term-cli

name	term-cli
description	Controls interactive terminal sessions for running long-lived processes, servers, REPLs, debuggers, and TUI programs without blocking. Use when you need to run dev servers (npm run dev), debuggers (pdb, gdb), REPLs (python, node), databases (psql, mysql), SSH sessions, or editors (vim, nano) — any interactive or blocking program.
allowed-tools	Bash(term-cli:*)

Terminal Session Control

You can now run any interactive application using term-cli — dev servers, debuggers, REPLs, databases, SSH sessions, editors, and TUIs — without blocking.

Debuggers encouraged: Prefer interactive debuggers (pdb, gdb) via term-cli whenever appropriate for the task. This complements (and is often superior to) print-based debugging: set breakpoints, step, inspect state, then capture to reason.

Think concurrently: term-cli runs long tasks in the background. Start tests/builds/servers in one session while you write docs or investigate code in parallel. Once all other tasks are done, check back with wait/capture. Tip: occasionally run date +"%H:%M:%S" in a session to see when things happened, estimate future execution and to calibrate your own loop speed.

Self-documenting: Run term-cli --help or term-cli <command> --help for complete usage details.

Quick Start

term-cli start --session dev && term-cli run --session dev "make test"
# ... do other work ...
term-cli wait --session dev && term-cli capture --session dev
term-cli kill --session dev

Commands

Session Management

term-cli start --session NAME --cwd /path
term-cli kill --session NAME
term-cli list
term-cli status --session NAME

Running Commands

term-cli run --session NAME "make test" --wait --timeout 60   # default: 10s

Sending Input

term-cli send-text --session NAME ":wq" --enter && term-cli wait --session NAME
term-cli send-key --session NAME C-c
term-cli send-stdin --session NAME < file.txt
term-cli send-mouse --session NAME --text "Item B"
term-cli send-mouse --session NAME --text "Item B" --scroll-down 3

Keys: C-c C-d C-z C-u C-l (ctrl), Enter Escape Tab Space BSpace, Up Down Left Right, Home End PPage NPage, F1-F12

send-mouse works only in alternate screen mode (active TUI). Prefer --text targets over coordinates when possible.

Capturing Output

# Visible screen only (default: physical rows, trimmed, no ANSI)
# Prefer this — it's almost always enough
term-cli capture --session NAME

# Last N physical rows from the bottom of the visible screen
term-cli capture --session NAME --tail 10

# Last N logical lines from scrollback+visible history (joins wrapped lines)
# Use only when you need output that scrolled off-screen
# In alternate screen (TUIs / nested tmux), this is blocked by default
term-cli capture --session NAME --scrollback 20

# Override alternate-screen protection (may return stale/misleading history)
term-cli capture --session NAME --scrollback 20 --force

# Include ANSI escape codes (colors) — works with any mode
term-cli capture --session NAME --scrollback 10 --raw

# Annotated capture — pane metadata + highlight annotations
# Shows screen mode, bell, cursor position, and highlighted TUI elements
# Use this when operating TUIs where you need to identify selected items
term-cli capture --session NAME --annotate

# Default capture auto-enables annotations for active alternate-screen TUIs.
# Force plain output when needed:
term-cli capture --session NAME --no-annotate

# Optional line numbers (1-based) for visible-screen captures (not scrollback)
term-cli capture --session NAME --annotate --line-numbers

When to use --annotate vs --raw vs plain capture:

• Plain capture — default for shells, REPLs, command output. Fast, clean text.
• --annotate — for TUIs (menus, file managers, settings panels) where you need to know what's happening. Returns visible content plus an Annotations: section with screen mode (normal/alternate), bell alerts, cursor position (Cursor: row,col, 1-based), optional mouse mode (Mouse: ... when enabled), and highlighted rows (1-based). Bell alerts are one-shot: shown once then cleared.
• Auto behavior — plain capture auto-enables annotations only when an active alternate-screen TUI is detected; idle shell prompts stay plain. Use --annotate / --no-annotate to override.
• --raw — when you need exact ANSI escape codes (e.g., parsing color semantics yourself). Higher token cost.

