attachCustomKeyEventHandler inverts xterm.js's return-value contract (silently swallows all input)

[kolapapa]

Summary

attachCustomKeyEventHandler returns the opposite of what xterm.js's handler of the same name returns. Because the README's migration story is "change your import: @xterm/xterm → ghostty-web", an app that carries its existing handler across ends up with a terminal that ignores every keystroke — while connecting, rendering, scrolling and showing the shell prompt perfectly. There is no error and nothing on screen to suggest the keyboard is the problem.

The two contracts

xterm.js — the return value says let the terminal have this key:

The function returns whether the event should be processed by xterm.js.

So a handler that only wants to claim a shortcut or two returns true for everything else.

ghostty-web — the return value says I already handled it, drop it (lib/input-handler.ts#L377-L385):

// Check custom key event handler
if (this.customKeyEventHandler) {
  const handled = this.customKeyEventHandler(event);
  if (handled) {
    // Custom handler consumed the event
    event.preventDefault();
    return;
  }
}

That same xterm-shaped handler now returns true for every ordinary key, so every ordinary key is swallowed — and the one or two keys it deliberately claimed (returning false) are the only ones that reach the pty, inverted in both directions.

Reproduction

import { init, Terminal } from 'ghostty-web';

await init();
const term = new Terminal();
term.open(el);
term.onData(d => ws.send(d));

// Straight from an xterm.js app: claim Ctrl+F, let everything else through.
term.attachCustomKeyEventHandler((e) => {
  if (e.ctrlKey && e.key === 'f') { e.preventDefault(); return false; }
  return true;
});

Expected: typing works, Ctrl+F is swallowed.
Actual: nothing can be typed at all, and Ctrl+F is the only key that reaches the shell.

Removing the handler entirely makes typing work again, which is what makes this hard to attribute — the handler is usually old, unrelated code that was correct before the migration.

Versions

ghostty-web@0.4.0, and the code above is current main.

Suggestion

Either is fine from where I sit, but the ambiguity is the expensive part:

1. Invert it to match xterm.js — treat a falsy return as "consumed". Most faithful to the stated API compatibility, but silently changes behaviour for anyone who already adapted, so it would want a note in the changelog.
2. Keep the current meaning and document it — call it out in the README migration line and in the JSDoc on attachCustomKeyEventHandler, since that method is the one place a reader would look. Today the JSDoc says "Returns true to prevent default handling", which is accurate but only visible if you already suspect the handler.

A line in the compatibility table would also have caught this for me before I shipped it.

Happy to send a PR for whichever direction you prefer.