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Make macOS Terminal the baseline host #11
Description
Goal
Ensure NMSh looks good and remains fully functional in macOS Terminal.app, treating it as the minimum compatibility baseline.
Why
Terminal.app is the most widely installed terminal on macOS and requires no additional software. It should represent the floor of NMSh compatibility. Users on Terminal.app should have a complete and pleasant experience.
Scope
- Identify all features that degrade or fail in Terminal.app
- Fix or gracefully degrade each identified regression
- Explore managing a dedicated Terminal.app profile for: background, opacity, font, ANSI palette — where feasible
- Document what Terminal.app users get vs. enhanced-host users
- Reopening/reloading the terminal profile is acceptable for profile application
Non-goals
- Making Terminal.app match Ghostty feature-for-feature
- Implementing advanced keyboard protocols (Terminal.app does not support them)
Acceptance criteria
- All core NMSh features work in Terminal.app: editor, history, semantic highlighting, passthrough
- No crash, hang, or rendering corruption in Terminal.app
- Terminal.app profile management documented or implemented
Human verification
- Open NMSh in macOS Terminal.app
- Run commands covering INLINE, FOLDED, LIVE, and PASSTHROUGH modes
- Verify editor, history scroll, and /copy work correctly
- Verify passthrough (e.g. vim) exits cleanly
Dependencies
Requires #10 (TerminalHost capability abstraction) to properly gate enhanced features.
Rough effort
1–2 days
Activity
raiseCatError commentedon Oct 1, 2026
Automated baseline work is available in unmerged #260, stacked on #259 → #258. Local build/typecheck/diff check and 780 tests passed; Node 22/26 workflow run 36923778807 passed. Includes conservative Chroma defaults, ANSI 16 fallback, a Terminal.app-profile frontend PTY fixture, opt-in profile-management findings, and the additive physical checklist at
docs/testing/v010-physical-qa.md.Physical Terminal.app validation is intentionally deferred. This issue remains open; no terminal profiles were modified. See the development/resource checkpoint on #10 for current top and remaining scope.
raiseCatError commentedon Oct 4, 2026
Implemented on the v0.16 branch (PR #303,
feature/v016-platform-portability-agents). Terminal.app baseline host profile (conservative color/ANSI fallbacks, profile fixtures):docs/architecture/terminal-app-baseline.md. It was part of the integrated build the maintainer physically validated in the earlier v0.16 QA pass; closing with the implementation.