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macOS: custom CLI environment / external engine (Ghostty)

From Pepp_pinoDone 2 weeks ago

On macOS, allow customizing the CLI environment AgentsRoom uses to launch agents, including an option to plug in an external terminal/runtime engine (example: Ghostty) instead of only the built-in one.

Today agents run in AgentsRoom's embedded terminal. There is no documented way to choose another macOS terminal engine or to inherit/configure that engine's CLI environment (PATH, shell, GPU/terminal features).

Desired:

  • A macOS setting to pick or point at an external CLI/terminal engine (Ghostty as a first example; other engines later).
  • Ability to edit the CLI environment used at launch (so tools installed for Ghostty/other shells are visible to agents).
  • Document what still stays inside AgentsRoom (session UI, MCP, composer) vs what the external engine provides.

This is a macOS-focused request; other OS can be follow-ups.

Problem to solve

On Mac, the CLI environment is fixed to AgentsRoom's built-in terminal; cannot switch to an external engine like Ghostty or reuse its environment.

Proposed behavior

macOS setting to customize the agent CLI environment and optionally use an external engine such as Ghostty.

Who benefits

macOS users who already run a dedicated terminal engine such as Ghostty and want agents to use that CLI environment.

Acceptance criteria

Agents can launch with a user-chosen macOS CLI/terminal environment (e.g. Ghostty) instead of only the built-in one.

Replies

The team2 weeks ago

Hi Giuseppe, thanks for the detailed request. Here is what is coming in an upcoming desktop release.

A new block in Settings > Terminal, "Shell and environment", decides what every terminal starts with, agents included. Three choices:

  • Default shell: your account's shell with its startup files, exactly as today.
  • Same as Ghostty: AgentsRoom reads your Ghostty configuration (~/.config/ghostty/config, then on macOS ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config, config-file includes followed). Agents start with the shell from Ghostty's "command" setting and get the variables of its "env" lines. The files are read again at every launch, so a change in Ghostty reaches the next agent without restarting AgentsRoom.
  • Custom shell: any zsh, bash or fish binary, for example /opt/homebrew/bin/fish (on Windows: Windows PowerShell or PowerShell 7).

Below it, "Extra PATH folders" adds folders in front of PATH. They are also used to detect installed CLIs, so a CLI living there is no longer reported as missing.

The block shows which shell terminals will start with. If a choice cannot be used (shell removed, Ghostty starting tmux instead of a shell), it says why and falls back to your default shell, so an agent never ends up without a terminal. Agents started from the phone use the same setting.

What stays in AgentsRoom and what comes from Ghostty: the terminal itself stays AgentsRoom's, which is what keeps agent statuses, the message box, the conversation view, the phone app, teams and MCP tools working. Ghostty provides the environment: the shell and its startup files, the env variables and PATH. Running agents inside a Ghostty window would cut AgentsRoom off from the terminal and break all of the above, so that part is not planned.

Two limits: only zsh, bash and fish are supported on macOS and Linux (AgentsRoom types commands into the shell and loads its launch script with "source"), and Ghostty is not available on Windows.

We will post here when it ships.

The team2 weeks ago

Thanks: your idea is implemented and ships in the next release. We built it the way we pictured it, so if the result is not what you had in mind, tell us and we will adjust it.

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