interactive-shell

Interactive Shell (Project-local Skill)

Last verified: 2026-04-03

Local note: this project vendors the extension under extensions/interactive-shell/. Treat it as a repo-local skill/extension, not a separately installed package.

What this skill is for

In this project, interactive_shell is mainly for:

• 개발 서버 실행 (pnpm dev, npm run dev, vite, next dev, etc.)
• TUI 보여주기 (lazygit, htop, DB shell, interactive CLI menus)
• REPL / 콘솔 / 로그 tail 보기
• 일반 bash로 돌리면 불편하거나 깨지는 인터랙티브 프로그램 실행

What this skill is NOT for

Do not frame interactive_shell as a subagent/delegation tool in this repo.

If the goal is:

• another coding agent doing a task,
• structured delegation,
• hidden/background AI worker execution,

use the subagent tool instead.

interactive_shell here is for terminal UX and process supervision, not subagent orchestration.

Preferred mode by use case

1) Interactive — for TUI / direct user interaction

Use when the user should directly see and possibly control the program.

Good for:

• lazygit
• htop
• python
• node
• psql
• sqlite3
• git rebase -i
• any curses/full-screen TUI

interactive_shell({ command: 'lazygit' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'psql -d mydb' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'python' })

This is the default mode.

---

2) Hands-Free — for dev servers you want to watch

Use when starting a long-running process and then checking its output later.

Good for:

• pnpm dev
• npm run dev
• vite
• next dev
• docker compose up
• tail -f ...

interactive_shell({
  command: 'pnpm dev',
  mode: 'hands-free',
  reason: 'Run local dev server'
})

Then later:

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef' })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', outputLines: 50 })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', kill: true })

Use this as the default for dev servers when you want the overlay visible and the process queryable.

---

3) Dispatch / background — only for process lifecycle, not delegation

This can still be useful for headless long-running processes, but do not describe it as subagent delegation.

Good for:

• starting a server without keeping the overlay open
• launching a log tail or watcher in background
• starting a process and getting notified when it exits

interactive_shell({
  command: 'pnpm dev',
  mode: 'dispatch',
  background: true,
  reason: 'Run local dev server headlessly'
})

Use this for process management, not “ask another agent to do work”.

Common workflows

A. Start a dev server and inspect logs

interactive_shell({
  command: 'pnpm dev',
  mode: 'hands-free',
  reason: 'Frontend dev server'
})

Check output later:

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef' })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', outputLines: 100, outputMaxChars: 30000 })

Stop it:

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', kill: true })

---

B. Open a TUI for the user to inspect

interactive_shell({ command: 'lazygit' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'htop' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'git rebase -i HEAD~3' })

Use interactive mode here so the user can watch and take over naturally.

---

C. Open a database shell / REPL

interactive_shell({ command: 'psql -d app' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'sqlite3 dev.db' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'node' })
interactive_shell({ command: 'python' })

Again, prefer interactive mode unless there is a strong reason to poll from the agent side.

---

D. Reattach to a backgrounded process

interactive_shell({ listBackground: true })
interactive_shell({ attach: 'calm-reef' })
interactive_shell({ dismissBackground: 'calm-reef' })

Querying output

Status queries return rendered terminal output (what is actually on screen), not raw PTY bytes.

Defaults:

• outputLines: 20
• outputMaxChars: 5KB

Useful patterns:

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef' })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', outputLines: 50 })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', outputLines: 100, outputMaxChars: 30000 })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', incremental: true, outputLines: 50 })

Use incremental: true when reading long scrollback progressively.

Sending input

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', input: '/help\n' })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', inputKeys: ['ctrl+c'] })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', inputPaste: 'line1\nline2\nline3' })
interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', input: 'y', inputKeys: ['enter'] })

Common named keys

• up, down, left, right
• enter
• escape
• tab, shift+tab
• backspace
• ctrl+c, ctrl+d, ctrl+z

Background session management

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', background: true })
interactive_shell({ listBackground: true })
interactive_shell({ attach: 'calm-reef' })
interactive_shell({ attach: 'calm-reef', mode: 'hands-free' })
interactive_shell({ attach: 'calm-reef', mode: 'dispatch' })
interactive_shell({ dismissBackground: true })
interactive_shell({ dismissBackground: 'calm-reef' })

Safe TUI capture

Never use plain bash for a truly interactive/TUI app when you actually need terminal behavior.

If you only need a quick capture from a TUI-ish command that does not exit cleanly, use interactive_shell with a timeout:

interactive_shell({
  command: 'pi --help',
  mode: 'hands-free',
  timeout: 5000
})

Good for:

• --help output from TUI apps
• commands that animate or do terminal detection
• short-lived inspection of otherwise interactive commands

Practical guidance for this repo

Prefer interactive_shell when:

• you need to show a terminal UI
• you need to start/monitor a dev server
• you need to interact with a REPL or shell
• you want attach/background/reattach behavior

Prefer bash when:

• command is simple and non-interactive
• you only need stdout/stderr once
• no overlay / no PTY semantics are needed

Prefer subagent when:

• the task is really delegation to another coding agent
• you want structured worker/reviewer flows
• you want hidden/background AI execution rather than terminal supervision

Recommended defaults

Dev server

interactive_shell({
  command: 'pnpm dev',
  mode: 'hands-free',
  reason: 'Run dev server'
})

TUI tool

interactive_shell({ command: 'lazygit' })

Background server

interactive_shell({
  command: 'pnpm dev',
  mode: 'dispatch',
  background: true,
  reason: 'Run dev server in background'
})

Stop a running session

interactive_shell({ sessionId: 'calm-reef', kill: true })