Persist terminal sessions across quit with zmx#103
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Download the prebuilt arm64 zmx binary from the thdxg/zmx release in setup.sh (alongside GhosttyKit) and embed it into the app bundle via a post-compile build phase. zmx is never compiled locally — zig 0.15.2 cannot link against the macOS 26+/Xcode 26.4 SDK — so it is a presence- checked download, mirroring GhosttyKit.
A cache-free wrapper around the bundled zmx binary: session-id scheme, socket-path budget probe, the zmx ls parser, launch resolution (argv command-wrapper for interactive surfaces), and pure orphan-selection logic. Every subprocess call is bounded by a 5s timeout + zombie-reap so a stuck daemon can never hang the close/quit path.
Wrap each surface's shell in zmx via ghostty's command-wrapper, keyed by a stable per-pane sessionID persisted in the workspace snapshot (with the live cwd). On relaunch the restored pane reattaches its still-running daemon instead of spawning fresh; reopen is silent and the restored session always wins (a committed layout only seeds a genuine first open). Permanent closes (pane/tab/project close, layout-dropped panes) kill the session; transient teardown only detaches. A launch-time reaper sweeps orphaned macterm-* sessions left by a crash or force-quit, sparing co-resident sessions from other apps. Quitting detaches by default; a Settings toggle (off by default) opts into killing sessions on quit.
Add the Session Persistence architecture section and drop the stale "No process persistence" known-limitation.
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- Pull the universal (arm64+x86_64) zmx so the wrapper execs on Intel too, not just Apple Silicon (the app ships universal). - Make terminate-on-quit actually kill: applicationWillTerminate now tears down sessions synchronously (ZmxClient.killSessionsBlocking) — detached Tasks never ran before the process exited, so the setting was a no-op. - Drop the dead ZmxAttach declared-command branch (resolveLaunch was always called with command:nil) → a focused ZmxAttach.wrapperArgv. - Add an injectable ZmxClient on AppState so the launch reaper is testable; cover the reapOrphans driver. - Tidy: correct .gitignore + AGENTS.md notes, public log interpolation, exclude Resources/zmx from the source glob.
It is the headline feature now — shells survive quit and reattach, not just layout restore. Sharpen the feature blurbs, meta description, and hero lede accordingly.
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| Status | Name | Latest Commit | Preview URL | Updated (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✅ Deployment successful! View logs |
macterm | f55cf4c | Commit Preview URL Branch Preview URL |
Jun 22 2026, 09:37 AM |
A wrapped pane's shell runs under the zmx daemon, a process tree detached from the zmx-attach client libghostty reports as the foreground pid — so ProcessInspector saw "zmx" for every pane, naming all tabs zmx and capturing junk run: values into saved layouts (which then made the reconciler destroy compliant panes). Resolve the real foreground per session: a once-per-poll zmx ls maps sessionID → daemon session-leader pid (cached; daemon pids are stable), and ProcessInspector reads that leader pty's foreground process group (tcgetpgrp) — the editor the user sees, not a deeper language-server leaf. Falls back to libghostty's pid when zmx is bypassed.
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What
Terminal sessions now survive app quit and reattach on relaunch, backed by zmx — a Zig session multiplexer that passes raw PTY bytes through (no tmux-style screen re-parse, so latency is one extra unix-socket hop). Closing the app used to kill every shell; now they keep running and come back with their buffer and process intact.
How
zmx attach macterm-<sessionID>, injected via ghostty's newcommand-wrapperconfig. The wrapper argv is prepended to the fully resolved shell command (afterlogin(1)+ shell integration), so OSC 7 cwd / OSC 133 framing — and thus live tab titles and cwd-on-split — stay intact. (Thecommand-wrapperpatch is carried by thethdxg/ghosttyfork as a single rebased commit;thdxg/zmxbuilds the prebuilt binary the same way.)Pane.sessionID(distinct from the restore-regeneratedPane.id) is persisted inPaneSnapshotalong with the live cwd. On relaunch the restored pane reattaches its daemon instead of spawning fresh..macterm/layout.yamlonly seeds a genuine first open (no snapshot), never overwrites a reattached session.macterm-*orphans left by a crash/force-quit, sparing co-resident sessions from other apps.setup.sh(like GhosttyKit), embedded via a post-compile phase. Never compiled locally (zig 0.15.2 can't link the macOS 26+/Xcode 26.4 SDK).Testing
ZmxClientTests— parser/budget/launch/reaper;WorkspaceSerializerTests— sessionID/cwd round-trip + back-compat;AppStateTests— reopen-restores-silently + first-open-auto-applies). Lint + format clean.zmx lsshows onemacterm-*session per pane with shell integration intact; reattach across quit; layout remembered; co-residentsupa-*sessions untouched.Note for reviewers
Depends on the
command-wrapperfield now in thethdxg/ghostty--latestGhosttyKit, whichsetup.shalready pulls — no manual steps.🤖 Generated with Claude Code