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l0ng-ai c0366cd143 fix(cli): name the limit of the empty-segment fix, and settle the captures the e2e compares (#841) 
CI found both new end-to-end cases red on Linux and macOS while green on
Windows. One was a bad assumption in the test; the other was the test
telling me the fix is narrower than the first commit claimed.

The real finding is the resize case. On Unix a resize raises SIGWINCH and
the shell repaints its prompt, so the segment the resize opens is *not*
empty — it holds the repaint. Dropping byte-less segments therefore
leaves the newest non-empty segment being a bare prompt, with the pane's
output still stranded in the segment sealed behind it: on CI the default
form came back as 174 bytes of prompt escapes and no marker. On Windows
nothing answers the resize, the segment stays empty, and the fix reaches
past it to the output — which is why the assertion passed there. It was
asserting an accident of the platform.

So the fix stands but is smaller than "a resize no longer costs you the
pane's output": it makes the zero-byte answer impossible, and that is
all. It cannot do more. Nothing in the byte stream distinguishes a prompt
repaint from output the pane meant, so no client-side rule can tell which
side of the boundary the answer is on. The boundary is the flaw — the
default form's unit is the last resize, an event in the window rather
than in the pane — and moving it means redefining what the default
returns (the last screenful of the ring, say), which would shrink what
every caller with a never-resized pane gets today. Left alone, and said
plainly instead: in `what_was_asked_for`'s doc comment, and in a warning
in the CLI reference telling anyone reading a pane under the GUI to ask
for `--scrollback`.

The test now asserts what the fix actually guarantees on every platform —
the default form answers with bytes rather than with the resize's
placeholder, and it is the end of what `--scrollback` returns, which is
what would catch a fix reaching for the wrong segment. The marker is
pinned against `--scrollback`, the form that promises to hold it.

The `--tail` failure was a race in the test, not in `--tail`: the whole
and the tail were separate calls and the pane advanced between them, so
the tail carried a prompt line the whole capture had not caught up to.
Both cases now read the whole answer on either side of the others and
require the two readings to match before comparing anything, which is
what makes the comparison a statement about the code rather than about
the moment. Both also read `--scrollback` now, so neither depends on
where a segment boundary happens to fall, and neither pins exact pane
content — the macOS runner prints a zsh banner into the pane.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UUyWQXzcBAoBzaSX8pc7nU
2026-09-10 12:05:51 +08:00

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This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters
This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.
---
title: "Command reference"
description: "Every verb, its flags, and the JSON it emits under --json."
---
## Global flags
Accepted anywhere on the line, before or after the subcommand.
| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
| `-m, --machine <MACHINE>` | Route to a linked machine over the local server's existing link. Matches the full link key (`me@devbox:22`) or the bare host (`devbox`). SSH links only; a down link, or a jump/proxy chain, is refused with a reason rather than dialled fresh. |
| `--json` | One JSON object on stdout instead of the human table. |
| `-q, --quiet` | No output on success. Errors still go to stderr. |
## Environment
Set inside every tty7 pane, inherited by anything launched from one.
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `TTY7_PANE` | This pane's id, e.g. `71` or `%71` (both accepted). Default target of `split`, `send`, `capture`, `procs`, `wait`, `pane close`. |
| `TTY7_WS` | This pane's workspace id. Default for `run --keep`, `tab new`, `tab ls`, `ws tree`. |
| `TTY7_CONFIG_DIR` | The server's config dir — how the CLI finds the right server. You never pass a socket path. |
Outside a tty7 shell, address-taking verbs fail with
`not inside a tty7 shell — pass an explicit %pane/@tab/workspace`.
## Exit codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `0` | Success |
| `1` | The command failed; one line on stderr, prefixed `tty7:` |
| `2` | Usage error — unknown verb, missing argument, bad type |
| `124` | `tty7 wait` timed out (the `timeout(1)` convention) |
| `141` | Unix only: the reader hung up — piping into `head -1`, say — and SIGPIPE ended it, exactly as it ends `cat`. Not a failure. Windows reports 0 for the same thing, having no signal to imitate. |
| *other* | Only from `tty7 run`, which passes the child's exit code through |
If `run` cannot learn the child's code it prints a note to stderr and exits 1
with `"exit_code_known": false` in the JSON — that is how you tell a real 1 from
a stand-in.
