Update documentation for xterm.js 6.0 migration

- README: Add scrollback feature, frontend dev instructions, update related projects
- ARCHITECTURE: Document xterm.js bundling decision, update file structure
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GitHub Copilot
2026-01-25 12:50:23 +00:00
parent 67831a50ee
commit 1bc0cd177b
2 changed files with 46 additions and 9 deletions
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@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Serve terminal sessions and Textual apps over the web with a simple CLI command.
This is heavily based on [textual-web](https://github.com/Textualize/textual-web), but specifically focused on serving a persistent terminal session in a way that you can host behind a reverse proxy (and some form of authentication).
Built on top of [textual-serve](https://github.com/Textualize/textual-serve), this package provides an easy way to expose terminal sessions and Textual applications via HTTP/WebSocket with automatic reconnection support.
Built on [xterm.js](https://xtermjs.org/) 6.0, this package provides an easy way to expose terminal sessions and Textual applications via HTTP/WebSocket with automatic reconnection support.
Coupled with [`agentbox`](https://github.com/rcarmo/agentbox), you can use it to keep track of several containerized AI coding agents:
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Coupled with [`agentbox`](https://github.com/rcarmo/agentbox), you can use it to
- 🐍 **Textual app support** - Serve Textual apps directly from Python modules
- 🔄 **Session reconnection** - Refresh the page and reconnect to the same session
- 🎨 **Full terminal emulation** - Colors, cursor, and ANSI codes work correctly
- 📜 **Scrollback history** - Scroll back through terminal output (configurable)
- 📐 **Auto-sizing** - Terminal automatically resizes to fit the browser window
- 📸 **Live screenshots** - Dashboard shows real-time SVG screenshots of terminals
- 📊 **CPU sparklines** - Dashboard displays 30-minute CPU history for Docker containers
@@ -162,14 +163,34 @@ make install-dev
- Lint: `make lint`
- Format: `make format`
- Tests: `make test`
- Coverage (fail_under=80): `make coverage`
- Coverage (fail_under=79): `make coverage`
- Full check (lint + coverage): `make check`
### Frontend Development
The terminal UI is built with [xterm.js](https://xtermjs.org/) 6.0. The pre-built bundle is committed to the repo, so users can `pip install` without needing Node.js.
To rebuild the frontend after modifying `terminal.ts`:
```bash
# Requires Bun (https://bun.sh)
bun install
bun run build
# Or simply:
make bundle
```
For development with auto-rebuild:
```bash
make bundle-watch
```
### Notes
- WebSocket protocol (browser <-> server) is JSON: `["stdin", data]`, `["resize", {"width": w, "height": h}]`, `["ping", data]`.
- Static assets are provided by `textual-serve`; this project does not add custom static files.
- Screenshots use [pyte](https://github.com/selectel/pyte) for ANSI interpretation and [Rich](https://github.com/Textualize/rich) for SVG rendering.
- WebSocket protocol (browser server) is JSON: `["stdin", data]`, `["resize", {"width": w, "height": h}]`, `["ping", data]`.
- Frontend source is in `src/textual_webterm/static/js/terminal.ts`.
- Screenshots use [pyte](https://github.com/selectel/pyte) for ANSI interpretation and custom SVG rendering.
- CPU stats are read directly from Docker socket using asyncio (no additional dependencies).
## Requirements
@@ -184,6 +205,5 @@ MIT License - see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.
## Related Projects
- [Textual](https://github.com/Textualize/textual) - TUI framework for Python
- [textual-serve](https://github.com/Textualize/textual-serve) - Serve Textual apps on the web
- [Rich](https://github.com/Textualize/rich) - Rich text formatting for terminals
- [xterm.js](https://xtermjs.org/) - Terminal emulator for the web
- [pyte](https://github.com/selectel/pyte) - PYTE terminal emulator
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@@ -186,6 +186,17 @@ JSON-encoded messages over WebSocket:
## Key Design Decisions
### Why bundle xterm.js directly?
We bundle xterm.js 6.0 directly rather than using textual-serve because:
- **Full configuration control** - fontFamily, scrollback, theme are configurable
- **No workarounds needed** - xterm.js uses canvas rendering which ignores CSS fonts
- **Smaller footprint** - No unused fonts or images from textual-serve
- **Latest features** - xterm.js 6.0 includes ligature support, synchronized output, etc.
The pre-built `terminal.js` bundle is committed to the repo so users can `pip install` without needing Node.js/Bun.
### Why custom SVG exporter?
Rich's `export_svg()` had alignment issues with box-drawing characters and varied font rendering across browsers. The custom exporter:
@@ -214,7 +225,7 @@ Unlike traditional web terminals, sessions survive page refreshes:
```
src/textual_webterm/
├── cli.py # Typer CLI entry point
├── cli.py # Click CLI entry point
├── config.py # Configuration parsing (YAML manifests)
├── local_server.py # Main HTTP/WebSocket server
├── session_manager.py # Session registry and routing
@@ -228,5 +239,11 @@ src/textual_webterm/
├── identity.py # Session ID generation
├── slugify.py # URL-safe slug generation
├── types.py # Type aliases
── constants.py # Platform constants
── constants.py # Platform constants
└── static/
├── monospace.css # Font stack CSS variables
├── css/xterm.css # xterm.js styles
└── js/
├── terminal.ts # xterm.js client source (TypeScript)
└── terminal.js # Pre-built bundle (committed)
```