Using terminal with TERM=dumb specifically mean that TUIs and the like
don't work. Ensure that codex doesn't run in these environments and exit
with odd errors like crossterm's "Error: The cursor position could not
be read within a normal duration"
---------
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
# Terminal Detection Metadata for Per-Terminal Scroll Scaling
## Summary
Expand terminal detection into structured metadata (`TerminalInfo`) with
multiplexer awareness, plus a testable environment shim and
characterization tests.
## Context / Motivation
- TUI2 owns its viewport and scrolling model (see
`codex-rs/tui2/docs/tui_viewport_and_history.md`), so scroll behavior
must be consistent across terminals and independent of terminal
scrollback quirks.
- Prior investigations show mouse wheel scroll deltas vary noticeably by
terminal. To tune scroll scaling (line increments per wheel tick) we
need reliable terminal identification, including when running inside
tmux/zellij.
- tmux is especially tricky because it can mask the underlying terminal;
we now consult `tmux display-message` client termtype/name to attribute
sessions to the actual terminal rather than tmux itself.
- This remains backwards compatible with the existing OpenTelemetry
user-agent token because `user_agent()` is still derived from the same
environment signals (now via `TerminalInfo`).
## Changes
- Introduce `TerminalInfo`, `TerminalName`, and `Multiplexer` with
`TERM_PROGRAM`/`TERM`/multiplexer detection and user-agent formatting in
`codex-rs/core/src/terminal.rs`.
- Add an injectable `Environment` trait + `FakeEnvironment` for testing,
and comprehensive characterization tests covering known terminals, tmux
client termtype/name, and zellij.
- Document module usage and detection order; update `terminal_info()` to
be the primary interface for callers.
## Testing
- `cargo test -p codex-core terminal::tests`
- manually checked ghostty, iTerm2, Terminal.app, vscode, tmux, zellij,
Warp, alacritty, kitty.
```
2025-12-18T07:07:49.191421Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: Iterm2, term_program: Some("iTerm.app"), version: Some("3.6.6"), term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T07:07:57.991776Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: AppleTerminal, term_program: Some("Apple_Terminal"), version: Some("455.1"), term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T07:08:07.732095Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: WarpTerminal, term_program: Some("WarpTerminal"), version: Some("v0.2025.12.10.08.12.stable_03"), term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T07:08:24.860316Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: Kitty, term_program: None, version: None, term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T07:08:38.302761Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: Alacritty, term_program: None, version: None, term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T07:08:50.887748Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: VsCode, term_program: Some("vscode"), version: Some("1.107.1"), term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T07:10:01.309802Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: WezTerm, term_program: Some("WezTerm"), version: Some("20240203-110809-5046fc22"), term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T08:05:17.009271Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: Ghostty, term_program: Some("ghostty"), version: Some("1.2.3"), term: None, multiplexer: None }
2025-12-18T08:05:23.819973Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: Ghostty, term_program: Some("ghostty"), version: Some("1.2.3"), term: Some("xterm-ghostty"), multiplexer: Some(Tmux { version: Some("3.6a") }) }
2025-12-18T08:05:35.572853Z INFO Detected terminal info terminal=TerminalInfo { name: Ghostty, term_program: Some("ghostty"), version: Some("1.2.3"), term: None, multiplexer: Some(Zellij) }
```
## Notes / Follow-ups
- Next step is to wire `TerminalInfo` into TUI2’s scroll scaling
configuration and add a per-terminal tuning table.
- The log output in TUI2 helps validate real-world detection before
applying behavior changes.
Jeff Mickey ·
Josh McKinney ·
Jeremy Rose ·