Frontmatter
{
"name": "terminal-control",
"description": "Control and test terminal applications with the termctrl CLI by reading visible screen state, driving named live sessions, sending typed keyboard input, waiting for text, collecting explicit evidence, recording timelines, marking important moments, and exporting edited videos. Use when an agent must operate or verify a TUI, REPL, interactive CLI, shell process, OpenTUI application, or other terminal-backed workflow."
}
Terminal Control
Use termctrl to observe the actual visible terminal state and drive interaction deterministically.
Start With The Smallest Workflow
Read a disposable terminal application's settled visible screen when no further interaction is required:
termctrl show -- my-terminal-app
Keep an application alive when interaction or repeated inspection is required:
termctrl start app -- my-terminal-app
termctrl wait app "Ready" --timeout 5000
termctrl show app
termctrl send app text:help enter
termctrl wait app "Commands" --timeout 5000
termctrl show app
termctrl stop app
Always stop named sessions after use unless the user explicitly wants the live process retained.
Choose The Correct Observation
- Use
show for current visible screen text. Prefer it for reasoning about full-screen TUIs.
- Use
logs for readable retained output from normal-screen tools and log-like commands.
- Use
save --format ... --out ... only when a persisted artifact is required.
- Use
video only after explicitly recording a timeline with --record.
Do not treat logs as the visible state of an alternate-screen TUI.
Drive Input Precisely
Send plain text with text:<value> and named keys as separate input atoms:
termctrl send app text:/connect enter
termctrl send app down enter
termctrl send app ctrl-c
printf '%s' 'multiline prompt' | termctrl send app --stdin
Use wait after sending input instead of sleeping or assuming that the interface has updated.
Operate OpenTUI Applications
Use the OpenTUI host handshake for applications such as OpenCode:
termctrl start app --host opentui --cols 112 --rows 34 -- opencode
termctrl wait app "/connect" --timeout 5000
termctrl show app
Use resize when the application requires more visible area. Use restart app to reuse stored launch settings after a deliberate application restart.
Retain Evidence Deliberately
Save only requested formats:
termctrl save app --format txt --format png --out artifacts/current
Record demos only when the user wants a retained timeline or video. Add markers while the session is running, inspect them after stopping, then export with an explicit edit plan:
termctrl start app --record artifacts/run.termctrl -- my-terminal-app
termctrl wait app "Ready" --timeout 5000
termctrl mark app ready
termctrl send app text:demo enter
termctrl wait app "Done" --timeout 60000
termctrl mark app done
termctrl stop app
termctrl markers artifacts/run.termctrl
termctrl show --recording artifacts/run.termctrl --at-marker done
termctrl video artifacts/run.termctrl --edit artifacts/run-edit.json --footer --out artifacts/run.mp4
Use edit-plan speed values conservatively when terminal text should remain readable. Use hold_ms or --tail-ms when the final frame is the payoff. Pass --footer when a polished demo should show the clip caption, elapsed timecode, and TERMINAL CONTROL branding in a bottom footer; omit it for ordinary videos.
Treat .termctrl recordings, ANSI transcripts, screen artifacts, command arguments, and terminal input as potentially sensitive. Do not retain them unless needed, and do not expose their contents unnecessarily.
Recover From Problems
- Run
termctrl status app to inspect state and launch settings.
- Run
termctrl list to discover retained named sessions.
- If a session socket path is too long, set
TERMCTRL_RUNTIME_DIR to a short private directory under /tmp before starting sessions.
- If
termctrl is unavailable, install Terminal Control with cargo install terminal-control or ask the user which installed binary to use.