## Top-level verbs
### `tty7 [PATH]`
No subcommand means the GUI. A running window is asked to come forward and open
a tab at `PATH`; if none is registered, the app is launched instead.
JSON: `{"path","delivered","launched"}` — `delivered` says an existing window
took it, `launched` that a new process was started.
Without `PATH` it just activates the app. `-m` is refused: this verb drives the
GUI on *this* machine.
### `tty7 ls`
Same as `ws ls`. Table: `WORKSPACE NAME TABS PANES ATTACHED`.
JSON: `{"workspaces":[{"id","name","tabs","panes","attached"}]}`.
`ATTACHED` names the host holding the workspace — a GUI window, or another
client — and is `-` when nobody is.
### `tty7 run [--keep] [--cwd DIR] [--ws WORKSPACE] -- CMD...`
Spawns a pane running `CMD`, streams its output to stdout, waits, and exits with
its code. The command must come after `--`.
- `--keep` leaves the pane alive as a new tab afterwards. Needs a workspace, so
it requires `--ws` or `$TTY7_WS` — without one it is an error, not a silent
fallback.
- `--cwd` sets the working directory. `--ws` also sets the pane's `TTY7_WS`.
- Interrupting `run` can leave the pane behind as an orphan — see
`pane ls --all`.
JSON: `{"pane","exit","exit_code_known","kept"}`, printed **after** the streamed
output. The combined stream is not valid JSON — read the last line.
### `tty7 new [PATH] [--open]`
Creates a workspace plus its first tab and shell, at `PATH` if given. Prints the
workspace id. JSON: `{"id","pane","opened"}`.
`--open` also puts a window on it, if a GUI is running on this machine. Without
it the workspace still appears in the switcher; it just waits to be opened.
### `tty7 split [%PANE] (--v|--h) [--ratio R]`
Alias of `pane split`. Splits `%PANE` (default `$TTY7_PANE`), spawning a shell
in the same cwd. Exactly one axis is required — `--v`/`--vertical` puts the new
pane below, `--h`/`--horizontal` to the right. `--ratio` (default `0.5`) is the
share kept by the *existing* pane, clamped to `0.05`–`0.95` — a `--ratio 70`
silently becomes `0.95`, not an error. Prints `%NN`. JSON: `{"pane"}`.
### `tty7 send [%PANE] [TEXT] [--enter] [--key KEY]…`
Types `TEXT` into the pane as keystrokes; `--enter` is shorthand for `--key
enter` — it appends CR to the text, or presses Enter on its own when there is
none, so `tty7 send %42 --enter` runs whatever pane 42 already has typed. With
one argument the text is the argument and the pane comes from `$TTY7_PANE` —
but a lone `%42` (or bare `42`, the shape `pane ls --json` prints) is rejected
as a missing-text error rather than typed, unless a `--key` gives it something
to do. `--enter` is that key only for the `%`-marked spelling: `tty7 send 83
--enter` is refused, because it reads as much like typing `83` into your own
pane as like pressing Enter in pane 83, and the error names both ways to say
which (`send %83 --enter`, `send %PANE 83 --enter`). A `%` followed by a digit
that still doesn't parse (`%3x`) is an address error, never text for your own
pane — while text that merely starts with `%` (`%s/foo/bar/`, `%!sort`) types
as given, as does anything unmarked that is not a plain number (`3x`, `+5`). To
type an address-shaped string, name the pane as well: `tty7 send %42 %3x`.
