rdmbair15m5-changelog-20260822-0424-retrotty-ghostty-terminal-architecture

Terminal-native DOS and Sierra AGI architecture specification and interactive Ghostty terminal simulator for RetroTTY, leveraging modern GPU terminal capabilities (Kitty Graphics Protocol, Sixel, ANSI half-blocks, sub-millisecond termios raw input, and libghostty native SwiftUI embedding).

Scope

• Host: rdmbair15m5 (Universal ARM64 / x86_64)
• Application: RetroTTY (retrotty CLI & libghostty Native Container)

Exact files created on ~/Desktop/

• ~/Desktop/retrotty_ghostty_terminal_architecture_v822.md (Architecture PRD, Kitty Graphics protocol escape stream, ANSI half-block double resolution encoder, CSI 1003h mouse tracking, and libghostty SwiftUI view wrapper)
• ~/Desktop/retrotty_ghostty_visual_studio_v822.html (Interactive Ghostty terminal simulator with live King's Quest II / Lemmings rendering, Kitty pixel protocol mode, ANSI half-block mode, and escape code stream inspector)

Key Technical Feasibility Insights

1. Modern Terminal Graphics: Ghostty, Kitty, and WezTerm support full 60 FPS 24-bit TrueColor image blitting via the Kitty Graphics Protocol (\x1b_Ga=T...).
2. ANSI Half-Block Double Resolution: Fallback using ▀ (U+2580) with independent 24-bit foreground/background colors yields a crisp $160 \times 100$ color canvas across any standard terminal or headless SSH.
3. Mouse Tracking in CLI: \x1b[?1003h enables point-and-click mouse reporting for Lemmings directly inside the terminal.
4. libghostty Embedding: Ghostty's Zig/Metal C-ABI library can be embedded into native macOS apps with zero webview overhead.

Verification Evidence

• Verified valid Markdown and interactive HTML5 terminal studio files created on ~/Desktop/.