Waiting

Prefer wait — it detects shell prompts ($, %, #), REPL prompts (>>>, (Pdb), >), and is fastest.

term-cli wait --session NAME

Use wait-idle for TUIs (vim, htop, less) that don't have a detectable prompt — waits for screen to settle:

term-cli wait-idle --session NAME                                      # defaults: 2s idle, 10s timeout

Use wait-for sparingly — waits for pattern in screen output:

term-cli wait-for --session NAME "error" "success" --ignore-case --print-match
term-cli wait-for --session NAME "error" --print-match-context 3             # match + 3 lines above/below

⚠️ Warning: wait-for matches the entire screen including your echoed command:

# WRONG — pattern appears in echoed command, triggers immediately - WRONG
term-cli send-text --session NAME "./build.sh && echo DONE" --enter
term-cli wait-for --session NAME "DONE"
# ↑ Problem: The screen now shows "./build.sh && echo DONE" so "DONE" matches instantly

# RIGHT — wait for program output (not your own marker)
term-cli run --session NAME "npm run dev"
term-cli wait-for --session NAME "Listening on port"

# RIGHT — assemble pattern during print so it doesn't appear in command
term-cli send-text --session NAME "./build.sh && printf 'DON' && printf 'E\n'" --enter
term-cli wait-for --session NAME "DONE"

# BEST — use wait or run --wait when possible
term-cli run --session NAME "./build.sh" --wait

Human Assistance

When you need human help (passwords, CAPTCHAs, manual intervention):

term-cli request --session NAME --message "Please enter SSH password"
term-cli request-wait --session NAME                                   # default timeout: 300s (5 min)
term-cli request-status --session NAME
term-cli request-cancel --session NAME

How it works: Your human runs term-assist list to see pending requests, then term-assist attach --session NAME to join. A status bar shows your message. When finished, they press Ctrl+B Enter to complete — they can optionally type a response message for you. request-wait then returns and you continue.

If they detach with Ctrl+B d while a request is still pending, request-wait fails with exit code 4.

File Transfer (over SSH / any shell)

Transfer files in-band through the terminal session — works over SSH, in containers, or any shell. No scp/sftp needed.

# Upload a local file to the remote session
term-cli upload --session NAME local_file.txt remote_file.txt

# Download a remote file to local
term-cli download --session NAME remote_file.txt local_file.txt

# Overwrite existing files (both commands refuse by default)
term-cli upload --session NAME file.txt file.txt --force --timeout 30

# Pipe support: upload from stdin (REMOTE_PATH required)
cat config.json | term-cli upload --session NAME - /remote/config.json

# Pipe support: download to stdout (status message goes to stderr)
term-cli download --session NAME /remote/data.csv - | jq .

Key behaviors:

• Hash verification — SHA-256 integrity check
• Gzip compression — transfers are always gzip-compressed
• Pipe support — use -, status/verbose output goes to stderr
• Requires Python 3 on the remote — transfer deploys a Python helper; fails if python3 is not available
• Prompt required — session must be at a clean shell prompt; transfers fail (exit 2) if a command is running, a TUI is active, or there is partial input on the line
• Overwrite protection — refuses without --force
• Fast Uploads
• Optimized Downloads — starts with pipe-pane only in normal screen mode; in alternate screen mode (nested tmux/TUI), it goes directly to chunked mode for reliability.
• Default timeout: 120s — set with --timeout

Other Commands

term-cli resize --session NAME --cols 120 --rows 40
term-cli scroll --session NAME -50
term-cli pipe-log --session NAME /tmp/out.log
term-cli unpipe --session NAME

