Bilterm v3.3.0 — Retro-Futuristic Terminal Multiplexer & Agent Control Plane

[■] Quick Start & One-Line Installer

$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bsommers/bilterm/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Linux & macOS supported (Windows via source/cargo). Installs pre-built binary to ~/.local/bin with manpage, bash/zsh/fish completions, and desktop icon.

# Build from Source (Rust 1.88+, Edition 2024):

git clone https://github.com/bsommers/bilterm.git && cd bilterm

cargo build --release && install -m 0755 target/release/bilterm ~/.local/bin/bilterm

► GitHub Repository ► Download v3.3.0 Binaries ► Explore v3.3 Features ► 12-Chapter User Guide ► API & RPC Reference

[■] What's New in Bilterm v3.3.0 (Phases 66–71)

71 development phases • Beyond Herdr live control plane • every feature reachable from keyboard, colon command, JSON-RPC, CLI, and MCP.

Ph.66 · Always-On Live Control Plane

Foreground 0600 RPC socket in both TUI and GUI, child PTY env injection (BILTERM_SOCKET, BILTERM_PANE_ID), multi-instance registry with --instance <pid|all>, OIA [RPC:LIVE] and :rpc.

Ph.67 · `bilterm agent|pane|workspace` CLI

Herdr-style w<N>:p<M> and semantic selectors (@claude, @idle, @blocked), smart prompt injection, and zero-polling server-side agent wait.

Ph.68 · Semantic Introspection & Context Bus

agent.last_turn structured deltas, permission-gate approve/deny, per-pane FIFO prompt queue, and a cross-agent bilterm context bus.

Ph.69 · Worktree Swarm & DAG Runner

:swarm run plan.toml spawns atomic git-worktree agents in dependency waves with diff/merge and a self-healing verify_cmd retry loop.

Ph.70 · Mission Control HUD & Time-Travel

:agents hud live mini viewports and sparklines, per-turn replay scrubber, and a stall/loop watchdog.

Ph.71 · D:(W,S,Y,P) Hierarchical Coordinates

Five-level Daemon/Workspace/Session/Window/Pane addressing with a universal parser, title-bar coordinate badge, :coords, coords.resolve RPC and MCP bilterm_coords_resolve.

[■] What's New in Bilterm v3.2.0 (Phases 56–65)

65 development phases • 175+ test suites • 110+ Action variants • every feature reachable from keyboard, colon command, JSON-RPC, and MCP.

Ph.56 · Drawer Window Peek & Inline Input

Hover or highlight any window in the drawer for a live 8-line ANSI preview (:drawer preview / :peek). Inline prompt bar and full actions without leaving the drawer.

Zero-copy • Zero SIGWINCH • drawer.preview RPC • MCP bilterm_drawer_preview

Ph.57 · Smart Clipboard & Content Viewer

:clip opens a filterable, MIME-aware overlay previewing text, JSON, diff, image, and file clipboards. :paste and bracketed-paste probing, plus inbound/outbound OSC 52.

Secret-masked 200-entry registry • Ctrl+Alt+V • MCP bilterm_clipboard

Ph.58 · Local AI Voice-to-Text

:voice toggle|ptt|lang|model dictates into the prompt via a local Whisper-compatible HTTP STT endpoint. Live waveform OIA badge, plus pre-flight recorder & endpoint diagnostics.

Push-to-talk • whisper.cpp / speaches / LocalAI • voice.* RPC • MCP bilterm_voice

Ph.59 · Embedded Chrome CDP Web Browser

:browser [url] with an editable URL bar (click or Ctrl+L, auto-https://) and Back / Forward / Reload nav bar. Dual-surface rendering: crisp RGBA in the GUI, TrueColor ▀ half-block cells in the TUI (with +1 row top-prompt offset).

Private 0700 Chrome profile • browser.* RPC • MCP bilterm_browser

Ph.59 · 60fps Video Canvas

:video <path|url>|pause|seek|stop streams through a real non-blocking ffmpeg rawvideo RGBA pipe reader (synthetic fallback when absent) with interactive OSD controls, rendered in GUI and as TUI half-blocks.

