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TUI open-terminal hard-codes Herdr and ignores a live cmux

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
52/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
typescript
Domain
cli

Research direction

Start in TerminalService, where DEFAULT_PROVIDER = "herdr" resolves omitted providers, then check the TUI DaemonClient.openTerminal() call to /api/terminal/open, which sends no provider. Reproduce with rig terminal status --json on a host without a live Herdr. Done when the TUI open-terminal action opens the view through a live cmux when Herdr is unavailable, and the existing herdr_unavailable error with direct-attach guidance still appears when neither provider is live.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

🐞 Bug Report: TUI open-terminal hard-codes Herdr and ignores a live cmux

Where: rig tui → a rig's term ▸ / open-terminal action; terminal-provider selection in TerminalService

Reproduce steps

  1. Use a host where Herdr is not installed or its control socket is unavailable, while cmux is installed and live.

  2. Confirm provider state:

    rig terminal status --json

    On the affected host this reports Herdr available:false / alive:false and cmux available:true / alive:true.

  3. Open rig tui, select a running rig, and activate its term ▸ rig <name> link (the open-terminal action).

  4. Observe the TUI error notice.

The equivalent provider-less CLI reproduction is:

rig terminal open financial-management-team --json

It exits 1 with:

{
  "provider": "herdr",
  "ok": false,
  "opened": [],
  "error": "herdr control socket is not answering ping; is herdr running?",
  "code": "herdr_unavailable"
}
Current result (before fix)

The TUI's open-terminal path is unusable when Herdr is unavailable, even when cmux is live and can open the same view.

The installed 0.6.6 code path explains the behavior:

  • TUI DaemonClient.openTerminal() posts /api/terminal/open with { view, expectedPlan? } and no provider.
  • TerminalService declares DEFAULT_PROVIDER = "herdr" and resolves omitted providers as Herdr.
  • It returns herdr_unavailable; no cmux fallback is attempted.
  • rig config --help exposes terminal.status_bar but no terminal-provider default key.

The documented setup journey says to use installed Herdr, else cmux, else direct attach commands, but the TUI action cannot express --provider cmux and does not follow that fallback order.

Workaround:

rig terminal open financial-management-team --provider cmux

That command succeeds on this host and opens all four seats.

Expected result (after fix)

Activating open-terminal in the TUI should open the selected view in an available terminal provider. When no provider is explicitly selected, OpenRig should prefer a live Herdr and otherwise fall back to a live cmux. A configurable default provider would also be acceptable if the TUI honors it and unavailable-provider behavior remains clear.

If neither provider is available, retain the current honest failure and exact direct-attach guidance.

Environment
  • OpenRig: 0.6.6 (2620dea8)
  • OS: macOS / Darwin 25.6.0, arm64
  • Node: v24.13.0
  • tmux: 3.7c
  • Claude Code: 2.1.295
  • Herdr: not installed / control socket unavailable
  • cmux: installed at /opt/homebrew/bin/cmux; shell and daemon control checks pass
  • rig doctor --json: healthy; cmux_shell and cmux_daemon pass
Documentation consulted
  • Installed rig context get help for OpenRig 0.6.6
  • Getting-started terminal guidance describing Herdr → cmux → direct-attach fallback
Dominant language
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