shell-integration-features ssh-terminfo and ssh-env don't work when connecting to AWS EC2 instances.

[swpalmer-cl]

Issue Description

Using shell-integration-features=ssh-terminfo, ssh-env in the Ghostty config doesn't work when connecting to an AWS EC2 instance. After connecting to the instance the terminal is broken, e.g. backspace key types a space, until I manually set TERM=xterm-256color

I have seen #5773 which was entirely unhelpful and dismissive, closed as if there was a solution despite it not working.

Expected Behavior

The ghostty configuration that is supposed to handle the TERM env variable for me should work as expected.

Actual Behavior

TERM is set to xterm-ghostty even when shell-integration-features=ssh-env despite the documentation at https://ghostty.org/docs/help/terminfo#configure-ssh-to-fall-back-to-a-known-terminfo-entry claiming this will set TERM to xterm-256color

Reproduction Steps

1. Open Ghostty
2. Connect to an AWS EC2 Linux instance (requires AWS CLI magic, but a free EC2 instance should work)
3. Type a command and press backspace - note it fails to delete characters and instead types a space
4. check env note that TERM=xterm-ghostty not TERM=xterm-256color

Ghostty Logs

No response

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.3.0-HEAD+94e52ffcf

Version
  - version: 1.3.0-HEAD+94e52ffcf
  - channel: tip
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.15.2
  - build mode    : .ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : .gtk
  - font engine   : .fontconfig_freetype
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.OpenGL)
  - libxev        : io_uring
  - kernel version: 6.14.0-36-generic
  - desktop env   : other
  - GTK version   :
    build         : 4.14.5
    runtime       : 4.14.5
  - libadwaita    : enabled
    build         : 1.5.0
    runtime       : 1.5.0
  - libX11        : enabled
  - libwayland    : enabled

OS Version Information

Ubuntu 24.04

(Linux only) Display Server

Wayland

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

No response

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

font-family = FiraCode Nerd Font
background = #111111
shell-integration-features= title,ssh-env
keybind = ctrl+v=paste_from_clipboard

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[danielwe]

2. Connect to an AWS EC2 Linux instance (requires AWS CLI magic, but a free EC2 instance should work)

Does this mean using a command like the following?

$ aws ec2-instance-connect ssh --instance-id i-1234567890example

(taken from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-connect-methods.html#connect-linux-inst-eic-cli-ssh, sorry, I don't have experience with AWS).

In that case, yes, the shell integration features won't help, as they work by adding a shell alias for ssh, but in this case you're invoking the aws command, not the ssh command.

You can either follow the directions further down on the linked page to "Connect using your own key and SSH client", or you can add TERM to the aws invocation, i.e., TERM=xterm-256color aws ec2-instance-connect ssh --instance-id i-1234567890example (and maybe create an alias for this in your shell configuration). If you know the hostname, it would probably also work to add SetEnv TERM=xterm-256color for this host to your ssh config, as explained on Ghostty's terminfo webpage.

[swpalmer-cl]

Kind of.. I believe it's done with a configuration of SSH. I'm no expert, but I have this:

❯ bat ~/.ssh/config
 host i-* mi-*
     StrictHostKeyChecking no
     ProxyCommand sh -c "aws ssm start-session --region=us-east-1 --target %h --document-name AWS-StartSSHSession --parameters 'portNumber=%p'"

and then after some AWS CLI to get the instance ID our connect scripts simply run:

ssh ec2-user@$instance_id

Note that something is setting TERM=xterm-ghostty -- which is actually what is breaking it. If TERM is set to xterm-256color it works.

[danielwe]

connect scripts

Ah, this might be the culprit right here. Aliases aren't inherited by subshells, so shell integration features won't work for the contents of script.sh if you invoke it as sh script.sh or ./script.sh. However, if you source it directly in your interactive shell as source script.sh, I think the ssh-env feature should work. (Not sure if the ssh-terminfo feature would survive the ProxyCommand config, but worth a try.)

something is setting TERM=xterm-ghostty

This is the default value in Ghostty. The problem here is that the alias sets TERM=xterm-256color specifically for the ssh command isn't being used.

