feat!: remove view mode and non-xterm terminal renderers (xterm-only)

[aterrylu]

Problem

Two alternative-surface features had accrued carrying cost with no real use:

1. "View mode" — a /api/conversation route parsed Claude Code session JSONL into a structured web "conversation" view (ClaudeCodeParser + render/parser types in @autonomos/core, ConversationView/DiffView in the dashboard), toggled against the live terminal. The parser had a single consumer.
2. Pluggable terminal renderers — a terminalRenderer setting let users switch between xterm.js and a Ghostty (ghostty-web) backend. The Ghostty path was a second renderer no one selected, and it dragged in a WASM blob.

Per Terry's direction: terminal-based only from now on — one view, one renderer (xterm.js) — and slim the bundle.

Solution

flowchart LR
    subgraph REMOVE["🗑️ Removed"]
        A["View mode<br/>/api/conversation + core parser<br/>ConversationView/DiffView + viewMode"]
        B["Ghostty renderer<br/>ghostty-backend + factory<br/>terminalRenderer setting"]
        D["5 dead deps<br/>ghostty-web · react-syntax-highlighter<br/>+types · @assistant-ui/* ×2"]
    end
    subgraph KEEP["✅ Kept (load-bearing)"]
        K["xterm.js + @xterm/* · live PTY hook<br/>OSC8 links (linkHandler) · titleCache<br/>react-markdown/remark-gfm (preview panes)<br/>sidebarViewMode · providerSessionId"]
    end
    REMOVE -.collapses to.-> K

Loading

• View mode: delete the /api/conversation route, the core ClaudeCodeParser + render/parser types (+ barrel re-exports), the dashboard ConversationView/DiffView, and the viewMode store/UI toggle. viewMode was dashboard-only localStorage state — no server migration (zustand silently ignores the stale persisted key).
• Renderer: delete ghostty-backend.ts and the renderer-selection factory (create.ts); useTerminal now calls createXtermBackend directly. The TerminalRenderer union and the renderer toggle UI are gone.
• Settings migration: terminalRenderer is a settings.json key, so it's added to REMOVED_KEYS for accept-and-discard — scrubbed on read with a warning naming it, dropped from disk on next persist. Non-credential, so no active-credential scrub (unlike the ADR-038 auth token). Matches the inboxAgent / anthropic* precedent (ADR-037/038).
• Deps: drop ghostty-web, react-syntax-highlighter (+ @types), and the already-dead @assistant-ui/react + @assistant-ui/react-streamdown (zero source imports; in both root + dashboard manifests). bun.lock regenerated — the heavy prismjs/highlight.js/lowlight/refractor subtree drops out.

Net: −1,789 / +47 lines across 22 files (8 file deletions).

Why "Inbox Agent" was still showing in settings

Terry reported still seeing an "Inbox Agent" control in settings despite #213 removing it. Traced it: the current source has zero inbox UI — the visible control came from a stale embedded dashboard bundle (packages/server/dist/<plat>/_embedded_dashboard/, a gitignored artifact built Jun 7, 5 days before #213 merged). git pull never refreshes it. The fresh build in this PR confirms "Inbox Agent" is absent from the bundle. A rebuild clears the ghost — no inbox code to remove.

Testing

• make check (full CI gate) — green: biome (0 errors), tsc --build, server 462/462 (incl. the L3 real-agent integration test), dashboard 216/216.
• New test: settings.test.ts asserts a stale terminalRenderer is scrubbed on read. The two scrub tests that used updateSettings({ terminalRenderer }) as a persist-trigger were re-pointed to autoTrust (the field-removal would otherwise have been a compile error failing the whole server suite — the load-bearing-test trap).
• vite build — clean (confirms no removed-dep imports linger).
• /polish (3 agents: code-reviewer, silent-failure-hunter, code-simplifier) — all clear. OSC8 Ctrl/Cmd+click parity independently verified against xterm-backend.ts's linkHandler.

Risks

• OSC8 hyperlinks (Ctrl/Cmd+click): Ghostty had its own OSC8LinkProvider; xterm uses the linkHandler ctor option with the same hasPrimaryModifier gate + deduplicatedOpen. Parity verified, but worth a manual click-a-link smoke test.
• useTerminal.ts is the live PTY/WebSocket hook — only renderer-selection + the Ghostty branch were removed; all PTY/resize/scroll/link wiring is untouched.

Breaking changes

• The terminalRenderer setting and the view-mode toggle are removed from the settings UI. Old settings.json files with terminalRenderer parse cleanly (scrubbed, with a warning). The /api/conversation endpoint is removed.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[nox-0x]

Approving — clean, mechanical removal of view-mode and the Ghostty renderer with no lingering references in source.

Verified:

• All source refs to viewMode / terminalRenderer / ghostty-web / ConversationView / DiffView / ClaudeCodeParser / assistant-ui / react-syntax-highlighter are gone from packages/** (only the intentional REMOVED_KEYS entry + corresponding test/comments remain).
• Settings migration is correct: terminalRenderer is added to REMOVED_KEYS so getSettings() scrubs it and updateSettings() drops it from disk on next persist — matches the ADR-037/038 precedent. The route also no longer accepts the key.
• xterm-backend.ts wires OSC 8 via the linkHandler ctor option with the hasPrimaryModifier + deduplicatedOpen gate, so Ctrl/Cmd+click parity with the old ghostty OSC8LinkProvider is preserved.
• bun.lock no longer contains the removed deps; the stale pnpm-lock.yaml files weren't touched but they haven't been updated in this repo for ages and bun is the active lockfile.
• Test edits look right: the two scrub tests that used terminalRenderer as a persist trigger were re-pointed to autoTrust (would otherwise be a compile error), and a dedicated scrub test asserts the new behavior.

Minor follow-up (non-blocking): the async IIFE wrapping the terminal init in useTerminal.ts existed because ghostty-web's WASM init was awaited; createXtermBackend is sync, so the IIFE could be unwound in a later pass.