Shell tool cannot handle interactive stdin input on macOS (kinit, ssh-add, etc.)

[iiwaasnet]

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• I have searched for duplicate or closed issues

Operating System

macOS 26.5 (Tahoe)

Kiro Version

kiro-cli 2.5.0

Bug Description

The shell tool does not provide stdin to commands that require interactive password input. This affects any command that reads credentials from the terminal — not just sudo, but also kinit, ssh-add, security unlock-keychain, etc.

When such a command is executed via the shell tool, it either:

• Hangs waiting for input that never arrives
• Fails silently because stdin is not connected to a TTY

This makes it impossible for the AI agent to run any command requiring user authentication.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start kiro-cli chat
2. Ask the agent to run: kinit user@REALM (or any command requiring password input)
3. The command hangs or fails — there is no way to provide the password

Expected Behavior

Either:

• The shell tool should provide a mechanism to pass stdin input to interactive commands
• Or clearly detect and report that a command requires interactive input, so the user can run it manually

Additional Context

• Related Linux issue: sudo password prompt unusable in kiro-cli chat on Ubuntu 26.04 #7997 (sudo password prompt unusable on Ubuntu)
• The Linux issue has a partial fix being worked on in sudo-rs (trifectatechfoundation/sudo-rs#1591, #1592), but that only addresses sudo's TTY detection
• On macOS the problem is broader — it's not a sudo-rs issue, it's that kiro-cli's shell tool doesn't connect stdin to the user's terminal at all
• Affects: kinit, ssh-add, security unlock-keychain, sudo, and any other command reading passwords from /dev/tty or stdin

[github-actions]

🤖 Potential Duplicate Detected

This issue appears to be similar to:

• #7438: Interactive and long running shell commands (Kiro CLI 2.0.0) (85% similar)
• #6238: Regression in 1.27.0: shell tool keeps stdin open, causing kubectl exec --stdin=true to hang (85% similar)

What happens next?

• ⏰ This issue will be automatically closed in 3 days
• 🏷️ If this is not a duplicate, you can prevent automatic closure by adding a comment or reacting with 👎 to this message.
• 💬 Comment on the original issue if you have additional information

Why is this marked as duplicate?
Both issues report problems with interactive shell commands in Kiro CLI 2.0, specifically around stdin handling and commands that require user input. The new issue focuses on macOS authentication commands while #7438 addresses interactive and long-running commands more broadly, but they share the same core problem of the shell tool not properly handling interactive input.

[iiwaasnet]

This is not a duplicate of #7438 or #6238.

• Interactive and long running shell commands (Kiro CLI 2.0.0) #7438 is about streaming stdout for long-running commands and general interactivity
• Regression in 1.27.0: shell tool keeps stdin open, causing kubectl exec --stdin=true to hang #6238 is about stdin being kept open causing hangs with kubectl

This issue is specifically about password/credential input on macOS — commands like kinit, ssh-add, security unlock-keychain that read from /dev/tty. The shell tool has no mechanism to pass sensitive input to these commands. This is a distinct problem from output buffering or stdin pipe handling.

Additionally, this is the macOS counterpart to #7997 (Linux/sudo-rs), which is already acknowledged as a valid separate issue with label pending-maintainer-response.

[github-actions]

Thank you for your feedback! 🙏

The duplicate label has been removed and this issue has been sent back for maintainer review.

A maintainer will review this issue shortly.

[AnilMaktala]

Thanks for raising this! We've marked it as a feature request for the team to evaluate. We'll update this issue if it gets prioritized.