dotfiles/docs/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

2026-08-29 (root cause found and fixed)

• Root-caused and fixed the recurring post-TUI typing lag (fish + Zellij + Ghostty) using a lag-triage capture from a live lagging shell plus a deterministic PTY reproduction (presets/programs/lag-triage/upstream_repro.py):
  • Root cause chain: (1) fish latches feature flags from its startup environment, before config.fish runs — so the existing set -gx fish_features no-query-term in shellInit never applied to the shell that set it, only to its children. (2) Zellij spawns pane shells via default_shell with no fish_features in the environment, so every pane's fish latched query-term on (the fish 4.8.1 default; the triage log from the lagging shell confirmed query-term on while $fish_features was correctly set to no-query-term). (3) With query-term on, fish sends OSC 11 + CPR (\e[6n) + DA1 (\e[0c) after every command and waits for replies relayed by Zellij. (4) Reproduced on fish 4.8.1: if the terminal fails to reply during just one such cycle — answering everything before and after — that fish process's interactive reader is permanently degraded (keystroke echo >3s, never recovers; ~35ms before). In production Zellij drops/mangles a relay during TUI teardown or heavy output (cf. zellij-org/zellij#5158), e.g. after nh home switch, nvim, jjui, yazi.
  • Why every previous observation finally makes sense: subshells and exec fish were never "resetting" anything — they inherited the exported fish_features=no-query-term from config.fish, latched query-term off at startup, and were therefore immune. The parent zellij-spawned shell never had the variable at startup and stayed vulnerable. Raw keystroke capture in the lagging pane showed instant plain bytes (input path fine) and no stuck terminal modes — the damage was inside the fish process, exactly as the repro shows.
  • Fix: zellij.nix now spawns panes through a fish-no-query-term wrapper (export fish_features=no-query-term; exec fish), so the feature is latched off in every pane shell. Verified: interactive fish through the built wrapper with the real config reports query-term off; the PTY repro with no-query-term in the environment shows ~35ms echo through all failure phases.
  • Correction to the earlier 2026-08-29 entry: query-term does not default to off in fish 4.8.1 — it defaults on; it only appeared off in non-interactive checks because the user config's set -gx takes effect for fish -c (no reader latch) but not for interactive shells.
  • Upstream: fish-shell should bound the reader's wait for query replies instead of degrading permanently (repro script kept at presets/programs/lag-triage/upstream_repro.py for filing); Zellij's reply relaying is the trigger (zellij-org/zellij#5158).
  • lag-triage now checks status features and calls out query-term on as the known root cause, and warns that its read-prompt typing tests may not exhibit main-commandline lag (which produced a false "fixed by stage A" in the first capture).

2026-08-29 (later)

• Added a diagnostic toolkit (lag-triage / unlag fish functions + term-probe binary, presets/programs/lag-triage/) for the still-recurring post-TUI typing lag in fish + Zellij + Ghostty, instead of another blind fix. Findings that motivated it:
  • All three prior fixes were either no-ops or insufficient: fish_features = no-query-term is a no-op because query-term already defaults to off in fish 4.8.1 (verified with status features); disabling Ghostty's fish integration inside Zellij and setting support_kitty_keyboard_protocol = false did not stop recurrence.
  • PTY captures of fish 4.8.1 (TERM=xterm-256color, with and without $ZELLIJ) show fish never writes Kitty keyboard sequences to the wire — it uses modifyOtherKeys (\e[>4;1m), application keypad (\e=), bracketed paste (?2004), and color-theme reporting (?2031), enabling them at every prompt and disabling them before every external command. Crucially, a fresh subshell's startup bytes are identical to the parent's post-command re-enable bytes, so "a subshell fixes the lag" cannot be explained by a simple terminal-state reset — leaving two competing hypotheses that only live capture can separate: (1) fish-internal reader state poisoned by stray/partial escape bytes (e.g. leaked from a closing floating pane), cleared only by a new fish process; (2) Zellij/Ghostty-level stuck state (Zellij 0.45's StdinAnsiParser is already a proven source of input delays — see the Alt-Shift-P fix below).
  • Also note: the floating-pane TUIs (jjui via Alt-Shift-J, yazi via Alt-Shift-Y, scrollback editor) run in their own panes and never pass through the shell's fish process at all, while nvim runs inside the shell pane — the triage log records which path preceded the lag.
  • Next occurrence: run lag-triage in the lagging shell BEFORE starting a new shell. It snapshots the environment, queries pane terminal state (kitty flags, modifyOtherKeys, DEC modes, DA1 round-trip latency), captures raw keystroke bytes+timing bypassing fish, then applies staged resets (kitty pop/clear, modifyOtherKeys off, keypad/cursor, mouse/focus/sync, altscreen, stty, DECSTR) — the stage that cures it names the stuck layer. Logs to ~/.local/state/lag-triage/ for an upstream issue. unlag is the one-shot convenience version (if unlag never helps but exec fish does, the bug is fish-internal).

