Bilterm v2.9.0 — Persistent SSH+tmux, First-Class Utility Windows, Script Studio & Retro/Google Font Engine

Added

• First-Class Utility Windows & Script Studio (Phase 51.2, WIN-01..03, UNI-R01):
  • FONTS Utility Window (WIN-01, :fonts, :font list, :font presets, :font scan): First-class floating, pinnable, and dockable window for live typography configuration. Unpinned mode dismisses on Enter apply; pinned mode (* or [•]) stays open for instant real-time A/B visual comparison while cycling font presets and custom TTF files. Includes +/- point-size stepping, [/] scale percentage stepping, a apply-to-all toggle, s directory rescan, and menubar integration (View -> Fonts Window).
  • Pinnable COMMAND PALETTE Window (WIN-02, :commands, :palette): Searchable command window supporting one-shot execution and persistent workbench mode. Pressing Alt+P or * or clicking [•] inside Modal::Palette (Ctrl+P) promotes the search modal into CommandWindowState with query retained. Records command executions, timestamps, exit status, and return messages into a scrollable OUTPUT / HISTORY bottom pane.
  • SCRIPT STUDIO Window (WIN-03, :script, :studio): Multi-line :colon and shell script editor with live single-step debugging ([⏭ Step (F10)], program counter ▶), full script runner ([▶ Run (F5)]), debugger reset ([↺ Reset]), live action recorder ([● Rec (Ctrl+R)] capturing executed Bilterm commands into the buffer), and secure persistence ([💾 Save] / [📂 Load] under ~/.config/bilterm/scripts/*.bt via secure_fs 0600/0700).
  • Mutual Focus Exclusivity: Opening any utility window or focusing terminal panes automatically blurs other utility windows and releases keyboard ownership cleanly.
• Bundled Retro Fonts & Online Font Installers:
  • Bundled retro fonts: Lazenby Computer (Smooth & Liquid variants) and Google Font VT323 classic DEC pixel terminal font.
  • On-demand Google Fonts installer: :font google <name-or-url> downloads and activates Google Fonts dynamically.
  • ZIP / URL font archive installer: :font add <path.zip|url> unpacks and loads custom font archives into ~/.config/bilterm/fonts/.
• Persistent SSH + tmux -CC sessions (:ssh-tmux, Phase 51.1, PST-01..04, UNI-R01):
  • Real PTY transport & macOS PATH: :ssh-tmux <user@host> [session] spawns a dedicated PTY running ssh -tt into tmux -CC new-session -A -s <name> wrapped in a login shell (exec $SHELL -lc ...) that includes macOS Homebrew and MacPorts paths (/opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin, /opt/local/bin).
  • Honest status & password safety: Status honestly reports connecting until the ESC P 1000 p sentinel arrives. Host-key questions and password prompts render interactively in the primary pane with raw keystroke pass-through, bypassing command prompt history, undo/redo buffers, history.log, and Find search indexing.
  • Supervisor & auto-reconnect with exponential backoff: Deterministic, capped exponential backoff (1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 16s, 30s; max 20 attempts) automatically reconnects after network drops or transient %exit reasons (server exited unexpectedly, lost tty, too far behind, connection). Never retries fatal auth errors, missing tmux, user disconnects, or cleanly ended sessions.
  • Topology hydration: Reconnecting panes settle 300 ms, run refresh-client -C, and hydrate screen buffers with capture-pane -p -e -J -S -2000 -t %N, holding live output during hydration to prevent interleaved text corruption. Stale unmapped panes are tagged with orphan banners.
  • Held exit banners: Exited remote SSH and tmux panes persist with an interactive status banner displaying return code, exit cause, and last diagnostic output lines rather than closing abruptly; click or r respawns in-place.
  • Honest restore labels: Restoring a saved workspace session no longer marks local shells with remote badges; displays (not connected) until reconnected.
  • SSH keepalive & fresh TCP policy: Passes ServerAliveInterval=15, ServerAliveCountMax=3, TCPKeepAlive=yes, and ConnectTimeout=15. Sets ControlMaster=no and ControlPath=none for persistent links so every reconnect establishes a fresh TCP connection.
  • Structured tracing: Structured bilterm::link tracing events (link.connect, link.up, link.down, link.retry, link.give_up, link.control_exit, link.spawn_failed, link.hydrate, pane.exit) with redacted argv (redact_ssh_argv) and zero secret leakage in bilterm.log.
  • Unified verbs, chords, menu items & API:
    • Verbs: :ssh-tmux reconnect, :ssh-tmux disconnect, :ssh-tmux info, :ssh-tmux prefill.
    • Keybindings: Ctrl+Alt+R (reconnect, reserved in raw passthrough), leader Ctrl+X U (reconnect), Ctrl+X Q (disconnect), Ctrl+X u (prefill).
    • Banner keys: Enter / r (reconnect), x (disconnect), d (detach), left-click on banner row (reconnect).
    • Menu bar: Top menu Tmux dropdown items for all four verbs.
    • Automation: JSON-RPC method remote.link (op: "status" | "reconnect" | "disconnect"), and MCP tool bilterm_remote_link (14th tool).
  • Behaviour changes to note:
    • remote.connect_tmux / remote.connect_ssh{tmux_session} returns status: "connecting" rather than connected_ssh_tmux.
    • TmuxControlBridge::new() starts empty (no longer pre-seeded with %0 -> pane 1).
    • One persistent remote tmux link can be active at a time; starting a second returns an error instructing to disconnect first.
    • :ssh pane OpenSSH connection multiplexing uses ControlPersist=10s (shortened from 60s).
• Graph edges trace real communication. Edge brightness is a pure function of how often and how recently a pair talked (terminal braille and GUI vector alike). After agents_window.edge_fade_secs (default 60, also :agents fade [secs]) it decays to a floor and never disappears once the pair has spoken.
• Communication topology. A bounded, session-long record of which pairs communicated (count, first/last event) that survives the 512-event ring: :agents topology (data over RPC/MCP) and :agents topology export <name> (private 0600 file).
• Find window: :find agent|session|history and Ctrl+Alt+F (Phase 50.1). One fuzzy, ranked search over open agents and panes, live and saved sessions, and command history (View > Find Agents / Find Sessions / Find Command History). Every row shows its source ([live], [saved:<name>], [log:<name>]). Secret-looking commands are never stored or indexed; secret-looking history.log lines are masked on read and only counted (n masked). :finder drives the open window. Read-only automation: RPC find.agents, find.sessions, find.history, and MCP bilterm_find (MCP now has 11 tools). Coverage limits (SSH and tmux, raw-mode input, the tmux -CC bridge not reachable from any command) are documented in user guide chapter 12. Bare :find <text> and :search are unchanged except for the three reserved first words.