[swpalmer-cl]

Interesting...
So after all the usual stuff we do to connect to AWS happens, I exited the ssh session and then, I tried just manually running the ssh ec2-user@i-xxxxxxxxx command. Then I see a message: Setting up xterm-ghostty terminfo on i-xxxxxxxxxx... and the remote has TERM=xterm-ghostty and it is working.

So perhaps there is hope if I can figure out a way to refactor the script. I'm not much of a bash wizard, so we'll see how it goes 😄

Thank you!

[jparise]

Ghostty 1.4.0 will also include a ghostty +ssh action that could be helpful:

Wrap `ssh` to automatically configure Ghostty terminal integration on
remote hosts.

Any arguments that aren't recognized as `+ssh` flags are passed to
the real `ssh` binary unchanged. You can use `--` as an explicit
disambiguator if needed, though it's almost never required: `ssh`
has no long flags, and `+ssh` defines no short flags, so there's
nothing to collide.

This is typically called via Ghostty's shell integration. When
`shell-integration-features` includes `ssh-env` or `ssh-terminfo`,
each shell defines an `ssh` function that runs:

    ghostty +ssh <flags> -- "$@"

You can also run `ghostty +ssh` directly, or alias it yourself (e.g.
`alias ssh='ghostty +ssh --'`) if you prefer not to use the shell
integration.

`+ssh` performs up to two pieces of setup before launching `ssh`:

  1. **Environment forwarding** (`--forward-env`). Sets `TERM` to
     `xterm-256color` and requests `SendEnv` forwarding of
     `COLORTERM`, `TERM_PROGRAM`, and `TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION` so the
     remote shell can still detect that it's running inside Ghostty.
     The remote `sshd_config` must list these in `AcceptEnv` for
     forwarding to succeed.

  2. **Terminfo install** (`--terminfo`). On the first connection to a
     given destination, installs Ghostty's terminfo entry on the remote
     host using `infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | ssh tic -x -` over a
     shared `ControlMaster` connection. Successful installs are cached
     (see `ghostty +ssh-cache`) so subsequent connections skip this
     step. When terminfo is successfully installed or already cached,
     `TERM` is set to `xterm-ghostty` instead of `xterm-256color`.

If `--terminfo` install fails (e.g. `tic` not available on the
remote, filesystem permissions), a warning is logged and the
connection continues with `TERM=xterm-256color`.

Flags:

  * `--forward-env=<bool>`: Enable `TERM` / `SendEnv` environment
    forwarding. Default: `true`.

  * `--terminfo=<bool>`: Enable automatic terminfo install on first
    connection. Default: `true`.

  * `--cache=<bool>`: Use the terminfo install cache. Default: `true`.
    When `false`, both the cache read (skip-if-installed) and the
    cache write (record-on-success) are bypassed, and every
    connection performs the install. To one-shot reinstall a single
    host while keeping the cache in use, prefer `ghostty +ssh-cache
    --remove=<host>` followed by a normal connection.

  * `--ssh=<path>`: Path to the `ssh` binary to execute. Default: the
    first `ssh` found on `PATH`.

  * `--verbose`: Print +ssh status lines to stderr, and surface
    remote stderr during the terminfo install.

Examples:

  # Basic invocation using defaults:
  ghostty +ssh user@example.com

  # Forward Ghostty env vars but skip the terminfo install:
  ghostty +ssh --terminfo=false user@example.com

  # `ssh` flags (short-form `-p`, etc.) pass through unchanged:
  ghostty +ssh -p 2222 -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 user@example.com

  # Use `--` explicitly if your ssh args might collide with our flags:
  ghostty +ssh -- --some-rare-ssh-arg user@example.com

Pass `--verbose` to see what `+ssh` is doing. For cache inspection
and management, see `ghostty +ssh-cache`.

Available since: 1.4.0

[jparise]

I've expanded the shell integration documentation to note the limitations of our SSH integration: ghostty-org/website#454