2026-08-29

• Fixed 1.5-second latency when pressing Alt-Shift-P to trigger zellij-session in Zellij 0.45.0 + Ghostty:
  • Root Cause: Zellij 0.45.0 introduced StdinAnsiParser (zellij-client/src/stdin_ansi_parser.rs) using termwiz::InputParser to parse ANSI control strings (OSCs, CSIs, DCSs) arriving on stdin. When pressing Alt-Shift-P (Option-Shift-P) with support_kitty_keyboard_protocol = false, Ghostty sent \x1bP (ESC + uppercase P). In ECMA-48 / VT100 standards, ESC P is the 7-bit ASCII representation of DCS (Device Control String). StdinAnsiParser buffered \x1bP waiting for a DCS string payload and string terminator (ST / \x1b\), hitting a ~1.5-second escape timeout before flushing \x1bP as residue to the keyboard handler.
  • Fix: Added alt+shift+p=text:\x1b[112;4u and super+shift+p=text:\x1b[112;4u in ghostty.nix to send the explicit CSI-u sequence for Alt+Shift+p ('p' with modifier 4 = ALT | SHIFT). StdinAnsiParser immediately recognizes \x1b[112;4u as non-DCS input and passes it straight to the keyboard handler with 0ms latency.

2026-08-26

• Fixed macOS shortcuts (Cmd+T, Ctrl+Tab, Cmd+Shift+], Cmd+Shift+[, Cmd+K, Cmd+Shift+E) in Zellij + Ghostty after disabling the Kitty keyboard protocol:

  • Mapped Ghostty keybindings (super+t, super+shift+], super+shift+[, ctrl+tab, ctrl+shift+tab, super+k, super+shift+e) to send standard Alt (ESC-prefix) text sequences (\x1bt, \x1b}, \x1b{, \x1bK, \x1bE).
  • Added matching Alt keybindings (Alt t, Alt ], Alt }, Alt [, Alt {, Alt Shift k, Alt Shift e) in zellij.nix for tab creation, tab navigation, scroll mode, and scrollback editing. Symbols like ] and } are parsed by Zellij's termwiz input engine as distinct character codes ('}' vs ']'), so binding both Alt } and Alt Shift ] ensures \x1b} triggers tab navigation correctly.
  • Keeps Kitty keyboard protocol disabled in Zellij (support_kitty_keyboard_protocol = false) so no CSI-u flags leak into Fish shell, guaranteeing zero post-TUI typing lag while restoring all shortcuts.

• Fixed persistent Fish typing lag after long TUI sessions (Neovim, jjui, Yazi) inside Zellij + Ghostty, which the no-query-term / Ghostty-integration fixes from 2026-08-25 did not resolve:

  • Verified on Fish 4.8.1 that the query-term feature already defaults to off, so exporting fish_features = no-query-term is a no-op on this Fish version — it isn't the cause of (or fix for) this class of lag.
  • Set support_kitty_keyboard_protocol = false in zellij.nix. Zellij and Ghostty have several open upstream bugs (zellij-org/zellij#3887, #3723, #4178) where the Kitty keyboard protocol's enhancement-flag stack is left in an elevated state after a full-screen TUI exits without properly popping it. Every subsequent keystroke then arrives as a CSI-u sequence that Fish must wait out an escape-disambiguation timeout to parse, which reads as typing lag that worsens the longer the TUI session ran, and persists until the pane's protocol state resets (e.g. a fresh shell/pane). Disabling the protocol support in Zellij avoids the whole bug class; trades off precise modifier reporting (e.g. distinguishing Ctrl+Shift+key) for TUIs running inside Zellij panes, which this setup doesn't otherwise depend on (Shift+Enter is handled via a literal Ghostty text: keybind, not the Kitty protocol).

2026-08-25

• Fixed Nix evaluation warnings for stdenv deprecation and gemini-cli:
  • Replaced deprecated stdenv.isLinux and stdenv.isDarwin checks across module presets and package definitions with stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux and stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin.
  • Replaced deprecated pkgs.gemini-cli with pkgs.antigravity-cli (and updated binary invocation to agy) in experimental.nix profile and daily-summary.nix launchd service.

2026-08-25

• Fixed multi-second hang and permanent typing latency in Fish after exiting TUIs inside Zellij and Ghostty:
  • Exported fish_features = "no-query-term" in home.sessionVariables and added set -gx fish_features no-query-term to Fish's top-level shellInit. Previous attempt (set -a fish_features no-query-term in interactiveShellInit) set a local variable inside an anonymous initialization function block that went out of scope immediately after startup. Furthermore, Fish reads fish_features at binary launch before interactive init functions run. Without no-query-term exported prior to Fish startup, Fish attempted terminal feature queries (Primary Device Attributes DA1 / \e[?c and termcap) whenever a TUI (e.g. Neovim, Lazygit, Yazi) exited and returned control to Fish. Zellij drops or delays DA1 response sequences, causing Fish to block on a multi-second stdin timeout, followed by severe input reader desynchronization and typing latency on every subsequent keystroke.
  • Disabled programs.ghostty.enableFishIntegration and conditionally sourced Ghostty's shell integration script in shellInit only when NOT running inside a multiplexer (not set -q ZELLIJ and not set -q TMUX). Sourcing Ghostty's shell integration inside Zellij sent duplicate and conflicting OSC 133 prompt markers and DECSCUSR cursor escape sequences to Zellij's PTY parser.