`--key` presses a key instead of typing characters, which is what a pane wants
once something is already running in it: answering a prompt that only takes
arrow keys, closing a TUI with `escape`, stopping a build with `C-c`. Repeat it
for a sequence, and it composes with `TEXT` — the text goes first.
| | |
|---|---|
| Named | `enter` `escape` `tab` `backtab` `space` `backspace` `delete` `up` `down` `right` `left` `home` `end` `pageup` `pagedown` |
| Chords | `C-<char>` (Ctrl, e.g. `C-c`), `M-<char>` (Alt) |
| Aliases | `return` `cr` `esc` `del` `bs` `shift-tab` `pgup` `pgdn` `pgdown` |
Names are case-insensitive, and an unknown one is a usage error (exit `2`)
raised before anything is sent — half a key sequence in a live pane is worse
than none. One case exception: Alt is a prefixed ESC, so its character goes
out exactly as written and `M-X` is not `M-x` (Ctrl is unaffected — `C-c`
and `C-C` are the same byte). Each keystroke is delivered as its own event,
200 ms apart, so a
raw-mode TUI reads a sequence as a sequence rather than as a paste.
JSON: `{"pane","sent","enter","keys"}`.
### `tty7 capture [%PANE] [--plain] [--scrollback] [--tail N]`
The pane's replay. Three independent choices:
**How much** — the newest scrollback segment by default, the whole ring with
`--scrollback`. The ring splits into segments on resize, so for a pane that was
never resized the two are identical.
<Warning>
The default form is bounded by the pane's last **resize**, which is an event in
the window rather than in the pane's output. A resize seals the segment holding
everything printed so far and opens a new one, and on Unix the shell answers
the SIGWINCH by repainting its prompt — so straight after a resize the newest
segment can hold that repaint and nothing else, while the command's output sits
in the segment behind it. Nothing in the byte stream tells a repaint apart from
real output, so `capture` cannot decide this for you. When you are reading a
pane whose window may have changed size — anything under the GUI — ask for
`--scrollback`, and reach for `--tail N` if you wanted the tail rather than the
ring.
</Warning>
**In what form** — without `--plain`, the stored bytes with ANSI escapes intact,
decoded as UTF-8 (invalid bytes become U+FFFD). With `--plain`, those bytes
replayed through a terminal grid and printed as the text they produced.
**How many lines** — all of them by default, the last `N` with `--tail N`, which
answers "how did the last command end?" without a pipe through `tail(1)` (a
program Windows does not have). The trim happens last, after `--plain` has
decided what a line is: a wrapped line is one line to the grid, so `--plain
--tail 1` gives you the whole of the last line and not its final row. `N` must
be at least 1 — a tail of nothing would read as a blank pane. The daemon still
replays the ring in full; the saving is the pipe, not the wire.
Either way it is a snapshot, not a stream: it collects the replay, settles for
~300 ms, and returns. Call it again for a newer one.
JSON: `{"pane","text","bytes"}` — `text` is what was printed, `--tail` included;
`bytes` is how much the replay carried, counted before `--plain` rendered it or
`--tail` trimmed it. It is what tells an empty `text` apart: `0` is a
pane that has printed nothing, and a non-zero count with no text is a screen
whose bytes produced nothing visible (a pane that was cleared, say). The same
case also prints one line on stderr, so a script that never reads the JSON still
sees it.
### `tty7 procs [%PANE]`
The process tree inside the pane, indented by depth, `*` on the foreground
process — then a second table of ports those processes are listening on. Prints
`nothing running in this pane` when both are empty.
JSON: `{"procs":[{"pid","name","depth","foreground"}],"ports":[{"port","pid","name","addr"}]}` —
`addr` is the address the socket is bound to (`*`, `0.0.0.0`, `127.0.0.1`,
`[::1]`, or a specific interface).
### `tty7 agents`
Every pane running a recognised coding agent. Table:
`PANE AGENT STATUS MESSAGE`, status one of `idle` / `working` / `waiting` /
`done`. JSON: `{"agents":[...]}`, plus a `"diagnostics"` array when an agent's
status hook is missing or out of date — that is why an agent can be listed with
a status that never moves.
