# DendROS adds color-coded terminal output and viewer for ROS 2

> **Key takeaway:** DendROS is an MIT-licensed tool that improves ROS 2 log readability through node grouping, colorization, and an interactive viewer.

**Published:** 2026-10-12T16:21:54+00:00 
**Source:** ROS Robot Operating System News 
**Category:** robotics-science 
**Canonical URL:** https://fosswire.org/news/dendros-adds-color-coded-terminal-output-and-viewer-for-ros-.html 

## Summary
DendROS is a new open-source utility designed to manage the complex terminal output generated by ROS 2 launch files. It allows users to group nodes by color and labels using a YAML configuration, providing a dedicated viewer for searching, filtering, and scrolling through logs without interrupting the running launch. The tool also highlights crashes, tracebacks, and runtime parameter changes.

## Technical features of DendROS
- Wraps the **ros2** command using a bash function to pipe output through a colorizer.
- Uses a **dendROS.yaml** file to define node groups, colors, and labels (supports wildcards).
- Provides an interactive viewer with commands for **focusing** specific nodes, **filtering** by severity level, and **live grep**.
- Integrates with the **ros2 CLI** to apply group colors to commands like `node list` and `topic list`.
- Automatically highlights Python tracebacks and runtime parameter changes.
- Requires only **Python 3** and **PyYAML** as dependencies.

## Why it matters
DendROS aims to reduce debugging friction for robotics developers by making multi-node terminal logs more navigable and visually distinct.