tuistory

Tuistory Driver

The orchestrator routed you here. Use these mechanics to execute your plan.

Launch a target command in a virtual PTY with Playwright-style CLI for typing, pressing keys, waiting, snapshotting, and recording.

When to use

• Routine TUI automation and regression checks
• Deterministic wait / wait-idle against the virtual screen buffer
• Text snapshots of exactly what the user would see
• Any scenario where you do not need to prove real terminal keyboard encoding

If you need to prove what Ghostty or Kitty actually emits for a given keystroke, use true-input instead.

Prerequisites

npm install -g tuistory    # or: bun add -g tuistory

Optional: tmux (scrollback flows), asciinema (recordings), agg (.cast to .gif).

Core pattern

TCTL=${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/tctl

$TCTL launch "droid-dev" -s demo --backend tuistory \
  --repo-root /path/to/worktree \
  --cols 120 --rows 36 \
  --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor
$TCTL -s demo wait ">" --timeout 15000
$TCTL -s demo type "hello"
$TCTL -s demo press enter
$TCTL -s demo snapshot --trim
$TCTL -s demo close

Note: --repo-root is mandatory for droid-dev launches — tctl enforces it.

Always pass --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor when launching. The virtual PTY doesn't advertise color support, so Node.js apps (Ink/chalk) suppress all color escape codes without these.

Command reference (via tctl)

Command	Purpose
launch <cmd> -s <name> --backend tuistory	Start a tuistory session
type <text>	Send literal text
press <key> [keys...]	Send key chord (e.g., press shift enter)
wait <pattern>	Block until text or /regex/ appears
wait-idle	Block until output stabilizes
snapshot [--trim]	Print cleaned text (--trim strips trailing blanks)
close	Tear down session

Launch options: --cols <n>, --rows <n>, --cwd <path> (child working directory; defaults to --repo-root when set), --env KEY=VALUE, --record <path>.

Recording

Pass --record at launch. tctl wraps asciinema rec around the PTY, so recording must be set at launch time (raw tuistory cannot record):

$TCTL launch "droid-dev" -s demo --backend tuistory \
  --repo-root /path/to/worktree \
  --cols 120 --rows 36 --record /tmp/demo.cast \
  --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor
# ... interact ...
$TCTL -s demo close    # finalizes the .cast

Before/after comparison -- launch two sessions against different worktrees:

$TCTL launch "droid-dev" -s before --backend tuistory \
  --repo-root /path/to/baseline-worktree \
  --cols 120 --rows 36 --record /tmp/before.cast \
  --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor

$TCTL launch "droid-dev" -s after --backend tuistory \
  --repo-root /path/to/candidate-worktree \
  --cols 120 --rows 36 --record /tmp/after.cast \
  --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor

Playback: asciinema play /tmp/demo.cast

tmux (scrollback flows only)

Only needed when the demo requires terminal-emulator scrollback and the app uses the standard buffer (not alternate screen). True-input sessions rarely need tmux because the real terminal owns native scrollback.

Use --tmux at launch. tctl wraps the command in tmux, starts tmux with TERM=xterm-256color, and preconfigures default-terminal=tmux-256color, terminal-features=...,xterm-256color:RGB, terminal-overrides=...,xterm-256color:Tc (fallback for tmux < 3.2), COLORTERM=truecolor (via set-environment), escape-time=50, and mode-keys=vi.

Copy-mode: ctrl-b [ to enter, g g top, shift-g bottom, ctrl-u/ctrl-d half-page, / search, q to exit (not esc).

Launch with tmux:

$TCTL launch "droid-dev" -s demo --backend tuistory --tmux \
  --repo-root /path/to/worktree \
  --cols 120 --rows 36 --record /tmp/demo.cast \
  --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor

When recording includes tmux redraws, asciinema must wrap tmux, not the reverse.

Known dead ends

• Raw asciinema rec: Do not call asciinema rec directly. tctl --record wraps asciinema rec around the PTY so that tuistory-relay still owns the session and interactive TUIs (Ink/React) receive stdin correctly. Calling asciinema rec manually bypasses this wiring — stdin forwarding breaks, typed keys echo on the outer PTY instead of reaching the child, and tuistory commands (wait, snapshot, close) cannot find the session.
• Raw tuistory launch with tctl flags: tuistory has no --record, --backend, --repo-root, or --env flags. Passing them crashes tuistory-relay. Use tctl for all launches.

Recovery

$TCTL -s demo press esc         # bail out of a stuck dialog
$TCTL -s demo snapshot --trim   # check visible state
$TCTL -s demo close             # hard reset

Escape hatch: raw tuistory (last resort)

If tctl itself is broken or unavailable, you can fall back to raw tuistory for non-recording sessions only. Raw tuistory accepts only --cols, --rows, and -s — no other flags. Do not pass --record, --backend, --repo-root, --env, or --tmux.

tuistory launch "my-tui-app" -s demo --cols 120 --rows 36
tuistory -s demo wait ">" --timeout 15000
tuistory -s demo snapshot --trim
tuistory -s demo close