### `tty7 wait [%PANE] [--until STATE,…] [--changed] [--timeout SECS] [--interval MS]`
Blocks until the pane reaches one of the named states.
| Flag | Default | |
|---|---|---|
| `--until` | `waiting,done,exit` | See the state table below |
| `--changed` | off | Only wake on a state the pane moved into *after* the wait began |
| `--timeout` | none | Give up after N seconds, exiting `124` |
| `--interval` | `500` | Poll interval in ms (50–3,600,000) |
The states come from two places. Four are the agent's own status, as reported
by its [hooks](/agents/status); the last three are facts about the pane:
| State | Means |
|---|---|
| `idle` `working` `waiting` `done` | The agent's status |
| `no-agent` | Nothing is reporting status here — a plain shell, or an agent whose hooks are not installed |
| `free` | The foreground command has exited; the pane is back to its bare shell |
| `exit` | The pane itself is gone. Ends every wait whether it was asked for or not |
`free` is how you wait for a **command** rather than an agent, and it is the
one state that costs a second request per poll — so it is only checked when you
name it, and only when none of the agent states you asked for already matched.
With `--changed` it means "something ran and then finished", which is what you
want directly after a `send`; a command quick enough to finish inside one
`--interval` is never seen running, and the timeout says so.
The reply carries the agent's message and native session id. The JSON's `stale`
flag says whether the answer might belong to the previous turn.
JSON: `{"pane","status","matched","stale","activity","message","session_id"}`.
A timeout exits `124` with the same object plus `"timed_out": true` —
`matched` is `false` there, and `stale` still says whether the pane moved
while you watched.
[Orchestration →](/agents/orchestration)
### `tty7 events`
Streams server events until interrupted, one per line — pane exits, agent status
changes, workspace preemption, layout deltas. `--json` makes it NDJSON. Blocks
forever; run it with a timeout or in the background.
### `tty7 status`
Same as `server status`: pid, uptime, pane count, dialect versions, build,
socket path. JSON is the `ServerStatus` object itself (`pid`, `uptime_secs`,
`panes`, `control_version`, `protocol_version`, `build`, `socket`).
### `tty7 doctor`
The install check: the three environment variables, whether the server answers,
whether its control and protocol versions match this binary, pid/uptime/panes,
how many machine links exist, and where each agent's
[status hooks](/agents/status) stand. Adds a note when you are not inside a
tty7 shell.
The hooks row is the one that explains a mystery: without them an agent reports
nothing, so `tty7 agents` shows it standing still and `tty7 wait` sits there
until it times out. Outdated hooks fail the same quiet way. Hooks are a local
install, so under `-m` the row reads `unknown`.
JSON: `{"context":{"config_dir","workspace","pane"},"server":{"reachable","dialect_ok","build","status","routes"},"hooks":{"installed","outdated","not_installed"}}`
— the context fields are booleans, not values, and each `hooks` field is a list
of agent slugs.
## `ws` — workspaces
Address a workspace by name, by full id, or by a unique id prefix (the 8-char
prefix `tty7 ls` prints). An ambiguous name or prefix is an error that lists the
candidates.
| Command | Effect | JSON |
|---|---|---|
| `ws ls` | Every workspace | `{"workspaces":[...]}` |
| `ws tree [WORKSPACE]` | One workspace as a tree: tabs, split axes and ratios, panes with cwds | The whole workspace object: `{"id","name","last_active","active_tab","tabs":[{"id","name","sidebar_group","root",…}]}` |
| `ws new [NAME]` | An empty workspace (no tab, no pane) | `{"id","name"}` |
| `ws rename WORKSPACE NAME` | Name or rename | `{"id","name"}` |
| `ws rm WORKSPACE` | Delete the workspace and hang up its panes | `{"removed"}` |
| `ws attach WORKSPACE` | Become its controlling client | `{"attached","took_over_from"}` |
| `ws detach WORKSPACE` | Let go without interrupting anything | `{"detached"}` |
<Warning>
`ws rm` hangs up the panes the workspace held. If the command reports that
some panes could not be hung up, they keep running as orphans with no
workspace — find them with `pane ls --all` and close them one by one.
</Warning>
Prefer `tty7 new <path>` over `ws new` when you want something usable: `ws new`
leaves an empty workspace you then have to populate, while `tty7 new --json`
hands back both ids at once.
