open-terminal host (greenfield)
Role
openshellorg/open-terminal is the greenfield D terminal host for OpenShellOrg. Layout modes are first-class:
| Mode | Summary |
|---|---|
Standalone |
Classic Terminal-like UI (tabs top or left); tabs + live surface may share one OS window. Natural for Start Menu / app drawer launch. |
Decoupled index |
Calling/index window holds tabs and/or thumbnail grid; live sessions in separate OS windows. Tabs not glued to PTY chrome. |
Project-grouped manager |
Dedicated manager UI; tabs grouped by DevCentr spawn-project; vertical tabs default. DevCentr keeps its project grid. See DevCentr terminal manager. |
Nested zones |
Optional contained tiling inside dedicated UI / per-monitor zone windows. Combinable with project-grouped manager. See Nested zones. |
Other |
Future compositions OK — do not over-specify in v0. |
Near-term env-refresh and first-class host-chrome negotiation remain on the Windows Terminal fork (openshellorg/terminal). Do not retire the fork until open-terminal reaches parity on those slices.
Product model (decoupled index)
+---------------------------+ +------------------+ | CALLING / INDEX WINDOW | | SESSION WINDOW B | | tabs and/or thumb grid | owns | PTY + vt cells | | (chrome / session index) | -------> | (live surface) | +---------------------------+ +------------------+
Detail (all layout modes + handshake): PRODUCT-MODEL.adoc.
Session re-association
Users may re-associate individual sessions or whole multi-tab UIs with another process via a handshake (tab array, titles, thumbnail permission / producer, optional shm thumb address).
v0: session processes stay separate (taskbar-visible); controller UIs are subscribers (multiple allowed). Exclusive manager role deferred.
Protocol sketch: Session association and thumbnails. Host stubs: openterminal.association (no IPC yet).
Window piping prior art
NOT FOUND in the hive (dlangui or otherwise). Search record: WINDOW-PIPING.adoc. The user clarification (layout modes + association) is the canonical seed.
Closest cousins (different products): Desktop-Tooling/activity-map-shell and AMDphreak/activity-map-dlangui (desktop activity map + thumbnails).
Stack wiring
| Library | Use |
|---|---|
|
ConPTY / POSIX PTY |
|
VT/ANSI to cell grid |
|
Windows, DPI ( |
|
Index / standalone chrome app-kit as it grows |
Consolas |
Curated cell font (typography) |
Readiness (2026-08-28)
Ready to spike a pane. Not prime-time to replace WT. See READINESS.adoc.
Layout mode demos
Catalog (lay blurbs + links): Layout demos.
Interactive suite:
shell-context-demo
(routes: /standalone, /decoupled, /manager, /zones, #/association).
