Terminal¶

The Terminal class creates an interactive shell; it manages the readline loop, command dispatch, lifecycle hooks, and history persistence.

Options¶

Option	Default	Description
`prompt`	`"> "`	Prompt string
`stdin`	`process.stdin`	Input stream
`stdout`	`process.stdout`	Output stream
`historySize`	`100`	Readline history size
`historyPath`	`none`	Path for persisting command history (JSON array)
`shortcutPath`	`./shortcuts.json`	Path for persisting command shortcuts (JSON object)
`dropInflightKeystrokes`	`false`	When `true`, suppresses echo and discards input that arrives while a command is executing (TTY only). When `false` (default), input is queued and processed after the command finishes.
`silentSigint`	`false`	When `true`, suppresses the `^C` echo normally written to stdout on Ctrl+C. The current input line is still cleared and the prompt is re-displayed.

Lifecycle¶

start() initializes the readline interface, fires onStart hooks, and begins accepting input. On TTY, a byte-level Transform filter is installed between stdin and readline to remap Ctrl+Backspace to Ctrl+W for word deletion. stop() terminates the loop, unpipes and destroys the input filter, runs beforeExit / onStop hooks, and cleans up. setPrompt() changes the prompt string at runtime.

Pressing Ctrl+C at the command prompt clears the current input line and re-prompts. When silentSigint is true, the ^C indicator is suppressed. During an interactive argument prompt (e.g., args.require()), Ctrl+C cancels the command silently.

Concurrency¶

Commands never execute concurrently. How mid-execution input is handled depends on dropInflightKeystrokes:

Default (false): input is queued by an internal mutex and processed in order after the current command finishes. Prompts never appear mid-output.
When true (TTY only): the input manager switches to drop mode during command execution, so keystrokes are neither echoed nor queued. When the command finishes, the previous input mode is restored. See Architecture - Input management for details.