fix(terminal): page a hollow Codex transcript with PageUp/PageDown from the first wheel event

Two changes to the last-resort page-key scroll (_maybePageCliTranscript), the
path a wheel or touch gesture takes when it is not forwarded to the CLI and
the local xterm buffer has no history (normal buffer, baseY 0).

Codex now takes that path too. Newer codex draws on tmux's alternate screen,
which the full strip hides from xterm, so a codex pane is as hollow as a
repaint-mode Claude pane and the wheel did nothing. Codex still ignores SGR
wheel reports and is still never forwarded the wheel; this sends plain
PageUp/PageDown keys, which codex does page its transcript on (measured on
0.157.1 locally and 0.160 over a remote session). Which modes may page is a
new registry capability, capabilities.transcriptPageKeys (claude and codex in
stock.ts), published to the page as window.__codemanTranscriptPageKeys, so
terminal-ui.js holds no CLI id for it.

The first event of a gesture now pages at once. The fallback used to send a
key only after half a screen of accumulated travel (19 rows, about 475px on a
38-row pane), so an ordinary trackpad flick sent nothing. The skipped travel is
owed back by the rest of the gesture, keeping one page per half screen; a pause
of more than 150 ms, a direction change or a tab switch starts a new gesture.

src/config/cli-registry/schema.ts

@@ -294,6 +294,10 @@ const capabilitiesSchema = z
     wheelForward: z
       .object({ mode: z.enum(['never', 'version-gated']), minVersion: z.string().max(20).optional() })
       .strict(),
+    // Whether a hollow pane's wheel/touch scroll may be turned into PageUp/PageDown for
+    // the CLI to page its own transcript. Distinct from wheelForward (SGR reports).
+    // Optional: absent means no paging, the safe default for an unmeasured CLI.
+    transcriptPageKeys: z.boolean().optional(),
     keyboardAccessory: z.enum(['agent', 'shell']),
     privilegedCommandGate: z.boolean(),
     startMode: z.enum(['interactive', 'shell']),

src/config/cli-registry/stock.ts

@@ -267,6 +267,10 @@ const CLAUDE: CliEntry = {
     // Declared-for-later: the live rule (`_shouldForwardWheelToApp`, terminal-ui.js) is this version
     // AND the server-published `cliMouseTracking` flag (#498), so wiring this field up needs both.
     wheelForward: { mode: 'version-gated', minVersion: '2.1.187' },
+    // A repaint-mode Claude pane keeps no local history, so when the wheel is not
+    // forwarded (older CLI, inline renderer, the local-scrollback opt-out) a scroll is
+    // turned into PageUp/PageDown, which Claude pages its transcript on (#205).
+    transcriptPageKeys: true,
     keyboardAccessory: 'agent',
     privilegedCommandGate: false,
     startMode: 'interactive',
@@ -703,6 +707,11 @@ const CODEX: CliEntry = {
     altScreen: 'strip-full',
     echo: { policy: 'predict', anchor: { kind: 'cursor' }, predictProfile: 'codex' },
     wheelForward: { mode: 'never' }, // #227: codex ignores SGR wheel reports, never forward
+    // ...but it DOES page its transcript on PageUp/PageDown. Measured on 0.157.1 (local,
+    // alternate screen inside tmux, so xterm holds no history) and 0.160 (remote): PageUp
+    // moved the visible transcript while SGR wheel reports and local scrolling did nothing.
+    // This is the page-key fallback for a hollow pane, not wheel forwarding.
+    transcriptPageKeys: true,
     maxFrameBytes: 32 * 1024,
     // codex's own bare-spawn default (no config sent) is already safe (no bypass flag), so
     // the multi-user clamp only needs to force an EXPLICITLY-SENT bypass back off.

src/config/cli-registry/types.ts

@@ -490,6 +490,20 @@ export interface CliCapabilities {
   };
   /** Forwarding the wheel to the CLI's own transcript. 'never' keeps local scrollback. */
   wheelForward: { mode: 'never' | 'version-gated'; minVersion?: string };
+  /**
+   * The CLI pages its OWN transcript on PageUp/PageDown, so a wheel or touch scroll over
+   * a pane with no local history can be turned into those keys instead of doing nothing
+   * (`_maybePageCliTranscript` in terminal-ui.js). Read by the frontend through
+   * `window.__codemanTranscriptPageKeys`, which the server builds from this field.
+   *
+   * ⚠ NOT wheel forwarding. `wheelForward` above sends SGR mouse wheel REPORTS; this sends
+   * plain keys, and only when the local buffer is hollow (normal buffer, `baseY === 0`).
+   * A CLI can ignore one and honour the other: codex ignores SGR wheel reports (so its
+   * `wheelForward` stays 'never') yet pages on PageUp/PageDown.
+   *
+   * Absent means no paging, so a CLI nobody has measured keeps plain local scrolling.
+   */
+  transcriptPageKeys?: boolean;
   keyboardAccessory: 'agent' | 'shell';
   /** Multi-user: this CLI is a raw shell, so its commands need the privileged gate. */
   privilegedCommandGate: boolean;

src/web/public/terminal-ui.js

@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@
   const REPLAY_ESCAPE_RE =
     /\x1b\][^\x07\x1b]*(?:\x07|\x1b\\)|\x1b\[[0-9;?<>=!]*[ -/]*[@-~]|\x1b[()#][0-9A-Za-z]|\x1b[=>78M]/g;
   // PageUp / PageDown as xterm.js encodes them. Used as the LAST-RESORT scroll
-  // gesture for a repaint-mode CLI whose local buffer holds no scrollback
+  // gesture for a CLI whose local buffer holds no scrollback
   // (_maybePageCliTranscript).
   const KEY_PAGE_UP = '\x1b[5~';
   const KEY_PAGE_DOWN = '\x1b[6~';
@@ -92,6 +92,12 @@
   // Bound on page keys emitted from one gesture batch, mirroring the SGR tick
   // cap: a fling must not build a backlog that keeps paging after it stops.
   const PAGE_KEY_MAX_PER_BATCH = 3;
+  // A page-key scroll event after this much quiet, or in the opposite direction,
+  // starts a NEW gesture, and the first event of a gesture pages at once rather
+  // than waiting for half a screen of travel (a trackpad flick never got there).
+  const PAGE_KEY_GESTURE_GAP_MS = 150;
+  // ...but not for sub-row jitter (0.1 row, ~2px).
+  const PAGE_KEY_MIN_START_ROWS = 0.1;
 
   // Wheel delta → scroll lines (fractional), for a terminal `rows` tall. The
   // body of the primary pane's _wheelScrollLinesFloat (see its comment for the
@@ -261,6 +267,8 @@
     PAGE_KEY_MAX_PER_BATCH,
     wheelDeltaLines,
     pageKeysForTravel,
+    PAGE_KEY_GESTURE_GAP_MS,
+    PAGE_KEY_MIN_START_ROWS,
     TUI_PROMPT_DEFAULT_ROWS_FROM_BOTTOM,
     MOBILE_KEYBOARD_DISMISS_EXEMPT_SELECTOR,
     MOBILE_KEYBOARD_DISMISS_TAP_SLOP,
@@ -5669,35 +5677,38 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
   },
 