OSD transport controls • video.* RPC • MCP bilterm_video

Ph.60 · Multi-Surface Web Frontend

:web start|stop|status launches an axum HTTP + WebSocket /ws server speaking @agent-manager/protocol v1. Zero-build browser viewport decoupled from TUI/GUI state.

Multi-client view registry • --web-dir static SPA • MCP bilterm_web_surface

Ph.61 · Classic 2-Line Drawer Items

Each drawer entry is two lines: line 1 carries ID, title, badges, and action buttons; line 2 shows the live last output line of that window.

:drawer rows • [R:n] chips • Focus-derived zoom • State preserved on stack switch

Ph.62 · Nested-TUI Selection & Vi Copy Motions

Shift/Alt+Drag bypasses a nested app's mouse capture, with an [OVERRIDE -> CLIPBOARD] toast. Vi copy mode gains w b e, 0 ^ $, f F t T, and ; , motions.

Split-read OSC 52 reassembly • MOUSE->APP / [COPY] OIA badges • Hint bar

Ph.63 · Cross-OS Keys, Sticky Window Mode & Menu Bar

Primary modifier is Cmd on macOS and Ctrl+Shift on Linux/Windows (:keymap profile auto|mac|linux|windows). Sticky Window Mode (Leader w) takes single-key s v q z f d c h j k l m chords with a live [WIN MODE] HUD, a Which-Key chord popup, and a 9-category keyboard-navigable Menu Bar (Leader m, Alt+S/W/P/V/A/D/N/T/H).

Modal menu mouse hit-test priority over drawer • Key conflict engine • :keys check|list|explain

Ph.64 · 33-Hook Traffic Monitor

:traffic opens a live, filterable ring buffer with a detail payload inspector across 33 byte-boundary hooks: PTY, SSH, Tmux, RPC, MCP, Web, CDP, STT, and Session.

Lock-free, zero-allocation • traffic.* RPC • MCP bilterm_traffic

Ph.65 · Daemon Supervisor & Core Hardening

Floating DAEMON SUPERVISOR modal (Leader B / :daemon ui) with compile-time SignalablePid guardrails that block PID ≤ 1. PTY-less :ssh-tmux control-mode panes with auto-reconnect, and an OIA [TUI]/[GUI] surface badge.

Real child PIDs tracked • Password echo masking • No local double-echo

[■] Foundations: Bilterm v3.0 – v3.0.5

Agent-Aware Navigator (F7)

A slide-out/push-out left sidebar (:drawer style navigator) displaying workspace hierarchy, sessions, and live agent status dots ( Working, Idle, Blocked, Done, Errored).

Attention badges • Jump to blocked (Alt+]) • Snoop View (:agent snoop) • Agent Traffic Bus

Agent-to-Agent Messaging

Direct inter-agent communication across terminal panes: :agent send <name> <msg>, per-agent bounded mailboxes (64 max), and 3 delivery modes: mailbox, nudge (when shell is idle), and file (for large payloads).

JSON-RPC agent.* • MCP bilterm_voice • bilterm_browser • bilterm_video • bilterm_traffic • bilterm_clipboard • bilterm_agent_mail • Loop guard (8 hops) • Rate limiter

Unified Registry & Fuzzy Find

Instant global search across agents, active and saved sessions, and command history: :find agent|session|history <query> or Ctrl+Alt+F. Automatic zero-trust secret masking protects tokens and credentials.

Fast nucleo-matcher • Secret redaction • Read-only RPC find.* & MCP bilterm_find

UI Modernization Design System

Switch between 8 built-in visual profiles via :appearance: Obsidian (modern dark slate, fresh default), Legacy (Borland Blue), Midnight, Arctic, Liquid, Amber, Synthwave, and Solarized. Plus :mode standard|minimal|zen.

Profile export/import/save • Non-destructive design tokens • Frosted glass controls

Persistent SSH + tmux Fleet

Remote sessions via :ssh-tmux <host> [session] maintain state across connection drops. Automatic reconnection with exponential backoff, capture-pane hydration upon reconnect, and exit hold banners.

