I was experimenting with JSON fragment files for creating profiles automatically, and I noticed that my new profiles weren't appearing in Terminal.

After some investigation, it turned out that Terminal will only read files formatted with UTF8, not UTF16LE (which PowerShell uses by default).

So if you are generating fragments via PowerShell, you must use -Encoding Utf8:

# BAD: Uses UTF16LE
Write-Output $fragmentJson > $fragmentPath

# GOOD: Uses UTF8, so Terminal will read this
Write-Output $fragmentJson | Out-File $fragmentPath -Encoding Utf8

If this is by design, we should document this requirement. Thanks!

Document Details

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• ID: e7dd918e-788a-e3f5-379f-240d72b1e6ea
• Version Independent ID: 341f8755-2701-601f-5b91-98527354b3e8
• Content: Windows Terminal JSON Fragment Extensions
• Content Source: TerminalDocs/json-fragment-extensions.md
• Product: dev-environment
• Technology: windows-terminal
• GitHub Login: @cinnamon-msft
• Microsoft Alias: cinnamon