[Bug]: iOS terminal authentication URLs cannot be opened or copied#20238

Before submitting

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

Area

apps/mobile

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a thread in the native T3 Code iOS app and open its terminal.
2. Run a command that prints a browser authentication URL, such as gcloud auth login, in an environment where authentication is required.
3. Try to open the printed URL from the terminal.
4. Try to select/copy the URL and open it manually in the phone's browser.

For a minimal test independent of Google Cloud configuration, run printf 'https://example.com\n' and try to open or copy the output URL.

Expected behavior

There should be a usable way to open a URL printed in the terminal on the phone, or select/copy terminal output so the URL can be opened manually. Ordinary terminal output should also be selectable/copyable.

Until that workflow is supported, agents guiding iOS users through browser-based CLI authentication should recommend the working chat-based flow below instead of directing them to complete it in the mobile terminal. This is a consequence of the same usability gap, rather than a request for a particular terminal implementation.

Actual behavior

The reporting user cannot find a way to open printed URLs or select/copy terminal text in the native iOS terminal. An authentication command therefore reaches a dead end in that terminal UI. When the agent recommends running the command there, the user has to discover a different workflow after reaching this point.

Impact

Major degradation or frequent failure: browser-based CLI authentication cannot be completed directly through the mobile terminal's output, although the chat-based workaround below works.

Version or commit

Affected iOS app version/build: unknown. iOS version: unknown.

Source investigation: upstream main inspected on 2026-10-16; reference commit cfafb4bb54d244e4612f5681aad3832ea64cb0fb. This is not a claim that the user's installed iOS build matches that commit.

Environment

Native T3 Code iOS app connected to a remote environment. Example affected workflow: Google Cloud CLI browser authentication. Host OS and gcloud version were not collected.

Investigation / supporting evidence

This report combines the user's observed behavior with source inspection; it was not independently reproduced on an iPhone.

• In T3TerminalView.swift, the viewport tap handler requests keyboard focus and the pan handler scrolls. The inspected implementation has no long-press text selection or URL-opening handler; its Ghostty action callback returns false and clipboard-write callback is empty.
• The current terminal route offers "Attach visible output". Its TerminalContextSheet selects line ranges for attachment to chat; it does not offer a copy or open-URL action.
• Related but different: #6394 and #9198 concern pasting input into the mobile terminal. This report concerns opening URLs and selecting/copying output from the iOS terminal.

No authentication URLs, codes, tokens, or private logs are included.

Workaround

The user asks the agent in chat to run the command and provide the authentication link in chat, opens that link on the phone, then returns the resulting authentication code in chat so the agent can continue the waiting command. The user reports that this workflow works and is acceptable; the frustrating part is being directed to the mobile terminal in the first place when its output cannot be opened or copied.

Report preparation

Prepared with gpt-6.1-sol through the Codex harness in T3 Code, based on the user's report and source inspection. Not generated by t3 triage.