| name | terminal-opener |
| description | Open an executable and its argument array in a visible terminal window through a reusable, shell-free launch plan with dry-run, JSON, capability detection, detached fallback, and standalone recovery modes. Use when Codex needs to open an interactive CLI, SSH session, local development process, sandbox, or other argv-based command in a new host terminal; diagnose whether a supported terminal is available; or provide an actionable plan when the requested terminal is unsupported. |
Terminal Opener
Use scripts/open-terminal.js to preserve an executable and every argument as
separate process entries. Never interpolate a shell command string. Keep every
spawn on shell: false. Default to a non-launching plan. Use --launch only
after the user explicitly requests a real window and the argv has been reviewed.
The launched process inherits the full environment of the calling process,
including secret-bearing variables. The launcher does not filter the
environment. Run it from a shell whose environment is safe to expose to the
target command.
Launch a command
Pass launcher options before --, then pass exactly one executable followed by
its argument array:
node skills/terminal-opener/scripts/open-terminal.js \
--launch \
--cwd /absolute/host/path \
-- ssh -t example.test command-with-arguments
Run normal mode first. Let WezTerm try its mux with a new window, then let the
launcher fall back to a detached wezterm start process if the mux is not
available. When fallback is used, read muxFailure from JSON output (or the
human-readable failure line) to diagnose why the mux path failed.
Recover from terminal configuration
Add --recover or --standalone when user configuration or mux state may
interfere with the requested command. Start a detached WezTerm process with:
--skip-config start --always-new-process
Expect recovery mode to skip all user terminal configuration intentionally.
Inspect before launch
Omit --launch (or add --dry-run) and add --json to inspect the exact
executable, argv, working directory, terminal adapter, primary launch, and
fallback without opening a window. Treat the JSON plan as the composition
boundary for callers.
Run --detect --json without a command to probe terminal availability. Follow
the returned action when the adapter is missing or unsupported. Use WezTerm
for the current adapter; treat other requested terminals as unsupported plans,
not as commands to execute.
