Feature request: Kitty graphics protocol support in statusLine API

Summary

The statusLine API currently passes through ANSI color/style escape sequences but silently strips Kitty graphics protocol APC sequences (\x1b_G...). This prevents statusLine plugins from rendering images in the terminal.

Use Case

I'm building claude-pet, a terminal companion pet for Claude Code. It renders animated pixel art sprites alongside a metrics bar (context %, cost, rate limits). The sprites are designed to appear in the statusLine area.

What Works

• ANSI color codes in statusLine stdout → rendered correctly
• OSC 8 hyperlinks → rendered correctly
• Text + Unicode characters → rendered correctly

What Doesn't Work

• Kitty graphics protocol sequences (\x1b_Ga=T,f=100,...) in stdout → silently stripped
• Writing Kitty graphics to the parent TTY fd directly → images render behind Ink's text layer and are not visible

Investigation

I've done extensive testing:

1. Kitty images persist through all terminal operations in Ghostty (CSI 2K, CSI 0J, space overwrite, scroll)
2. Images written to the parent TTY arrive at the terminal but are visually hidden behind Ink's managed text layer
3. Kitty's z-index parameter is not effective in Ghostty
4. APC sequences embedded in statusLine stdout are stripped before reaching the terminal

Proposed Solutions (in order of preference)

Option A: Pass through APC sequences in statusLine output

Allow Kitty graphics APC sequences to survive from statusLine stdout → Ink render → terminal. Since Ink re-renders periodically, the image would be re-emitted each cycle and persist.

Option B: Add an image field to the statusLine API

{
  "type": "command",
  "command": "node my-statusline.js",
  "image": true  // enable image passthrough
}

Option C: Expose a graphics layer API

Let statusLine plugins output structured image data that Claude Code renders via a dedicated Kitty graphics layer, outside Ink's managed region.

Environment

• Claude Code v2.1.83
• Ghostty terminal (Kitty graphics protocol supported)
• macOS

References

• Kitty graphics protocol
• claude-pet project