Remote tmux -CC bridge • Scrollback replay • Crash prevention banner

First-Class Utility Windows

Pinnable and dockable workbench windows: :fonts live typography preview, :commands execution history workbench, and :script / :studio Script Studio with multi-line editor, live recorder, and step debugger.

Clickable title badges • Pinning (*) • Floating or docked borders • Panel scaling ([/])

Session Packing Viewer & Drag-and-Drop

Visualize and pack multi-session container hierarchies with :sessions map in Braille/UTF-8 box-drawing or native GUI vector rendering. Move panes across sessions with mouse drag-and-drop or :window move.

Multi-select windows (Space) • Bulk ops • Topology undo (:window undo)

Daemon Supervisor & Automation

Singleton daemon supervisor with automatic startup and stale-lock recovery. Manage named daemons via :daemon list|status|start|stop|prune. Drive headless sessions over HTTP+SSE (--http) and strict RFC 8259 JSON-RPC 2.0.

11+ MCP tools & resources • TOML robot playbooks • Dotted config :get / :set

[■] Visual Gallery & Interactive Workspace Views

Multi-Agent AI Swarm in Bilterm with Navigator Sidebar and Agent Traffic Bus

Bilterm multi-pane composite workspace in Turbo Blue theme with split panes and floating prompt

Bilterm per-pane font scaling from 50% to 300% on native desktop GUI

Bilterm in IBM 3278 Phosphor Green theme with 3270 Inspector

Bilterm in IBM 3279 Amber CRT theme with 22-color palette switcher

Multi-Agent Swarm with Navigator Sidebar, agent state dots, and Agent Traffic Bus packet stream.

[■] Core Architectural Pillars

Composite Terminal Panes

The floating command prompt, scrolling PTY output canvas, and 3270 OIA status bar form a single atomic pane. Command prompt can float, pin to top/bottom, or split, with zero SIGWINCH geometry thrashing.

Auto-hides on vim / htop (DECSET 1049) • 3-signal !ECHO LOCK password protection

2D Rectangular Block Select & Copy

Hold Alt+LeftDrag or toggle :rect mode to select, highlight, and copy rectangular columns and boxes directly out of terminal output, table columns, or logs. Pastes cleanly to system and OSC 52 clipboards.

Keyboard Alt+R • Vi copy mode r/R • Coordinate-based :rect r1 c1 r2 c2

Full Session Persistence

Detach with Ctrl+X D or :detach. Bilterm serializes the complete workspace: split tree geometry, z-stack order, prompt anchors, active shells, running commands, and per-pane working directories (CWD).

Resume via bilterm attach • Atomic 0600 crash journals • Exit Guard protection

Native Desktop GUI (--gui)

Run standalone without a host terminal using hardware-accelerated desktop rendering on Linux (X11), macOS (Cocoa), and Windows (Win32 GDI). Scale each pane's font independently from 50% to 300% (Ctrl+Wheel).

All-border mouse resizing • High-res Kitty/Sixel/Braille graphics • Custom TTF/OTF fonts

Mainframe Paging & QuickSelect

Experience classic IBM 3270 mainframe paging: MORE... / HOLDING page pauses prevent run-away flood from blowing away your output buffer. QuickSelect hints (F3) jump to URLs, paths, and hashes.

Vi Copy Mode (F8) • Mainframe Cross-hairs (Alt+X) • Spotlight / Zoom Lens (Alt+O)

Zero-Trust Confinement

All IPC sockets, session TOMLs, command history exports, and .cast recordings reside in 0700 directories with 0600 atomic file permissions. Unix domain sockets enforce SO_PEERCRED UID checking.