Example: Concurrency (Run long tasks while you work)

term-cli start --session tests && term-cli run --session tests 'date +"%H:%M:%S"; pytest -q'
# ... do other work in parallel ...
term-cli wait --session tests --timeout 1800; term-cli capture --session tests
term-cli kill --session tests

Example: Dev Server

term-cli start --session server && term-cli run --session server "npm run dev"
term-cli wait-idle --session server --timeout 15 && term-cli capture --session server
# ... later ...
term-cli send-key --session server C-c && term-cli wait --session server
term-cli kill --session server

Example: Python Debugger (pdb)

term-cli start --session debug && term-cli run --session debug "python3 -m pdb script.py" && term-cli wait --session debug
term-cli send-text -s debug "b 42" --enter && term-cli wait -s debug      # breakpoint
term-cli send-text -s debug "c" --enter && term-cli wait -s debug         # continue
term-cli send-text -s debug "p some_var" --enter && term-cli wait -s debug && term-cli capture -s debug --tail 5
term-cli send-text -s debug "q" --enter; term-cli wait -s debug           # quit (may need 'y' to confirm)
term-cli kill --session debug

Example: SSH with Password (Human Helps)

term-cli start --session remote && term-cli run --session remote "ssh user@host"
term-cli wait --session remote && term-cli capture --session remote
# If password prompt shown, request human help; if shell prompt, key auth succeeded
term-cli request --session remote --message "Please enter SSH password"
term-cli request-wait --session remote && term-cli capture --session remote

Example: File Transfer over SSH

# Assumes passwordless login
term-cli start --session remote && term-cli run --session remote "ssh user@host" --wait
# Upload a config file
term-cli upload --session remote ./nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# Download a log file
term-cli download --session remote /var/log/app.log ./app.log

Tips

• Defaults are sane. Plain capture (visible screen), wait (10s timeout), and start (80x24) work for most cases. Use --tail to focus on just the last few rows. Only add --timeout or --scrollback when the default isn't enough.
• Use long-form flags. --session, --timeout, --scrollback over -s, -t, -n. Short forms save almost no tokens and hurt readability.
• Chain commands: Fewer tool calls = less overhead, lower token usage, faster wall clock time. Use && for dependent operations (send-text --enter && wait), ; to always run the next command (wait --timeout 5; capture — see output even on timeout).
• Remember: you can run interactive apps through term-cli (debuggers, TUIs, SSH, installers).
• Lost context after memory compaction? Plain capture first (visible screen is usually enough). Use --scrollback 30 if relevant output scrolled off in normal screen mode. In alternate screen mode, prefer --tail/--annotate; use --force only when you explicitly accept potentially stale history.
• Prefer debuggers (pdb/gdb) via term-cli for bug analysis; step + inspect beats print-debugging for many issues.
• Think concurrently: start long tasks in one session and keep working; check progress with status, wait, and capture.
• Use --help on any command for details: term-cli run --help
• Default timeout is 10s for most wait commands — increase for builds, tests, or slow operations
• run --wait already waits for prompt — don't add another wait after it
• Capture before sending keys to verify screen state
• Unsure if a TUI is running? term-cli status --session NAME shows Screen: alternate when a full-screen app (vim, htop, less) is active. Use wait-idle for alternate screen, wait for normal.
• Navigating TUIs? Use capture --annotate to see screen mode, bell alerts, cursor position (Cursor: row,col, 1-based), and which items are highlighted. Plain capture loses all styling, and --raw costs many tokens.
• Default request-wait timeout is 5 minutes — usually no need to override
• Locked sessions (exit code 5): agent can only capture, status, wait-*, request*, list, scroll, pipe-log, unpipe. Commands run, send-*, resize, kill, upload, download are blocked

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Runtime error
2	Invalid input
3	Timeout
4	Human detached while request pending
5	Session locked (agent read-only)
127	tmux not found

Feedback

As an agent, you're well-positioned to spot improvements. Found a bug or have an idea? Email the maintainer: Elias Oenal [e-mail]