The `tty7` CLI was built by every release run and thrown away: all four
bundle scripts copied only `tty7-app`, and the upload glob covers `dist/`,
which the CLI never reached. Nothing put it on PATH either, so the
agent-facing half of the product was unreachable from a shipped install.
Bundle it on all four platforms, and have the GUI link it up itself rather
than hiding the step behind a menu item most people never find.
The install has two halves. The environment half prepends the CLI's
directory to this process's PATH before the daemon is spawned, so every
pane inherits it — that alone makes `tty7` work where agents actually run,
writes nothing to disk, and behaves the same everywhere. The on-disk half
symlinks into a directory already on PATH (Unix) or appends to
HKCU\Environment (Windows), and is allowed to fail.
Candidate directories are a fixed list intersected with PATH, not the first
writable entry on it: pyenv/rbenv/asdf/mise shim directories sit at the
front of PATH on many machines and are writable, and anything dropped there
is deleted on the next rehash — silently, days later.
Debug builds get the environment half only. `target/debug` holds a `tty7`
too, so otherwise a `cargo run` would repoint the developer's real `tty7`
at a debug binary, and each isolated dev-verify instance would rewrite the
PATH of the machine it is meant to stay away from.
The package name and every display name ("tty7" in menus, tray, .desktop
Name, CFBundleName, installer AppName, shortcuts) stay as they were; only
the executable file is now tty7-app / tty7-app.exe, per docs/cli-design.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014JPaaZVK7rfQPKyrymzsYv
Split the framework-free half of tty7 into `tty7-core` and add a headless
`tty7-server` built on it, so a workspace's filesystem, git and session state
can live on another machine while the GUI stays where it is.
- `crates/tty7-core`: wire protocol, session daemon, PTY, native SSH engine and
the domain model, with no gpui dependency. Module paths are unchanged.
- `crates/tty7-server`: the same daemon with no GUI attached, linked fully
static against musl and pushed onto the remote box. One dependency, on
purpose — a second one the GUI also needs belongs in core.
- `Host` trait + `HostId`/`HostRegistry`: every fs/git/watch call a workspace
makes goes through the machine it belongs to. `LocalHost` answers on this
box, `RemoteHost` over a routed control connection.
- `ui::host_ops`: the GUI's single door to a `Host`. Host calls block, so all
of them run on the background executor with the result landed on the UI
thread; de-duplication, staleness and error reporting live here rather than
at each call site. Enforced by a CI grep.
- Connect flow: home page → pick a configured SSH host → the machine's own
workspace list → a window bound to one workspace on it. Workspace switcher
groups by machine, this computer included.
- CI: static musl builds of `tty7-server` for x86_64/aarch64 via
cargo-zigbuild, a host-boundary grep, and version stamping factored out of
the nightly workflow. Both new jobs are non-required so branch protection
does not wedge open PRs.
Design and the interface contract it was built to are in
`docs/2026-07-27-remote-workspace-{design,impl-contract}.md`.
tty7 is split into two Rust processes: a persistent daemon that owns the
shells and a GPU-rendered client that talks to it over a local socket.
Because the shells live in the daemon, quitting and reopening the app
leaves the session intact — detach and reattach, no tmux required.
- Persistent sessions — the daemon holds the PTYs and child processes, so
closing a window or swapping in a new build never takes a shell down.
- Performance — an 11 MB `cat` completes in 95 ms and DOOM-fire renders at
888 fps; the daemon drains the PTY at device speed off the render path.
- Shell-aware — new tabs and splits open in the current working directory;
zsh, bash, fish, and PowerShell are set up automatically.
- Enhanced prompt — inline completion, syntax highlighting, history, and
in-terminal search, with rich flag/subcommand signatures for common tools.
- Tabs, resizable splits, a command palette, click-to-open links, desktop
notifications, eight themes, and CJK/IME input.
Native builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Built on Zed's gpui and Alacritty's VT core.
l0ng-ai
thomasandClaude Fable 5