No secrets on CLI argv • Bearer token authentication • Secret-masked history logs

[■] Essential Shortcuts & Colon Commands

Action / Function	Keyboard Shortcut	Colon Command (`:`)	Notes
Help / Palette / Inspector	`F1` / `Ctrl+P` / `F9`	`:help` / `:palette` / `:inspector`	Command catalog, search & 3270 inspection
Navigator Drawer	`F7` (`<L> d`) / Click OIA	`:drawer [toggle\|navigator\|classic]`	Workspaces, sessions, agent state dots
Global Fuzzy Finder	`Ctrl+Alt+F`	`:find [agent\|session\|history] <q>`	Unified registry search with secret masking
Agent Messaging & Swarm	`Alt+]` (jump to blocked)	`:agent [name\|send\|inbox\|list\|snoop]`	Direct messaging, mailboxes, packet telemetry
Split Horizontal / Vertical / Zoom	`F2` / `Alt+V` / `F5`	`:split h` / `:split v` / `:zoom`	Binary space partitioning tiling
Tiled Splits vs. Z-Stack Deck	`Alt+M` / `F6` / `Alt+1..9`	`:layout tile\|stack` / `:deck next\|prev`	Borland overlapping window cascade
Appearance & Display Modes	`F11` / `F4`	`:appearance [obsidian\|legacy\|...]` / `:mode [standard\|zen]`	8 modern design profiles & Zen mode
Remote SSH + tmux Sessions	—	`:ssh-tmux <host> [session]`	Auto-reconnecting resilient remote sessions
Utility Windows (Fonts / Studio)	`*` (pin) / `[` / `]` (scale)	`:fonts` / `:commands` / `:studio`	Workbench windows, live recorder & debugger
2D Rectangular Select & Copy	`Alt+R` / `Alt+LeftDrag`	`:rect [mode\|copy\|cut\|clear]`	Block highlight & yank across canvas
Detach Session / Re-Attach	`Ctrl+X D` / Exit Guard `[d]`	`:detach [name]` / `:attach [name]`	Leaves shells running in background daemon
Session Map & Window Move	`m` (in Map)	`:sessions map` / `:window move <sess>`	Packing treemap & live window migration
Clipboard Viewer / Paste	`Ctrl+Alt+V`	`:clip` / `:paste`	MIME-aware preview, OSC 52
Voice-to-Text	`Ctrl+Alt+S`	`:voice toggle\|ptt\|lang\|model`	Local Whisper STT, OIA waveform badge
Embedded Browser	`Ctrl+Alt+B` / `Ctrl+L` (URL)	`:browser [url]`	Chrome CDP, GUI RGBA & TUI half-blocks
Video Canvas	`Ctrl+Alt+Y`	`:video <path\|url>\|pause\|seek\|stop`	60fps ffmpeg pipe with OSD
Web Frontend	`Ctrl+Alt+W`	`:web start\|stop\|status`	axum HTTP + WebSocket `/ws`
Drawer Peek & Rows	`P` / `v` in drawer	`:peek` / `:drawer rows`	Live preview, 2-line items
Sticky Window Mode / Menu Bar	Leader `w` / Leader `m`	`:keymap profile auto\|mac\|linux\|windows`	[WIN MODE] HUD, which-key, 9-category menus
Traffic Monitor	—	`:traffic`	33-hook filterable ring buffer
Daemon Supervisor	Leader `B`	`:daemon ui`	Guarded PID signalling

Leader Prefix (<L>) defaults to Ctrl+X (or Ctrl+B outside tmux). Every keyboard action has a colon equivalent for 100% surface parity.

[■] API, JSON-RPC & MCP Automation

Bilterm is built from the ground up for autonomous AI coding agents, robot test harnesses, and external script orchestration:

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Run bilterm --mcp for 20+ first-class MCP tools and dynamic resources:

bilterm_voice • bilterm_browser • bilterm_video • bilterm_traffic • bilterm_clipboard • bilterm_agent_mail • bilterm_find • bilterm_run_action • bilterm_session_manager • bilterm://state • bilterm://config • bilterm://agent/{name}/inbox

Strict JSON-RPC 2.0 & HTTP+SSE

Drive headless workspaces via bilterm ctl or HTTP transport (--http 127.0.0.1:9090):

voice.* • browser.* • video.* • web.* • traffic.* • keys.* • agent.send • agent.wait • find.agents • window.move • daemon.list • wm.command • pane.send_keys • workspace.status

# Example: Sending a message to an agent via bilterm ctl

$ bilterm ctl agent.send '{"to":"auditor","body":"Review PR #42","mode":"mailbox"}'

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"delivered":true,"msg_id":"msg-104"},"id":1}