name: terminal-opener
description: Open an executable and its argument array in a visible terminal window through a reusable, shell-free launch plan with dry-run, JSON, capability detection, detached fallback, and standalone recovery modes. Use when Codex needs to open an interactive CLI, SSH session, local development process, sandbox, or other argv-based command in a new host terminal; diagnose whether a supported terminal is available; or provide an actionable plan when the requested terminal is unsupported.

Terminal Opener

Use scripts/open-terminal.js to preserve an executable and every argument as

separate process entries. Never interpolate a shell command string. Keep every

spawn on shell: false. Default to a non-launching plan. Use --launch only

after the user explicitly requests a real window and the argv has been reviewed.

The launched process inherits the full environment of the calling process,

including secret-bearing variables. The launcher does not filter the

environment. Run it from a shell whose environment is safe to expose to the

target command.

Launch a command

Pass launcher options before --, then pass exactly one executable followed by

its argument array:

node skills/terminal-opener/scripts/open-terminal.js \
  --launch \
  --cwd /absolute/host/path \
  -- ssh -t example.test command-with-arguments

Run normal mode first. Let WezTerm try its mux with a new window, then let the

launcher fall back to a detached wezterm start process if the mux is not

available. When fallback is used, read muxFailure from JSON output (or the

human-readable failure line) to diagnose why the mux path failed.

Recover from terminal configuration

Add --recover or --standalone when user configuration or mux state may

interfere with the requested command. Start a detached WezTerm process with:

--skip-config start --always-new-process

Expect recovery mode to skip all user terminal configuration intentionally.

Inspect before launch

Omit --launch (or add --dry-run) and add --json to inspect the exact

executable, argv, working directory, terminal adapter, primary launch, and

fallback without opening a window. Treat the JSON plan as the composition

boundary for callers.

Run --detect --json without a command to probe terminal availability. Follow

the returned action when the adapter is missing or unsupported. Use WezTerm

for the current adapter; treat other requested terminals as unsupported plans,

not as commands to execute.