Support OSC 7501 program status in terminals and Terminal Threads

[maxffarrell]

What are you proposing?

Add support for the Program Status Protocol (OSC 7501) to Zed's built-in terminal, with status indicators in terminal tabs and Terminal Threads.

Why does this matter?

When several CLI agents are running in separate terminal threads, it's useful to see which are working, which need approval or an answer, and which have finished—without opening each thread.

Zed already supports terminal bells and title updates. OSC 7501 would provide structured state for those same surfaces, including the reason a program is waiting for input. A permission prompt could show a “needs approval” indicator, while an active agent shows “working.”

Examples and context

Crush has merged OSC 7501 support, and cmux has implemented terminal-side support. OpenCode support has also been requested.

The protocol covers idle, working, blocked, done, and error. Blocked reports can distinguish permission requests, questions, and authentication. Programs report their state; Zed chooses how to present it.

Possible approach

Parse and retain status records per terminal, then expose them through existing tab and sidebar indicators. Optional notifications could follow Zed's current preferences and avoid duplicate alerts from terminal bells.

The implementation would follow the specification's detection, record-clearing, lifetime, and input-validation rules. The primary use case is CLI/TUI agents running in Terminal Threads.

Edited with AI assistance.