github / github/copilot-cli

Prompt box and highlighted menu items render invisible (dark-on-dark) inside tmux

Open
#4,212 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:terminal-rendering area:theming-accessibility
Dominant language
Shell
Stars
11.2k
Forks
1.9k
Avg merge
14h 16m
Merged PRs (30d)
6

Description

### Describe the bug

Copilot CLI's prompt input box and highlighted/selected menu list items are unreadable (dark text on dark/matching background) when run inside tmux. The same session works correctly in a plain iTerm2 tab with no tmux.

During troubleshooting, ruled out the following:

• Stale  COLORFGBG  env var — unset it, no change.
• iTerm2 automatic light/dark profile switching — disabled it, no change.
• tmux truecolor passthrough — confirmed via  tmux info  that  Tc / RGB  report  true  after adding  set -ga terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color:Tc" , and  tmux capture-pane -e  shows correct 24-bit RGB SGR codes are being preserved (not quantized), so this isn't a color-depth/passthrough issue.
•  tmux allow-passthrough on  is enabled; OSC 11 background-color queries do get a reply (confirmed manually with  printf '\033]11;?\033\\' ), though the reply appears to arrive after Copilot's internal detection timeout in some tests.
• Restarting tmux server fully, restarting iTerm2 fully — no change.
• Switching Copilot's  theme  setting between  default ,  dim ,  github  — same problem persists in all of them, only inside tmux.

### Affected version

GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.73. Run 'copilot update' to check for updates.

### Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Launch iTerm2, start a tmux session, run  copilot .
2. Type in the prompt input box, or open a menu with selectable items (e.g.  /theme ).
3. Text in the prompt box / highlighted menu rows is invisible — same foreground/background color.

### Expected behavior

The colors should be legible regardless of being run inside tmux or not

### Additional context

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No source files or tests are identified in the report. Reproduce with GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.73 inside iTerm2 and tmux, compare it with a plain iTerm2 tab, and inspect the reported truecolor and OSC 11 behavior. Done means prompt text and highlighted menu items remain legible in tmux across the listed themes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.