The runtime owns a Terminal UI process and exposes attach, interrupt, messaging, output, and liveness operations to the daemon. It is selected by platform, not by project configuration.
| Platform | Runtime | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| macOS / Linux | tmux | Install tmux. |
| Windows | ConPTY | Built into supported Windows versions. |
Structured Chat sessions use provider controllers instead of an agent terminal runtime. They can still open a separate session-scoped worktree shell in the desktop app.
Run ao doctor to check the runtime required on the current platform.