[Bug] ERR_TTY_INIT_FAILED on git bash (MINGW64)

[brc-dd]

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Node Version: v22.0.0
• Package: @clack/prompts
• Package Version: v0.7.0

Describe the bug

https://github.com/natemoo-re/clack/blob/45ee73bf33b25f9a8c7e1bb6117ccc165478bf4d/packages/core/src/prompts/prompt.ts#L82

This line throws ERR_TTY_INIT_FAILED when used inside terminals like Git Bash.

To Reproduce

You'll need a Windows machine (or VM, I'm using UTM on mac) with Git Bash installed. Then try running any project using clack. For example with VitePress:

mkdir foo
npm add -D vitepress
npx vitepress init

Or with Svelte:

npm create svelte@latest foo

Expected behavior

Work similar to other terminals or maybe a fallback strategy in case write stream can't be opened on stdin.

Additional Information

Downstream issues - vuejs/vitepress#3841, sveltejs/svelte#8595, https://stackoverflow.com/q/75750730/11613622,

[Dmytro-Shulha]

Having same problem when trying to run tests from within Git Bash:

[natemoo-re]

Hey, thanks for opening an issue! I'm finally working through the backlog here.

Windows strikes again... I'll have to investigate what other libraries do to workaround this! All of Windows support is honestly pretty naive and it'd be great to do more feature detection in general.

[lilnasy]

The root cause is the fact that the version of mintty terminal emulator included with git on windows is not interactive by default.

Node.js contributor documentation makes a footnote of this:

On Windows, running Node.js in Windows terminal emulators like mintty requires the usage of winpty for the tty channels to work (e.g. winpty node.exe script.js). In "Git bash" if you call the node shell alias (node without the .exe extension), winpty is used automatically.

As they say, it is possible to make it the terminal behave as interactive with the winpty CLI also included with git on windows.

...but the command being run is unfortunately only under the package manager's and the app's control (svelte, vitepress), not clack's.

• As a user, you can use another terminal.
• As a developer of an app dependent on clack, you might have some success by checking the environment and running a fork-exec with winpty.
• Clack could provide a better error message when stdout is not interactive.

I'm not sure what the errors in @Dmytro-Shulha's screenshot are about: I would expect it to fail that way in a CI environment, but it is on Windows Terminal, which I haven't been able reproduce the issue with.

[natemoo-re]

Just confirming that this is fixed. Thanks for the rundown @lilnasy and for the great fix in #235 @sapphi-red! 🎉

Should be available in @clack/core@0.4.2, going out now.