base: support modern terminals (ncurses-term + xterm-ghostty alias)

The base only shipped ncurses-base (xterm-256color, tmux), so SSHing in from
WezTerm/Alacritty/foot/Ghostty degraded to a dumb TERM fallback. Following the
maintainer's ansible common role:

- Dockerfile.base: install ncurses-term (terminfo for wezterm, alacritty,
  foot, st, base ghostty entry, and many more).
- rootfs/.../terminfo-src/ghostty.terminfo: thin xterm-ghostty alias
  (use=ghostty) — Ghostty connects as TERM=xterm-ghostty, which no distro
  packages. Compiled into the system db with 'tic -x'; build asserts it
  resolved via infocmp.
- kitty (xterm-kitty) already covered by kitty-terminfo; iTerm2 uses
  xterm-256color (ncurses-base).
- smoke-test: assert ncurses-term emulators + xterm-ghostty alias resolve.

Validated end-to-end in a throwaway container: ncurses-term brings the
entries, the alias compiles and equals the ghostty capability set. hadolint
clean, bash -n OK. Base-affecting, rebuilds base-<hash>. No tag.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -33,6 +33,19 @@ Pre-v1.0.0 tags followed the pi npm version (`v{pi_version}[letter]`).
   overridden per-user (`:set notermguicolors`, or your own init). Base-affecting
   (`Dockerfile.base` apt package + COPY), rebuilds `base-<hash>`.
 
+- **Terminal support beyond kitty: `ncurses-term` + a compiled `xterm-ghostty`
+  alias.** The base previously shipped only `ncurses-base` (xterm-256color,
+  tmux), so SSHing in from a modern emulator degraded to a dumb fallback. The
+  base now installs `ncurses-term` (terminfo for WezTerm, Alacritty, foot, st,
+  and the base `ghostty` entry, among many others) and compiles an
+  `xterm-ghostty` alias with `tic -x` (`use=ghostty`) — Ghostty connects as
+  `TERM=xterm-ghostty` and no distro packages that name. Combined with
+  `kitty-terminfo` (xterm-kitty) and xterm-256color (iTerm2's default, already
+  in ncurses-base), the common modern terminals now resolve their TERM. The
+  approach mirrors the maintainer's ansible `common` role. Base-affecting
+  (`Dockerfile.base` apt + COPY + `tic` RUN, plus a new
+  `rootfs/usr/local/share/terminfo-src/ghostty.terminfo`), rebuilds `base-<hash>`.
+
 - **Repository hygiene: `LICENSE`, `THIRD_PARTY.md`, and `.dockerignore`.** The
   repo declared MIT only in prose; it now ships an actual `LICENSE` file (MIT,
   © Joakim Persson) plus `THIRD_PARTY.md` recording that the published images

Dockerfile.base

@@ -76,6 +76,13 @@ ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 #                  true-colour from kitty over ssh; installing it makes
 #                  TERM=xterm-kitty understood. Pairs with the system-wide
 #                  Neovim termguicolors default (etc/xdg/nvim/sysinit.vim).
+#   ncurses-term   — broad terminfo bundle (wezterm, alacritty, foot, st, the
+#                  base `ghostty` entry, and many more) so SSHing in from a
+#                  modern emulator resolves its TERM instead of degrading to a
+#                  dumb fallback. xterm-kitty is NOT in it (hence kitty-terminfo
+#                  above); TERM=xterm-ghostty is compiled from an alias further
+#                  down (ncurses ships `ghostty`, not `xterm-ghostty`). iTerm2
+#                  defaults to xterm-256color (ncurses-base), so needs nothing.
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get upgrade -y --no-install-recommends && \
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
@@ -114,6 +121,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     socat \
     nano \
     kitty-terminfo \
+    ncurses-term \
     && ln -s /usr/bin/fdfind /usr/local/bin/fd \
     && apt-get clean \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
@@ -577,6 +585,16 @@ COPY rootfs/home/developer/.gitignore_global /etc/skel-devbox/.gitignore_global
 # of a muddy 256-colour fallback. Pairs with kitty-terminfo (installed above).
 COPY rootfs/etc/xdg/nvim/sysinit.vim /etc/xdg/nvim/sysinit.vim
 
+# ── Terminal support: xterm-ghostty terminfo alias ──────────────────
+# ncurses-term (installed above) covers wezterm/alacritty/foot/st and the base
+# `ghostty` entry, but Ghostty connects with TERM=xterm-ghostty, for which no
+# distro packages an entry. Ship a thin alias (use=ghostty) and compile it into
+# the system terminfo db with `tic -x`, so it inherits the maintained ghostty
+# capability set. The `infocmp` check fails the build if the entry didn't land.
+COPY rootfs/usr/local/share/terminfo-src/ghostty.terminfo /usr/local/share/terminfo-src/ghostty.terminfo
+RUN tic -x -o /usr/share/terminfo /usr/local/share/terminfo-src/ghostty.terminfo && \
+    infocmp -x xterm-ghostty >/dev/null
+
 # ── Entrypoint ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 COPY rootfs/usr/local/lib/pi-devbox/ /usr/local/lib/pi-devbox/
 # Image-baked skills + the global-AGENTS append snippet. Under /usr/local so a

rootfs/usr/local/share/terminfo-src/ghostty.terminfo

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# xterm-ghostty — alias of the maintained ncurses `ghostty` terminfo entry.
+#
+# Ghostty sets TERM=xterm-ghostty by default, but the ncurses terminfo
+# database (Debian: ncurses-term) ships the entry under the name `ghostty`
+# only — there is no `xterm-ghostty` alias, and no distro packages one. This
+# thin alias makes xterm-ghostty resolve to the same upstream-maintained
+# capability set, so SSH sessions from a Ghostty terminal work without
+# vendoring Ghostty's full (Zig-generated) terminfo here.
+#
+# `use=ghostty` is resolved by `tic` at compile time against the base
+# `ghostty` entry from ncurses-term (installed in Dockerfile.base before the
+# compile step). Compiled with `tic -x`.
+xterm-ghostty|Ghostty terminal emulator (xterm-ghostty alias),
+	use=ghostty,

scripts/smoke-test.sh

@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 #   - new v1.0.0 base additions (pandoc, graphviz, imagemagick, yq, tealdeer)
 #   - typst PDF engine for pandoc (Unreleased) — `pandoc --pdf-engine=typst`
 #   - non-modal editors nano + micro (alongside nvim)
+#   - terminfo for modern emulators: xterm-kitty, xterm-ghostty, wezterm,
+#     alacritty, foot (kitty-terminfo + ncurses-term + compiled ghostty alias)
 #   - tmux 0-indexing baked in /etc/tmux.conf (required for pi-studio variants)
 #   - pi-toolkit cloned at /opt/pi-toolkit
 #   - pi-extensions cloned at /opt/pi-extensions
@@ -77,6 +79,8 @@ run "nvim"            "nvim --version"
 run "nano"            "nano --version"
 run "micro"           "micro --version"
 run "kitty-terminfo"  "infocmp -x xterm-kitty >/dev/null 2>&1"
+run "terminfo: modern emulators (ncurses-term)" 'for t in wezterm alacritty foot ghostty st-256color; do infocmp -x "$t" >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 1; done'
+run "terminfo: xterm-ghostty alias (tic)" "infocmp -x xterm-ghostty >/dev/null 2>&1"
 run "nvim true-colour default (sysinit.vim)" "nvim --headless -c 'lua os.exit(vim.o.termguicolors and 0 or 1)'"
 run "mempalace-mcp"   "mempalace-mcp --help"
 # v1.0.0 base additions — verify presence and basic functionality.