fix(server): advertise 256-color TERM on Windows terminals

[yassiEmp]

Problem

Windows PTY sessions spawn with name: xterm-color, which advertises a 16-color terminal type. Every other platform gets xterm-256color. TUIs and agent CLIs that key off TERM render a degraded palette on Windows only. Likely cause of #3491 (terminal colors are faint in Windows).

Fix

Two parts in apps/server/src/terminal/NodePtyAdapter.ts:

1. Use xterm-256color as the pty name unconditionally.
2. Default TERM=xterm-256color in the spawn env on win32. node-pty only writes name into the child TERM on the Unix path; the ConPTY path never touches the environment, so the name change alone does nothing on Windows (caught by Bugbot in review). A caller-provided TERM still wins.

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Model: Claude Fable 5 · Harness: Claude Code

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Note

Low Risk
Small, platform-scoped spawn env default for Windows terminals with no auth or data-path changes; caller TERM is preserved when set.

Overview
Fixes degraded terminal colors on Windows by aligning PTY capability with Unix: NodePtyAdapter always passes name: xterm-256color to node-pty (replacing win32-only xterm-color) and, on win32 only, sets TERM=xterm-256color in the spawn environment when the caller did not supply TERM—because ConPTY does not apply name to the child env the way the Unix path does.

Tests on the win32 layer now expect the injected env and xterm-256color name, plus a case that a caller-provided TERM (e.g. xterm-direct) is left unchanged.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 5c86c88. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Fix NodePtyAdapter to advertise xterm-256color on Windows terminals

• On Windows, spawned processes now receive TERM=xterm-256color by default; a caller-provided TERM value is preserved as-is.
• The name option passed to node-pty is now xterm-256color on all platforms, replacing the previous xterm-color on Windows.
• Behavioral Change: Windows terminal sessions will advertise 256-color support where they previously advertised only 8-color (xterm-color).

^{Macroscope summarized 5c86c88.}

[coderabbitai]

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[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 1 potential issue.

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit b167e17. Configure here.}

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved 5c86c88

Straightforward bug fix that sets proper 256-color TERM environment for Windows terminals. Limited scope, preserves caller-provided values, and tests updated accordingly.

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[macroscopeapp]

One finding: the win32 PTY behavior change is not reflected in the existing focused test, which now asserts the old name/env values.

^{Posted via Macroscope — Effect Service Conventions}

[macroscopeapp]

This changes backend spawn behavior on win32, but apps/server/src/terminal/NodePtyAdapter.test.ts still asserts the old call shape (env: {} and name: "xterm-color" with HostProcessPlatform set to win32), so it will fail. Consider updating that assertion to env: { TERM: "xterm-256color" } / name: "xterm-256color", and adding a focused case that an explicitly provided TERM in input.env is preserved.

^{Posted via Macroscope — Effect Service Conventions}

[yassiEmp]

Addressed in 5c86c88: assertion updated to the new call shape, plus a focused case that a caller-provided TERM is preserved.

[macroscopeapp]

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