Multiple Shell Profiles Support Implementation Plan

Context

This feature adds support for multiple shell profiles in Rio terminal, allowing users to:

Define a default shell profile via [shell] (existing behavior)
Define additional shell profiles via [[shells]] array
Use Ctrl+Shift+T to create tabs with the default profile (unchanged)
Use Ctrl+Shift+Y to open a profile selector for choosing which shell to use

Configuration Format

# Default shell (existing, unchanged behavior)
[shell]
program = "/bin/zsh"
args = ["--login"]

# Additional shell profiles
[[shells]]
name = "Fish"
program = "/bin/fish"
args = ["--login"]

[[shells]]
name = "WSL"
program = "C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\wsl.exe"
args = []

[[shells]]
name = "PowerShell"
program = "C:\\Users\\developer\\scoop\\shims\\pwsh.exe"
args = []

Implementation

Phase 1: Configuration Changes

File: rio-backend/src/config/mod.rs

Extend Shell struct with optional name field:

#[derive(Default, Debug, Serialize, Deserialize, PartialEq, Clone)]
pub struct Shell {
    #[serde(default)]
    pub name: Option<String>,  // Optional profile name for display
    pub program: String,
    #[serde(default)]
    pub args: Vec<String>,
}

Add shells field to Config struct (after shell field, ~line 92):

#[serde(default, rename = "shells")]
pub shells: Vec<Shell>,

File: frontends/rioterm/src/context/mod.rs

Add shells field to ContextManagerConfig (line 111-124):

#[derive(Clone, Default)]
pub struct ContextManagerConfig {
    pub shell: Shell,
    pub shells: Vec<Shell>,  // Add this
    // ... rest of fields
}

Phase 2: Actions

File: frontends/rioterm/src/bindings/mod.rs

Add new action variant to Action enum (~line 418, after TabCreateNew):

/// Create a new Rio tab with default shell.
TabCreateNew,

/// Show shell profile selector overlay.
ShellProfileSelector,

Add action parsing (~line 238):

"createtab" => Some(Action::TabCreateNew),
"shellprofileselector" => Some(Action::ShellProfileSelector),

Add default keybindings:
- macOS (~line 1020): "y", ModifiersState::SUPER; Action::ShellProfileSelector;
- Windows/Linux (~line 1103, 1172): "y", ModifiersState::CONTROL | ModifiersState::SHIFT; Action::ShellProfileSelector;

Phase 3: Profile Selector State

New File: frontends/rioterm/src/shell_selector.rs

Create shell selector state module following the hints.rs pattern:

use rio_backend::config::Shell;

pub struct ShellSelector {
    active: bool,
    profiles: Vec<Shell>,
    selected_index: usize,
}

impl ShellSelector {
    pub fn new(default_shell: Shell, additional_shells: Vec<Shell>) -> Self;
    pub fn is_active(&self) -> bool;
    pub fn start(&mut self);
    pub fn stop(&mut self);
    pub fn select_next(&mut self);
    pub fn select_previous(&mut self);
    pub fn selected_profile(&self) -> Option<&Shell>;
    pub fn profiles_for_display(&self) -> Vec<(&Shell, bool)>; // (shell, is_selected)
}

Phase 4: Tab Creation with Shell Override

File: frontends/rioterm/src/context/mod.rs

Modify add_context to accept optional shell override (~line 982):

pub fn add_context(&mut self, redirect: bool, rich_text_id: usize) {
    self.add_context_with_shell(redirect, rich_text_id, None)
}

pub fn add_context_with_shell(
    &mut self,
    redirect: bool,
    rich_text_id: usize,
    shell_override: Option<Shell>,
) {
    // Use shell_override if provided, otherwise use default config.shell
    // ... rest of implementation uses the shell variable
}

File: frontends/rioterm/src/screen/mod.rs

Add shell override variant (~line 1225):

pub fn create_tab(&mut self) {
    self.create_tab_with_shell(None);
}

pub fn create_tab_with_shell(&mut self, shell: Option<Shell>) {
    let redirect = true;
    let num_tabs = self.ctx().len();
    self.resize_top_or_bottom_line(num_tabs + 1);

    let rich_text_id = self.sugarloaf.create_rich_text();
    self.context_manager.add_context_with_shell(redirect, rich_text_id, shell);

    self.cancel_search();
    self.render();
}

Phase 5: UI Rendering

File: frontends/rioterm/src/renderer/shell_selector.rs (New)

Create renderer for shell profile selector overlay:

Draw semi-transparent backdrop over terminal
Draw centered selector panel with background color
List all profiles with numbers (1-9, then a-z)
Highlight currently selected profile
Use existing color scheme (colors.bar, colors.tabs, etc.)

Key rendering details:

Panel width: ~300px
Item height: ~28px
Show: number label + profile name (or program path if no name)
Selected item uses colors.tabs_active background

Phase 6: Event Handling

File: frontends/rioterm/src/screen/mod.rs

Add ShellSelector to Screen struct
Handle ShellProfileSelector action:

Act::ShellProfileSelector => {
    if self.shell_selector.is_active() {
        self.shell_selector.stop();
    } else {
        self.shell_selector.start();
    }
    self.render();
}

Add keyboard navigation when selector is active:
- j / Down arrow: next profile
- k / Up arrow: previous profile
- 1-9: directly select and create tab with that profile
- Enter: create tab with selected profile
- Escape: cancel selector
Integrate selector rendering in main render loop

Critical Files

File	Changes
`rio-backend/src/config/mod.rs`	Shell struct extension, Config.shells field
`frontends/rioterm/src/bindings/mod.rs`	Action enum, keybindings, action parsing
`frontends/rioterm/src/context/mod.rs`	ContextManagerConfig, add_context_with_shell
`frontends/rioterm/src/screen/mod.rs`	create_tab_with_shell, selector state, event handling
`frontends/rioterm/src/shell_selector.rs`	New file - selector state
`frontends/rioterm/src/renderer/shell_selector.rs`	New file - selector rendering

Backward Compatibility

Existing [shell] configuration works unchanged
[[shells]] is optional - if not defined, profile selector shows only default shell
Empty program string uses login shell (existing Unix behavior)
Platform-specific overrides via [platform] continue to work

Verification

Config parsing: Create test config with multiple shells, verify parsing
Default behavior: Ctrl+Shift+T creates tab with default shell (unchanged)
Profile selector: Ctrl+Shift+Y opens selector overlay
Profile selection: Selecting a profile creates tab with that shell
Keyboard navigation: j/k navigation, 1-9 direct selection work
Backward compat: Configs without [[shells]] work as before
Build: cargo build succeeds on all platforms

Uh oh!

[Feature Request] multiple configuration profiles and selector/manager. #622

Description

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions