[Bug]: t3 server fails to start on linux-arm64 — node-pty has no prebuild and no working source-build fallback

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
• I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.

Area

apps/server

Steps to reproduce

1. On a linux-arm64 machine (tested: Orange Pi 5 Max, Armbian bookworm, Node v24.15.0), install and run the server with npm i t3@latest (or bun i t3@latest + bunx t3).
2. Start the server: node node_modules/t3/dist/bin.mjs (or npx t3@latest).
3. Observe startup crash after migrations run successfully.

Expected behavior

Server boots and serves the web UI, building node-pty from source if no prebuilt binary exists for the platform (the repo already has this pattern: node-gyp rebuild + staging into prebuilds/linux-<arch> in the WSL/desktop flow).

Actual behavior

Server exits with code 1:

[ERROR]: NodePtyModuleLoadError: Failed to load node-pty for linux-arm64.
[cause]: Error: Failed to load native module: pty.node, checked: build/Release, build/Debug, prebuilds/linux-arm64:
  Error: Cannot find module './prebuilds/linux-arm64//pty.node'

NodePtyAdapter.make ends in .pipe(orDie), so this is an unrecoverable startup crash, not a degraded-terminal warning.

Impact

Blocks work completely

Version or commit

t3@0.0.40 (npm), node-pty@1.1.0 (transitive dep)

Environment

• OS: Armbian 26.11 bookworm (Debian 12), kernel 6.1.115-vendor-rk35xx, aarch64
• Node v24.15.0 (nvm), Bun 1.3.14
• Build tools present: make, gcc, python3 — g++ absent

Logs or stack traces

[14:26:56.384] ERROR (#5): NodePtyModuleLoadError: Failed to load node-pty for linux-arm64.
    at NodePtyAdapter.make (file:///home/uname/node_modules/t3/dist/NodePtyAdapter-B9l4A_UU.mjs:115:34)
  [cause]: Error: Failed to load native module: pty.node, checked: build/Release, build/Debug, prebuilds/linux-arm64:
    Error: Cannot find module './prebuilds/linux-arm64//pty.node'
    Require stack:
    - /home/uname/node_modules/node-pty/lib/utils.js
    - /home/uname/node_modules/node-pty/lib/index.js

Verified on the machine:

• node-pty@1.1.0 npm tarball ships prebuilds/ for darwin-arm64, darwin-x64, win32-arm64, win32-x64 only — no linux prebuild of any arch.
• build/Release/ contains only .deps, node-addon-api, obj.target — the compile never produced pty.node.
• node-pty's own scripts/prebuild.js reports: Rebuilding because .../prebuilds/linux-arm64 does not exist, then the node-gyp rebuild fallback cannot succeed without a C++ compiler (gcc fails with cannot execute 'cc1plus').
• The release pipeline (release.yml) has a build_wsl_node_pty job for linux-x64 only — no linux-arm64 artifact.

Workaround

sudo apt install -y g++ and rebuild (npm rebuild node-pty or a clean npm i so the node scripts/prebuild.js || node-gyp rebuild install script can complete), then run under Node. There is no workaround without a compiler.

Suggested fix (one of)

1. Add a linux-arm64 node-pty build to the release pipeline and bundle/stage it the way the linux-x64 WSL prebuild is handled, or
2. Make the npm t3 install self-healing on Linux: detect missing prebuilds/linux-<arch>/pty.node postinstall and run node-gyp rebuild with a clear error message naming the missing toolchain (g++) instead of crashing at first startup, or
3. At minimum, document g++ (build-essential) as a Linux prerequisite for npx t3 and fail fast with that message during install rather than at server boot.

Start with apps/server and NodePtyAdapter.make, then inspect node-pty’s scripts/prebuild.js and release.yml’s build_wsl_node_pty job. Reproduce the linux-arm64 install on the stated toolchain and trace whether the missing prebuild or source-build path is reached. Done means the selected install or release behavior is verified on linux-arm64 and startup no longer exits with the reported error.