Trim whitespace on terminal copy by default, keep raw copy on Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C and right-click menu

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

app/src/components/layout/StatusBar.tsx

@@ -23,7 +23,9 @@ export default function StatusBar() {
       {terminalHasSelection && (
         <>
           <span className="mx-2">|</span>
-          <span className="text-[var(--accent)]">Ctrl+Shift+C to copy</span>
+          <span className="text-[var(--accent)]">
+            Ctrl+Shift+C: copy trimmed &middot; Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C: copy raw
+          </span>
         </>
       )}
     </div>

app/src/components/terminal/TerminalContextMenu.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";
+
+interface Props {
+  x: number;
+  y: number;
+  onCopyTrimmed: () => void;
+  onCopyRaw: () => void;
+  onDismiss: () => void;
+}
+
+export default function TerminalContextMenu({ x, y, onCopyTrimmed, onCopyRaw, onDismiss }: Props) {
+  const menuRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    const handleOutsideClick = (e: MouseEvent) => {
+      if (menuRef.current && !menuRef.current.contains(e.target as Node)) {
+        onDismiss();
+      }
+    };
+    const handleKey = (e: KeyboardEvent) => {
+      if (e.key === "Escape") onDismiss();
+    };
+    document.addEventListener("mousedown", handleOutsideClick, true);
+    document.addEventListener("keydown", handleKey);
+    return () => {
+      document.removeEventListener("mousedown", handleOutsideClick, true);
+      document.removeEventListener("keydown", handleKey);
+    };
+  }, [onDismiss]);
+
+  return (
+    <div
+      ref={menuRef}
+      className="fixed z-[60] min-w-[160px] py-1 rounded-md border border-[#30363d] bg-[#1f2937] shadow-lg text-xs text-[#e6edf3]"
+      style={{ left: x, top: y }}
+      onContextMenu={(e) => e.preventDefault()}
+    >
+      <button
+        className="w-full text-left px-3 py-1.5 hover:bg-[#2d3748] cursor-pointer"
+        onClick={onCopyTrimmed}
+      >
+        Copy trimmed
+        <kbd className="float-right ml-3 px-1 py-0.5 text-[10px] bg-[#0d1117] border border-[#30363d] rounded font-mono">
+          Ctrl+Shift+C
+        </kbd>
+      </button>
+      <button
+        className="w-full text-left px-3 py-1.5 hover:bg-[#2d3748] cursor-pointer"
+        onClick={onCopyRaw}
+      >
+        Copy raw
+        <kbd className="float-right ml-3 px-1 py-0.5 text-[10px] bg-[#0d1117] border border-[#30363d] rounded font-mono">
+          Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C
+        </kbd>
+      </button>
+    </div>
+  );
+}

app/src/components/terminal/TerminalView.tsx

@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ import SttButton from "./SttButton";
 import { awsSsoRefresh } from "../../lib/tauri-commands";
 import { UrlDetector } from "../../lib/urlDetector";
 import UrlToast from "./UrlToast";
+import { trimSelection } from "./trimSelection";
+import TerminalContextMenu from "./TerminalContextMenu";
 
 interface Props {
   sessionId: string;
@@ -42,6 +44,7 @@ export default function TerminalView({ sessionId, active }: Props) {
   const [imagePasteMsg, setImagePasteMsg] = useState<string | null>(null);
   const [isAtBottom, setIsAtBottom] = useState(true);
   const [isAutoFollow, setIsAutoFollow] = useState(true);
+  const [contextMenu, setContextMenu] = useState<{ x: number; y: number } | null>(null);
   const isAtBottomRef = useRef(true);
   // Tracks user intent to follow output — only set to false by explicit user
   // actions (mouse wheel up), not by xterm scroll events during writes.
@@ -93,14 +96,16 @@ export default function TerminalView({ sessionId, active }: Props) {
 
     term.open(containerRef.current);
 
-    // Ctrl+Shift+C copies selected terminal text to clipboard.
-    // This prevents the keystroke from reaching the container (where
-    // Ctrl+C would send SIGINT and cancel running work).
+    // Ctrl+Shift+C copies the selection with whitespace trimmed (UI padding
+    // stripped, internal indentation preserved). Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C copies raw.
+    // Both prevent the keystroke from reaching the container (where Ctrl+C
+    // would send SIGINT and cancel running work).
     term.attachCustomKeyEventHandler((event) => {
       if (event.type === "keydown" && event.ctrlKey && event.shiftKey && event.key === "C") {
         const sel = term.getSelection();
         if (sel) {
-          navigator.clipboard.writeText(sel).catch((e) =>
+          const out = event.altKey ? sel : trimSelection(sel);
+          navigator.clipboard.writeText(out).catch((e) =>
             console.error("Ctrl+Shift+C clipboard write failed:", e),
           );
         }
@@ -388,6 +393,23 @@ export default function TerminalView({ sessionId, active }: Props) {
     }
   }, []);
 