   /**
-   * True when this session's LOCAL scrollback is structurally empty: a pane whose
-   * TUI repaints one full screen in place, so tmux keeps no history for it
-   * (`history_size≈0`) and xterm's normal buffer never grows past one screen
-   * (`baseY === 0`). Scrolling that buffer is a no-op no matter how the gesture
-   * is routed — the "wheel does nothing at all" half of the #205 retest.
+   * True when this session's LOCAL scrollback is structurally empty and its CLI
+   * can page its own transcript: xterm's normal buffer never grows past one
+   * screen (`baseY === 0`), so scrolling it is a no-op no matter how the gesture
+   * is routed (the "wheel does nothing at all" half of the #205 retest).
    *
-   * Two shapes, measured separately:
-   *  - `claude` in repaint mode (the original, #205 round 2), and
+   * Shapes measured so far:
+   *  - `claude` in repaint mode (the original, #205 round 2): tmux reports
+   *    `history_size≈0` and every frame overwrites the last;
    *  - `opencode`, whose TUI runs on the ALTERNATE SCREEN (opencode 1.18.31: tmux
    *    `alternate_on=1`, `history_size=0`) and so pushes nothing into the
    *    terminal's scrollback at all. It pages its own transcript with the same
    *    PageUp/PageDown keys (`messages_page_up/down`) but IGNORES SGR wheel
    *    reports — six `\x1b[<64;…M` reports against an idle pane left the capture
-   *    byte-identical — so paging is the only gesture that reaches it. Without
-   *    this the wheel was silently dead in every opencode tab.
+   *    byte-identical — so paging is the only gesture that reaches it;
+   *  - `codex`, which draws on tmux's alternate screen too (0.157.1, 0.160), which
+   *    the full strip hides from xterm, and pages on PageUp/PageDown while SGR
+   *    wheel reports do nothing.
    *
-   * Every other mode is deliberately absent: shell/pi own real terminal
-   * scrollback, and codex/gemini/antigravity/grok/deepseek/omp page-key behaviour
-   * is unverified (docs/scrollback-fix-plan.md).
+   * ⚠️ Which modes page is read from `window.__codemanTranscriptPageKeys`, the
+   * list the server builds from the `transcriptPageKeys` CAPABILITY, never an id
+   * literal here. A missing list means no mode pages.
    *
    * `target` ({ terminal, sessionId, localRows }) asks for a TerminalTile, which
-   * calls this with its own session and terminal, so the mode list above stays
-   * here alone. `localRows` replaces `baseY` as the history row count: a tile
+   * calls this with its own session and terminal, so the mode rule stays here
+   * alone. `localRows` replaces `baseY` as the history row count: a tile
    * discounts the stale rows its own load order leaves above the screen
    * (TerminalTile._localRows). Every field left out means the primary pane's.
    */
   _localScrollbackIsHollow(target = {}) {
     const mode = this.sessions?.get(target.sessionId || this.activeSessionId)?.mode || 'claude';
-    if (mode !== 'claude' && mode !== 'opencode') return false;
+    const pagingModes = window.__codemanTranscriptPageKeys;
+    if (!Array.isArray(pagingModes) || !pagingModes.includes(mode)) return false;
     const buf = (target.terminal || this.terminal)?.buffer?.active;
     if (!buf || buf.type === 'alternate') return false;
     const rows = Number.isFinite(target.localRows) ? target.localRows : buf.baseY;
@@ -5714,14 +5725,23 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
    * unset (the inline renderer, or fullscreen right after a server restart), the
    * user turned on "Wheel scrolls local history" (which pins the wheel to a buffer
    * that, for a repaint-mode CLI, is empty: the setting's footgun), or the CLI is
-   * opencode, which never fills the buffer and never accepts the wheel. Before
+   * one that never fills the buffer and never accepts the wheel (opencode, codex:
+   * both ignore SGR wheel reports, #227, and page on PageUp/PageDown). Before
    * this, all of those produced a completely dead gesture; the #205 reporter
