fix(smoke): skip terminal sidecar in mock smoke runs

The Linux release smoke path uses the mock terminal backend, so it should not spawn the terminal session sidecar at all. Skipping that helper in smoke mode avoids the CI-only auxiliary-process crash while preserving normal runtime persistence behavior outside smoke runs.

Constraint: Smoke mode must still exercise the real app binary and embedded terminal host startup path
Rejected: Disable the terminal sidecar globally for mock backend runs | normal desktop sessions may still want persistence fallback semantics outside smoke mode
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: narrow
Directive: Keep CI smoke-specific runtime relaxations gated on smoke mode, not on backend choice alone
Tested: cargo test -p taskers smoke_with_mock_backend_skips_terminal_sidecar -- --nocapture; cargo build -p taskers --bin taskers --bin taskers-gtk --bin taskersctl --bin taskers-terminald; TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND=mock TIMEOUT_SECONDS=90 bash scripts/headless-smoke.sh ./target/debug/taskers --smoke-script baseline --diagnostic-log stderr --quit-after-ms 5000
Not-tested: Full GitHub release-assets workflow rerun after retag

Author: OneNoted

crates/taskers-app/src/main.rs

@@ -116,6 +116,14 @@ struct RuntimePathOverrides {
     terminal_socket_path: PathBuf,
 }
 
+fn should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke(path_overrides: Option<&RuntimePathOverrides>) -> bool {
+    path_overrides.is_some()
+        && matches!(
+            std::env::var("TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND").ok().as_deref(),
+            Some("mock")
+        )
+}
+
 enum HostAutomationCommand {
     Browser(BrowserControlCommand),
     Screenshot(ScreenshotCommand),
@@ -1355,19 +1363,26 @@ fn resolve_runtime_bootstrap(
     shell_launch
         .env
         .insert("TASKERS_SOCKET".into(), socket_path.display().to_string());
-    let terminal_session_client = match ensure_terminal_session_daemon(&terminal_socket_path) {
-        Ok(()) => {
-            shell_launch.env.insert(
-                "TASKERS_TERMINAL_SOCKET".into(),
-                terminal_socket_path.display().to_string(),
-            );
-            Some(TerminalSessionClient::new(terminal_socket_path))
-        }
-        Err(error) => {
-            startup_notes.push(format!(
-                "terminal session sidecar unavailable; terminals will start fresh shells and will not survive Taskers restart ({error})"
-            ));
-            None
+    let terminal_session_client = if should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke(path_overrides) {
+        startup_notes.push(
+            "Smoke mode with mock terminal backend skips the terminal session sidecar.".into(),
+        );
+        None
+    } else {
+        match ensure_terminal_session_daemon(&terminal_socket_path) {
+            Ok(()) => {
+                shell_launch.env.insert(
+                    "TASKERS_TERMINAL_SOCKET".into(),
+                    terminal_socket_path.display().to_string(),
+                );
+                Some(TerminalSessionClient::new(terminal_socket_path))
+            }
+            Err(error) => {
+                startup_notes.push(format!(
+                    "terminal session sidecar unavailable; terminals will start fresh shells and will not survive Taskers restart ({error})"
+                ));
+                None
+            }
         }
     };
     let terminal_persistence = if terminal_session_client.is_some() {
@@ -2456,7 +2471,10 @@ fn looks_like_dev_install(path: &Path) -> bool {
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod startup_tests {
-    use super::{looks_like_dev_install, should_defer_initial_sync, smoke_runtime_path_overrides};
+    use super::{
+        RuntimePathOverrides, looks_like_dev_install, should_defer_initial_sync,
+        should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke, smoke_runtime_path_overrides,
+    };
     use std::path::Path;
 
     #[test]
@@ -2504,4 +2522,24 @@ mod startup_tests {
                 .starts_with(&overrides.root_dir)
         );
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn smoke_with_mock_backend_skips_terminal_sidecar() {
+        let overrides = RuntimePathOverrides {
+            root_dir: Path::new("/tmp/taskers-smoke").to_path_buf(),
+            session_path: Path::new("/tmp/taskers-smoke/session.json").to_path_buf(),
+            socket_path: Path::new("/tmp/taskers-smoke/control.sock").to_path_buf(),
+            terminal_socket_path: Path::new("/tmp/taskers-smoke/terminal.sock").to_path_buf(),
+        };
+
+        unsafe { std::env::set_var("TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND", "mock") };
+        assert!(should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke(Some(&overrides)));
+        unsafe { std::env::set_var("TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND", "ghostty") };
+        assert!(!should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke(Some(&overrides)));
+        unsafe { std::env::remove_var("TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND") };
+        assert!(!should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke(Some(&overrides)));
+        unsafe { std::env::set_var("TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND", "mock") };
+        assert!(!should_skip_terminal_sidecar_in_smoke(None));
+        unsafe { std::env::remove_var("TASKERS_TERMINAL_BACKEND") };
+    }
 }