states on screen what each line should look like. | in-process |
The directory is data (src/minitel_workbench/services/directory.json),
so adding a service is a one-line contribution rather than a release.
Tested against a physical Minitel (a 1984 Radiotechnique NFZ 300): the bridge connected to MiniPavi over the USB serial link, drew pages, and navigated from both the terminal's keyboard and the Mac's. The display test renders correctly on the CRT — accents, mosaics, REP run-length fills, inverse and blink — which exercises the decoder end to end. That terminal answers PRO3 commands but reports no ROM identity, which is normal for a first-generation Minitel 1.
Working today: direct serial↔TCP bridge with Telnet filtering, WebSocket
transport, auto-reconnect on idle drop, offline demo with a display test,
auto-detect, persistent config, service directory, bidirectional recording, a
CEPT level-2 colour mirror (ANSI + HTML, blink included), a one-click setup
report (cable, driver, line speed, terminal identity, services), a telephone
dialing assistant and service status monitor, a protocol inspector and
.vdt/recording viewer, and a resources/museum directory with credits.
Also: a benchmark for the serial link, a local microserver that serves your own
pages to the terminal, a Videotex page builder, and a clear command for a
garbled screen. AI is treated as a service you connect to (e.g. Retrocampus)
rather than something Workbench calls with an API key; see the Constitution.
CLI surface: list · scan · doctor · selftest · demo · clear · status · resources · call · view · inspect · serve · benchmark · connect.
Planned: DRCS + serial-attribute rendering, a visual .vdt editor, a richer live
GUI monitor, and a packaged .app.
Contributions are welcome. Read the Constitution and the Contributing guide first.
MIT — see LICENSE.