+  const writeSelection = useCallback((mode: "trimmed" | "raw") => {
+    const term = termRef.current;
+    if (!term) return;
+    const sel = term.getSelection();
+    if (!sel) return;
+    const out = mode === "raw" ? sel : trimSelection(sel);
+    navigator.clipboard.writeText(out).catch((e) =>
+      console.error("Context menu clipboard write failed:", e),
+    );
+  }, []);
+
+  const handleContextMenu = useCallback((e: React.MouseEvent) => {
+    if (!termRef.current?.hasSelection()) return; // let default menu happen
+    e.preventDefault();
+    setContextMenu({ x: e.clientX, y: e.clientY });
+  }, []);
+
   const handleToggleAutoFollow = useCallback(() => {
     const next = !autoFollowRef.current;
     autoFollowRef.current = next;
@@ -450,7 +472,23 @@ export default function TerminalView({ sessionId, active }: Props) {
         ref={containerRef}
         className="w-full h-full"
         style={{ padding: "8px 12px 48px 16px" }}
+        onContextMenu={handleContextMenu}
       />
+      {contextMenu && (
+        <TerminalContextMenu
+          x={contextMenu.x}
+          y={contextMenu.y}
+          onCopyTrimmed={() => {
+            writeSelection("trimmed");
+            setContextMenu(null);
+          }}
+          onCopyRaw={() => {
+            writeSelection("raw");
+            setContextMenu(null);
+          }}
+          onDismiss={() => setContextMenu(null)}
+        />
+      )}
     </div>
   );
 }

app/src/components/terminal/trimSelection.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest";
+import { trimSelection } from "./trimSelection";
+
+describe("trimSelection", () => {
+  it("returns empty string unchanged", () => {
+    expect(trimSelection("")).toBe("");
+  });
+
+  it("trims leading and trailing whitespace on a single line", () => {
+    expect(trimSelection("    hello    ")).toBe("hello");
+  });
+
+  it("dedents common leading whitespace while preserving inner indent", () => {
+    const input = "    def foo():\n        return 1\n";
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("def foo():\n    return 1");
+  });
+
+  it("strips leading and trailing blank lines", () => {
+    const input = "\n\n  hello\n\n";
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("hello");
+  });
+
+  it("preserves interior blank lines", () => {
+    const input = "  line1\n\n  line2";
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("line1\n\nline2");
+  });
+
+  it("is idempotent on already-clean text", () => {
+    const clean = "def foo():\n    return 1";
+    expect(trimSelection(clean)).toBe(clean);
+    expect(trimSelection(trimSelection(clean))).toBe(clean);
+  });
+
+  it("ignores blank lines when computing the common indent", () => {
+    // The blank line has 0 leading whitespace but shouldn't force minIndent to 0.
+    const input = "    a\n\n    b";
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("a\n\nb");
+  });
+
+  it("strips trailing whitespace per line", () => {
+    const input = "alpha   \nbeta\t\t\ngamma";
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("alpha\nbeta\ngamma");
+  });
+
+  it("handles mixed-width padding (pads to min)", () => {
+    const input = "    one\n  two\n      three";
+    // minIndent = 2
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("  one\ntwo\n    three");
+  });
+
+  it("handles tabs as leading whitespace", () => {
+    const input = "\tfoo\n\t\tbar";
+    // minIndent = 1 tab
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("foo\n\tbar");
+  });
+
+  it("returns empty when input is only whitespace", () => {
+    expect(trimSelection("   \n  \n")).toBe("");
+  });
+
+  it("leaves a zero-indent line alone (no false dedent)", () => {
+    const input = "no-indent\n  indented";
+    expect(trimSelection(input)).toBe("no-indent\n  indented");
+  });
+});

app/src/components/terminal/trimSelection.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+/**
+ * Cleans up terminal selections for pasting into other tools.
+ *
+ * Terminal UI padding (left margin from the xterm container, alignment spaces
+ * at end of line) ends up in the copied text. This helper removes that cruft
+ * while preserving the *relative* indentation of the content — so code blocks
+ * keep their shape but lose the wrapper padding.
+ *
+ * Steps:
+ *   1. Dedent — strip the common leading whitespace count from every line.
+ *   2. trimEnd — drop trailing whitespace per line.
+ *   3. Drop fully-blank leading and trailing lines.
+ *
+ * Internal newlines and relative indentation are preserved. Pure function.
+ */
+export function trimSelection(text: string): string {
+  if (!text) return text;
+
+  const lines = text.split("\n");
+
+  let minIndent = Infinity;
+  for (const line of lines) {
+    if (line.trim() === "") continue;
+    const match = line.match(/^[ \t]*/);
+    const indent = match ? match[0].length : 0;
+    if (indent < minIndent) minIndent = indent;
+    if (minIndent === 0) break;
+  }
+  if (!Number.isFinite(minIndent)) minIndent = 0;
+
+  const processed = lines.map((line) => {
+    const afterDedent = line.length >= minIndent ? line.slice(minIndent) : "";
+    return afterDedent.trimEnd();
+  });
+
+  let start = 0;
+  let end = processed.length;
+  while (start < end && processed[start] === "") start++;
+  while (end > start && processed[end - 1] === "") end--;
+
+  return processed.slice(start, end).join("\n");
+}