| name | platform-compatibility |
| description | This skill should be used when the user asks about terminal emulator compatibility, operating-system differences, tmux/screen/Zellij, SSH/remote terminals, Windows ConPTY/classic console/Windows Terminal, Unix PTYs, macOS Terminal/iTerm2, Kitty/Alacritty/WezTerm/foot/GNOME Terminal/Konsole, terminal feature matrices, escape-sequence passthrough, latency, resize propagation, or graceful degradation. PROACTIVELY activate for: compatibility audits, emulator bugs, remote TUI performance, multiplexer passthrough. Provides: support matrices, platform caveats, and fallback rules.
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Platform, Emulator, Multiplexer, and Remote Compatibility
Use this skill when a TUI must behave across operating systems, terminal emulators, multiplexers, SSH sessions, containers, CI, or embedded pseudo-terminal hosts.
Compatibility mindset
Terminal capability is a chain: application library, OS console or PTY, shell, multiplexer, SSH transport, terminal emulator, font, theme, and user settings. A feature is reliable only if each link preserves it. Treat every advanced protocol as optional unless the app owns the whole environment.
Support matrix to define
For production TUIs, document and test:
- OS: Linux, macOS, Windows Terminal, classic conhost if supported, WSL, containers.
- Terminal emulators: Terminal.app, iTerm2, Kitty, Alacritty, WezTerm, foot, GNOME Terminal/VTE, Konsole, Windows Terminal.
- Multiplexers: tmux, GNU screen, Zellij.
- Remote: SSH, mosh-like links, serial/slow links, jump hosts, agent forwarding policy.
- Shell and locale: UTF-8 locale, code page on Windows,
TERM and terminfo availability.
- Constraints: minimum size, color level, Unicode/ASCII mode, mouse/paste support.
Platform rules
- On Windows, distinguish Windows Terminal/ConPTY from legacy console hosts. Enable virtual terminal processing when using low-level console APIs, prefer UTF-8, and test child-process hosting through ConPTY when relevant.
- On Unix-like systems, handle PTY semantics,
SIGWINCH, termios raw/cbreak restoration, process signals, and locale-dependent encoding.
- On macOS, Terminal.app and iTerm2 differ in proprietary protocols, option-key behavior, clipboard/image features, and default color/theme settings.
Multiplexer rules
- tmux/screen/Zellij can rewrite
TERM, filter OSC/DCS, transform mouse events, mediate alternate screen, and require passthrough wrappers for clipboard, images, truecolor, or keyboard protocols.
- Always test inside and outside the multiplexer versions you claim.
- Prefer text fallbacks over hard dependencies on OSC 52, OSC 8, Kitty graphics, iTerm2 images, focus events, or extended keyboard protocols.
Remote rules
- Minimize write volume and cursor churn over SSH.
- Coalesce resize storms and high-frequency metrics.
- Do not assume clipboard, local file paths, image protocols, or agent forwarding are present or allowed.
- Provide low-bandwidth, no-mouse, no-animation, plain, and batch modes.
Reference files
references/emulator-platform-matrix.md - OS, emulator, PTY, and feature compatibility guidance.references/multiplexer-remote.md - tmux/screen/Zellij, SSH, latency, passthrough, and resize practices.
