Skip to content

In-app terminal not operable: cannot type in it, and Cmd+W closes the whole window instead of the terminal tab #21

Description

@Broccolito

Summary

The in-app terminal in the current version of the desktop app is effectively not operable. There are two problems, the second of which is dangerous:

1. Cannot type in the terminal

When the terminal is open, keyboard input does not reach it — the user cannot type anything into the terminal. This makes the feature non-functional in the first place.

2. Cmd+W closes the entire window instead of the focused terminal tab

With focus on the terminal:

  • Ctrl+T / Cmd+T correctly opens a new task — that part works.
  • Cmd+W, however, closes the entire app window instead of closing only the focused terminal tab/pane.

Expected behavior: when the terminal has focus, Cmd+W should close just the current terminal tab (like every terminal emulator and browser does), not tear down the whole window. Losing the entire session to a muscle-memory Cmd+W is a serious usability hazard.

Environment

  • BioRouter desktop app, v1.88.3 (also observed on the current release line)
  • macOS (Cmd+T / Cmd+W); the Ctrl+ variants apply on Windows/Linux

Likely relevant code

  • ui/desktop/src/components/InAppTerminalDock.tsx — terminal dock, pane/tab management (closePane)
  • ui/desktop/src/utils/terminalFocus.ts — terminal focus tracking
  • ui/desktop/src/contexts/TerminalDockContext.tsx
  • ui/desktop/src/main.ts — global Cmd+W / close-window IPC handling (around the "tabless route still closes on Cmd+W" comment); it does not appear to check whether the terminal has focus or whether a terminal tab could be closed instead

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    bugSomething isn't working

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions