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retoorandClaude Sonnet 5 9dbd1fe667 Add plexer subsystem, container test infra, and last-resort opencode box backend

- Plexer: always-active terminal multiplexing. NativePlexerController/
  TmuxPlexerController share one interface, chosen by which env var is
  already set (TAI_PLEXER_SOCKET vs TMUX_PANE); NativePlexerBackend is
  the pty.fork()-based wrapper (raw mode, SIGWINCH resize forwarding,
  a Unix-socket control protocol, continuous session logging, a
  Ctrl+A prefix key distinct from tmux's own Ctrl+B). Auto-wraps new
  interactive shells via a .bashrc hook mirroring the existing
  command-not-found install pattern, gated on $TMUX/$TAI_PLEXER_ACTIVE/
  a $HOME/.tai-no-plexer bypass. New plexer_send/read/type/status
  tools, env-gated on a detected controller.
- tests/container.py + docker-compose.yml + tests/docker/Dockerfile:
  a disposable podman/docker image for the tests that must never touch
  a real machine (installing the plexer hook into a real ~/.bashrc, a
  live tmux session). Required suite (test_seal.py, test_tai.py,
  tests/plexer.py, tests/bashrc.py) gates the result; tests/rag.py
  runs as best-effort since its real-LLM dependency can't be satisfied
  inside a disposable container with no nested engine.
- tests/bashrc.py: real end-to-end hook install + bash -i auto-wrap,
  anti-recursion, tmux-active skip, non-interactive skip, a live
  TmuxPlexerController test, and an install/uninstall round-trip.
- tests/plexer.py: NativePlexerBackend under a real pty, plus a
  dedicated robustness pass (file permissions, >64KB payload framing,
  a malformed control request, a genuine self-deadlock fix in the
  write-to-child path).
- tai_test.py: the shared async process-driving framework (pipe/pty
  transport, group-wide kill-and-reap, a StdinBridge for --interactive)
  both test files build on.
- ChatClient last-resort backend: when there's no local opencode CLI
  but the sandbox box is already running, install opencode into it
  (official Node tarball, not apt -- apt's nodejs/npm pull in
  webpack/babel/jest as transitive deps) and route through it instead
  of giving up. Only reachable after the first retry round already
  failed everything else; never creates the box itself. TmuxPlexerController.status()
  fixed to use `list-panes` instead of `display-message -p`, which
  silently fell back to the default pane instead of erroring against
  a dead target.
- Fix 4 pre-existing test_tai.py bugs surfaced by running it in a
  clean environment for the first time: two stale mock signatures
  (subprocess.run's stdout= kwarg, Chat.complete's deadline= kwarg),
  one $TMUX-dependent catalog assertion, one tty-dependent color
  assertion.
- research/: a sourced research archive (Source Dossier/Citation
  Card/Conclusion tiers) backing the above design decisions, with its
  own audit.py consistency checker.
- .gitignore: fix a blanket *.md rule that was about to silently drop
  the entire research/ archive from version control; add __pycache__/
  and the one-off debug transcript this session started from.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-10-10 04:36:05 +02:00

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VS Code Copilot — Terminal Command Completion Not Reliably Detected (Discussion #161238)

Metadata

Field	Value
Institute	Molodetz Institute — Research & Retrieval Division
Subject	shell-multiplexer-auto-attach
Document type	Source Dossier
Tier	1
Source title	Copilot does not detect terminal command has completed or is not getting terminal output
Source URL	https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/161238
Source publisher / author	GitHub Community Discussions (Copilot)
Source type	forum thread
Source date (published)	Unknown — not stated
Date researched	2026-10-09
Researched by	tai (agent), model: Claude Sonnet 5, on behalf of retoor
Research method	web search synthesis
Confidence	Medium
Status	Active

Summary

Documents that VS Code's own terminal API does not provide a reliable signal for "has this shell command finished," forcing Copilot's agent integration to fall back on heuristics — direct evidence that even a tool built by the same vendor as the terminal itself struggles with reliable terminal-state detection.

Key findings

The unreliability isn't specific to third-party automation reading a terminal from outside; it's present even for first-party tooling with presumably the best possible access to the terminal's actual state.
This is framed as an ongoing, acknowledged gap, not a solved problem with a known fix.

Pros / strengths

Strong corroborating evidence (from a major, well-resourced vendor's own open issue tracker) that reliable terminal-state/command-completion detection is a genuinely hard, unsolved-in-general problem — not something this proposal is failing to find an obvious answer to because of insufficient research.

Cons / limitations / caveats

About command-completion detection specifically, a related but distinct problem from this subject's main question (human vs. automation at shell startup) — cited here as supporting evidence for "terminal state detection is hard in general," not as a direct answer to the startup-detection question.

Relevance to tai

Sets realistic expectations for the proposal: whatever detection heuristic ships, it should be designed to fail safe (default to NOT auto-wrapping when uncertain, with an easy manual opt-in) rather than promising perfect detection — because even well-resourced, first-party tooling hasn't solved the adjacent problem of terminal-state detection in general.

Changelog

Date	Change
2026-10-09	Initial dossier created.

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