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fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav#13594

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Apr 21, 2026
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fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav#13594
OutThisLife merged 1 commit into
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bb/tui-readline-parity-linux

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@OutThisLife OutThisLife commented Apr 21, 2026 •
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From TUI blitz-test feedback: "Standard readline keys (Ctrl+A … Ctrl+K … Ctrl+W) seem not to work" / "Using ctrl-a to jump to start of line highlights all the text input" / "Some terminal navigation shortcuts that I expect don't work, such as Alt+B to navigate 'back a word'."

Summary

textInput treated the platform action-mod (Cmd on macOS, Ctrl on Linux) as the sole word-boundary modifier. On Linux that meant:

  • Ctrl+A selected all instead of jumping to line start, contrary to standard readline and the hotkey table already in ui-tui/README.md (which documents Ctrl+A = Start of line).
  • Alt+B / Alt+F / Alt+Backspace / Alt+Delete were dropped — key.meta was never consulted, even though the README already documents Meta+B / Meta+F as word nav.

Fix:

  • Gate select-all to macOS Cmd+A (isMac && mod && inp === 'a'), route Linux Ctrl+A through actionHome.
  • Broaden every word-boundary predicate (b/f/Backspace/Delete and modified arrow keys) from mod to wordMod = mod || k.meta so Alt chords work on Linux and Mac while existing Ctrl/Cmd chords keep working.

Test plan

  • npm run type-check clean
  • npm test — 152/152 pass
  • Manual (Linux): Ctrl+A = line start, Ctrl+E = line end, Ctrl+K/U/W delete as before
  • Manual (Linux): Alt+B / Alt+F move by word, Alt+Backspace / Alt+Delete kill word
  • Manual (Mac): Cmd+A still selects all, Option+B/F still word nav

@OutThisLife OutThisLife requested a review from Copilot April 21, 2026 16:02
Copilot AI reviewed Apr 21, 2026
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Pull request overview

Adjusts TextInput key handling to match standard readline expectations on Linux while preserving macOS behaviors.

Changes:

  • Routes Linux Ctrl+A to “start of line” instead of “select all”.
  • Enables word navigation/deletion via Meta (Alt/Option) by broadening word-modifier detection (wordMod).
  • Updates arrow-key word movement and delete-word behaviors to respect the new word-modifier.

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Comment thread ui-tui/src/components/textInput.tsx
@OutThisLife

OutThisLife commented Apr 21, 2026

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On the Copilot comment re: Option+A on macOS — that's a pre-existing ambiguity in isActionMod (Option and Cmd both surface as meta on legacy Mac terminals; kitty separates them via super). Before this PR, mod && inp === 'a' fired select-all for both anyway, so this PR doesn't regress anything. Proper fix would prefer k.super when present but fall back to meta for terminals that don't send super — out of scope here; leaving as a separate cleanup.

@OutThisLife OutThisLife force-pushed the bb/tui-readline-parity-linux branch from 65fb127 to 3db5677 Compare April 21, 2026 16:16
@OutThisLife OutThisLife requested a review from Copilot April 21, 2026 16:25
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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 23 out of 23 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

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@OutThisLife OutThisLife requested a review from Copilot April 21, 2026 17:07
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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 23 out of 23 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

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@OutThisLife
fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
d86c886 
textInput treated the platform action-mod (Cmd on macOS, Ctrl on Linux)
as the sole word-boundary modifier. On Linux that meant:

- Ctrl+A selected all instead of jumping to line start (contra standard
  readline and the hotkey doc in README.md which says `Ctrl+A` = Start
  of line).
- Alt+B / Alt+F / Alt+Backspace / Alt+Delete were dropped, because
  `key.meta` was never consulted — the README already documented
  `Meta+B` / `Meta+F` as word nav.

Gate select-all to macOS Cmd+A (`isMac && mod && inp === 'a'`), route
Linux Ctrl+A through `actionHome`, and broaden every word-boundary
predicate (b/f/Backspace/Delete and the modified arrow keys) from `mod`
to `wordMod = mod || k.meta` so Alt chords work on Linux and Mac while
existing Ctrl/Cmd chords keep working.
@OutThisLife OutThisLife force-pushed the bb/tui-readline-parity-linux branch from 5affa06 to d86c886 Compare April 21, 2026 19:30
@alt-glitch alt-glitch added type/bug Something isn't working comp/tui Terminal UI (ui-tui/ + tui_gateway/) labels Apr 21, 2026
@OutThisLife OutThisLife merged commit 5b60ef8 into main Apr 21, 2026
9 of 10 checks passed
@OutThisLife OutThisLife deleted the bb/tui-readline-parity-linux branch April 21, 2026 21:40
@dsocolobsky dsocolobsky mentioned this pull request Apr 22, 2026
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@OutThisLife OutThisLife mentioned this pull request Apr 22, 2026
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ulasbilgen pushed a commit to ulasbilgen/hermes-adhd-agent that referenced this pull request May 1, 2026
@OutThisLife
Merge pull request NousResearch#13594 from NousResearch/bb/tui-readli…
c5c229c 
…ne-parity-linux

fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
aj-nt pushed a commit to aj-nt/hermes-agent that referenced this pull request May 1, 2026
@OutThisLife
Merge pull request NousResearch#13594 from NousResearch/bb/tui-readli…
013d0d6 
…ne-parity-linux

fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
Luminet2023 pushed a commit to Luminet2023/hermes-agent that referenced this pull request May 1, 2026
@OutThisLife
Merge pull request NousResearch#13594 from NousResearch/bb/tui-readli…
24f8b99 
…ne-parity-linux

fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
02356abc pushed a commit to 02356abc/hermes-agent that referenced this pull request May 14, 2026
@OutThisLife
Merge pull request NousResearch#13594 from NousResearch/bb/tui-readli…
a60a95f 
…ne-parity-linux

fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
gweeteve pushed a commit to gweeteve/hermes-agent that referenced this pull request Jun 2, 2026
@OutThisLife
Merge pull request NousResearch#13594 from NousResearch/bb/tui-readli…
0ca84a9 
…ne-parity-linux

fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
Egavasyug pushed a commit to Egavasyug/hermes-agent that referenced this pull request Jun 10, 2026
@OutThisLife
Merge pull request NousResearch#13594 from NousResearch/bb/tui-readli…
11bbe17 
…ne-parity-linux

fix(tui): readline parity on Linux — Ctrl+A = home, Alt+B/F word nav
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