2026-08-16

• Fixed Zellij new tab directory tracking by adding __fish_update_cwd_osc override in presets/programs/zellij.nix. Fish's default OSC 7 sequence includes $hostname, which on macOS or dynamic network environments evaluates to Noah-MacBook-Pro.local or a domain suffix. Zellij compares the OSC 7 hostname against its system hostname (Noah-MacBook-Pro), finds a mismatch, and silently ignores the CWD update, leaving new tabs stuck in a previous directory or session default. Overriding __fish_update_cwd_osc to send file://<PWD> (empty hostname) ensures Zellij always updates its cached CWD on every cd and prompt render.
• Fixed Firefox "profile cannot be loaded" error on macOS by removing home.file."Library/Application Support/Firefox/installs.ini". Hardcoding an installation hash in installs.ini broke whenever Firefox was updated or rebuilt in the Nix store because the nix store path changed, causing Firefox to compute a new installation hash, fail to match or write to the read-only installs.ini symlink, and error out. Firefox on macOS uses profiles.ini (managed by Home Manager) and MOZ_LEGACY_PROFILES=1 (exported by nixpkgs' launcher wrapper).

2026-08-03

• Added presets/security/corporate-ca.nix (nix-darwin) and enabled it on the lookingglass host to trust a corporate TLS-intercepting proxy's root CA. Behind the corp network, Nix fetches failed with SSL peer certificate ... self-signed certificate in certificate chain (19) because Nix's stock Mozilla CA bundle doesn't contain the interception root. The module appends the cert to security.pki.certificateFiles, which rebuilds /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt (read by both the Nix daemon and, via NIX_SSL_CERT_FILE, client-side flake fetches).

  The cert is kept out of this public repo and referenced by absolute path. It is passed as a string (not a Nix path literal) so pure flake evaluation doesn't read it at eval time, and it lives at a root-owned, world-readable path because the unprivileged nixbld build user cannot traverse $HOME (mode 0750) to read it at build time.

  One-time setup on a machine behind the proxy:

  # 1. Extract the self-signed corporate root from any TLS connection it MITMs
  #    (the last cert in the chain, subject == issuer). Any HTTPS host works:
  echo | openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -servername example.com \
    -showcerts 2>/dev/null \
    | awk '/BEGIN CERT/{c++} c==2' > /tmp/CorpCA.pem
  openssl x509 -in /tmp/CorpCA.pem -noout -subject -issuer   # sanity check
  
  # 2. Install to the root-owned path the config points at:
  sudo install -d -m 0755 -o root -g wheel /etc/ssl/corp-ca
  sudo install -m 0644 -o root -g wheel /tmp/CorpCA.pem \
    /etc/ssl/corp-ca/CorpCA.pem
  
  # 3. Bootstrap the first rebuild (which must fetch inputs over the proxy)
  #    with a combined bundle, then it's permanent:
  cat /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt /etc/ssl/corp-ca/CorpCA.pem \
    > /tmp/combined-ca.crt
  NIX_SSL_CERT_FILE=/tmp/combined-ca.crt nh darwin switch . --configuration lookingglass
  

• Fixed the zellij-session fish function in presets/programs/zellij.nix truncating the session name (derived from the target directory basename) to 20 characters. Zellij names each session's Unix-domain IPC socket $TMPDIR/zellij-<uid>/<version>/<name>, and on macOS the socket path is capped at 103 bytes. The /var/folders/... $TMPDIR prefix consumes ~79 of those, leaving only ~24 chars for the name, so switching into directories with long basenames overflowed the socket path. Because switch-session had already detached from the current session by the time the new one failed to bind, the failure took down the entire terminal instead of erroring gracefully.

2026-07-25

• Added jjui config generation to jujutsu.nix in Home Manager to include custom GitHub ruleset bypass commands (ctrl+b and ctrl+shift+b).
• Added overlays/cheetah3.nix to disable pythonMetadataCheckPhase for cheetah3. This fixes an issue where the NixOS rebuild fails for sabnzbd due to importlib.metadata.PackageNotFoundError: No package metadata was found for cheetah3 during the Python package evaluation in nixos-unstable.

2026-07-20

• Added overlays/paho-mqtt.nix to disable paho-mqtt's flaky, socket-based test suite. Its checkPhase hangs in the Nix sandbox and times out with a KeyboardInterrupt after ~150s, which was breaking the flame rebuild (paho-mqtt is pulled in transitively, e.g. via mealie). The override is applied through pythonPackagesExtensions so it covers every Python package set.