The `root` node in `ws tree --json` is externally tagged, so a leaf is
`{"Leaf":{"pane":31}}` and a split is `{"Split":{"axis","ratio","a","b"}}` with
`a`/`b` nested the same way.
## `tab` — tabs
`@N` numbers tabs across the **whole machine** in tree order, densely from `@1`.
The numbering shifts whenever any workspace or tab is created or removed, so
resolve it immediately before use. A full tab UUID also works: `@<uuid>`.
| Command | Effect | JSON |
|---|---|---|
| `tab ls [WORKSPACE]` | Tabs of a workspace | `{"workspace","tabs":[{"ordinal","id","name","label","agent","group","panes":[…]}]}` |
| `tab new [WORKSPACE] [--cwd DIR]` | Add a tab with a fresh shell | `{"tab","pane"}` |
| `tab close @TAB` | Close the tab and every pane in it | `{"closed"}` |
| `tab rename @TAB NAME` | Name or rename | `{"tab","name"}` |
| `tab move @TAB INDEX` | Reposition within its workspace | `{"tab","to"}` |
`GROUP` is the heading the GUI's sidebar files the tab under, shown by its last
segment. Read-only from here: with the default repo grouping the GUI recomputes
it from the tab's working directory.
`label` falls back through the best evidence available — the name if someone set
one, else the agent running there, else the last segment of the cwd, else the
foreground process. `name` stays literal, so a script can tell a real name from
a stand-in.
## `pane` — panes
| Command | Effect | JSON |
|---|---|---|
| `pane ls [WORKSPACE]` | Panes with their workspace, tab, cwd, live flag | `{"panes":[…]}` |
| `pane ls --all` | The server's whole pane registry, including orphans | `{"panes":[…],"orphans":N}` |
| `pane split …` | Identical to top-level `split` | `{"pane"}` |
| `pane close [%PANE…]` | Close panes; their shells are hung up | `{"closed":[…]}` |
| `pane close --orphans` | Close every pane no workspace holds | `{"closed":[…]}` |
`--all` is the one that shows leaks. Each entry is
`{"pane","workspace","orphan","owner","title","cwd","live"}`: `owner` is the id
of the workspace that may attach to the pane (absent when none may), and
`orphan: true` means no workspace holds it. An interrupted `run` leaves orphans
here, as does a `ws rm` that reported panes it could not hang up.
`--orphans` is the reaper for exactly those. It closes what `pane ls --all`
lists as orphaned and nothing else — panes a workspace holds are untouched —
and reports an empty list rather than an error when there is nothing to clean
up, so a script does not have to guard it. A pane that cannot be closed does
not abandon the rest of the batch: the rest are still attempted, the complaint
goes to stderr, and the verb exits 1 with `{"closed":[…],"failed":[…]}` — the
list a retry needs.
<Warning>
`--orphans` closes every orphan on the machine, and an orphan can still be
doing real work — an interrupted `run` leaves the command running. Look at
`pane ls --all` first.
</Warning>
`title` is usually the running command — `claude`, `nvim`, `cargo` — which makes
`pane ls --all --json` a quick way to find "the pane running X".
## `machine` — remotes
`machine ls` lists the local machine plus every link the server holds:
`MACHINE KIND CONNECTED`. JSON: `{"machines":[{"key","kind","connected"}]}`.
## `server` — the daemon
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| `server status` | Same as `tty7 status` |
| `server logs` | Tail the server log; prints the path, and says so when logging was never enabled (`TTY7_LOG=info` before the server starts) |
| `server start` | Bring up a server on this machine |
| `server stop` | Stop it — **every pane on the machine dies** |
| `server restart` | Stop, then start — same consequence |
<Warning>
Do not run `start`, `stop`, or `restart` on someone else's behalf. They change
or destroy what the user's GUI is attached to.
</Warning>
## Not implemented yet
These parse and then exit 1 with an explanation:
- `ws stop` — the control dialect has no workspace-stop request yet
- `machine connect` / `machine disconnect` — use the GUI's connection manager
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