    * proved the keyboard route works by paging back through intact text with Fn+Up.
+   * This is not wheel forwarding: it sends plain keys, and only over a hollow buffer.
    *
-   * Guarded by `_localScrollbackIsHollow()` plus a false forwarding gate, so a
-   * session with real local scrollback is never touched. Shift is excluded on
-   * purpose: it is the explicit "give me local scrollback" gesture and must keep
-   * that meaning.
+   * Guarded by `_localScrollbackIsHollow()` (the `transcriptPageKeys` capability +
+   * `baseY === 0`) plus a false forwarding gate, so a session with real local
+   * scrollback is never touched. Shift is excluded on purpose: it is the explicit
+   * "give me local scrollback" gesture and must keep that meaning.
+   *
+   * The FIRST event of a gesture pages at once. Waiting for half a screen of
+   * travel (19 rows, ~475px on a 38-row pane) meant an ordinary trackpad flick
+   * never sent a key at all. That page is pre-paid: the travel it skipped is
+   * owed back by the rest of the gesture, so the rate stays one page per
+   * `perPage` rows. A pause (PAGE_KEY_GESTURE_GAP_MS), a direction change or a
+   * tab switch starts a new gesture.
    *
    * @returns true when the gesture was consumed here (the caller must not also
    *          scroll locally).
@@ -5739,8 +5759,29 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
     if (this._pageKeySession !== this.activeSessionId) {
       this._pageKeySession = this.activeSessionId;
       this._pageKeyPending = 0;
+      this._pageKeyLastAt = undefined;
     }
-    const step = window.CodemanTerminalInput.pageKeysForTravel(this._pageKeyPending, lines, this.terminal?.rows);
+    const tuning = window.CodemanTerminalInput;
+    const perPage = Math.max(2, Math.round((this.terminal?.rows || 24) * tuning.PAGE_KEY_SCREEN_FRACTION));
+    const now = performance.now();
+    const dir = lines < 0 ? -1 : 1;
+    const gestureStart =
+      typeof this._pageKeyLastAt !== 'number' ||
+      now - this._pageKeyLastAt > tuning.PAGE_KEY_GESTURE_GAP_MS ||
+      dir !== this._pageKeyDir;
+    this._pageKeyLastAt = now;
+    this._pageKeyDir = dir;
+    if (gestureStart) {
+      this._pageKeyPending = 0;
+      if (Math.abs(lines) >= tuning.PAGE_KEY_MIN_START_ROWS && Math.abs(lines) < perPage) {
+        // Pre-pay one page; the skipped travel is owed back (pending carries the opposite sign).
+        this._pageKeyPending = lines - dir * perPage;
+        this._queueScrollBytes(dir < 0 ? tuning.KEY_PAGE_UP : tuning.KEY_PAGE_DOWN);
+        this._logScrollRouting('page-keys');
+        return true;
+      }
+    }
+    const step = tuning.pageKeysForTravel(this._pageKeyPending, lines, this.terminal?.rows);
     this._pageKeyPending = step.pending;
     if (step.keys) this._queueScrollBytes(step.keys);
     this._logScrollRouting('page-keys');

src/web/server.ts

@@ -1778,6 +1778,19 @@ export class WebServer extends EventEmitter {
       '</head>',
       () => `<script>window.__codemanTranscriptGutter=${JSON.stringify(gutterClis)};</script>\n</head>`
     );
+    // Which run modes page their own transcript on PageUp/PageDown, for the scroll
+    // fallback over a pane with no local history (`_maybePageCliTranscript`). Read off
+    // the `transcriptPageKeys` capability, never an id list here, and injected for a
+    // solo window too for the same reason as the gutter map: it scrolls a terminal.
+    // Ids only, which the registry schema bounds to kebab tokens, so JSON.stringify
+    // alone is enough.
+    const pageKeyClis = enabledClis()
+      .filter((entry) => entry.capabilities.transcriptPageKeys === true)
+      .map((entry) => entry.id);
+    html = html.replace(
+      '</head>',
+      () => `<script>window.__codemanTranscriptPageKeys=${JSON.stringify(pageKeyClis)};</script>\n</head>`
+    );
     if (!soloSessionId && process.env.CODEMAN_GESTURE === '1') {
       html = html.replace('</head>', () => `<script>window.__codemanGestureAvailable=true;</script>\n</head>`);
       if (settings.gestureControlEnabled === true) {