Summary

Add a --terminal flag that exposes a WebSocket endpoint at /.terminal for interactive shell access. Combined with an xterm.js pane, this gives pod owners a full terminal in the browser.

Implementation

~30 lines in the WebSocket handler:

import { spawn } from 'child_process'

// On WebSocket connect to /.terminal
const shell = spawn('/bin/sh', { env: process.env })
ws.on('message', data => shell.stdin.write(data))
shell.stdout.on('data', data => ws.send(data))
shell.stderr.on('data', data => ws.send(data))
shell.on('exit', () => ws.close())

Security

• Owner-only: requires authentication (DPoP/Solid OIDC)
• Disabled by default, opt-in via --terminal
• Only accessible to the pod owner (ACL check)

Use case

Developers using losos as a phone OS / pod browser need shell access. Rather than installing ttyd as a separate process, JSS provides it natively. The terminal pane in nosdav/browser connects xterm.js to this endpoint.

No extra dependencies

• xterm.js loads from CDN in the browser pane
• Shell spawning uses Node.js built-in child_process
• WebSocket infrastructure already exists (--notifications)