Platform, Emulator, Multiplexer, and Remote Compatibility

Use this skill when a TUI must behave across operating systems, terminal emulators, multiplexers, SSH sessions, containers, CI, or embedded pseudo-terminal hosts.

Compatibility mindset

Terminal capability is a chain: application library, OS console or PTY, shell, multiplexer, SSH transport, terminal emulator, font, theme, and user settings. A feature is reliable only if each link preserves it. Treat every advanced protocol as optional unless the app owns the whole environment.

Support matrix to define

For production TUIs, document and test:

• OS: Linux, macOS, Windows Terminal, classic conhost if supported, WSL, containers.
• Terminal emulators: Terminal.app, iTerm2, Kitty, Alacritty, WezTerm, foot, GNOME Terminal/VTE, Konsole, Windows Terminal.
• Multiplexers: tmux, GNU screen, Zellij.
• Remote: SSH, mosh-like links, serial/slow links, jump hosts, agent forwarding policy.
• Shell and locale: UTF-8 locale, code page on Windows, TERM and terminfo availability.
• Constraints: minimum size, color level, Unicode/ASCII mode, mouse/paste support.