diff --git a/examples/tui-agent/tests/fixtures/tui-scripted.cordis.yml b/examples/tui-agent/tests/fixtures/tui-scripted.cordis.yml
index 1c29beb8df..6bed7fa57e 100644
--- a/examples/tui-agent/tests/fixtures/tui-scripted.cordis.yml
+++ b/examples/tui-agent/tests/fixtures/tui-scripted.cordis.yml
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@
     provider: tui-scripted
     model: tui-scripted-model
     persistenceRoot: './.sessions'
+    # The smoke's log inspection reads plain `.jsonl`; keep the scripted
+    # fixture uncompressed like the other snapshot-facing configs.
+    persistenceCompression: none
     workspaceContext:
       maxBytes: 65536
     welcome: 'scripted TUI ready.'
diff --git a/examples/tui-agent/tests/tui-keyless-smoke.e2e.ts b/examples/tui-agent/tests/tui-keyless-smoke.e2e.ts
index 8a54c9a4a3..15ccba479a 100644
--- a/examples/tui-agent/tests/tui-keyless-smoke.e2e.ts
+++ b/examples/tui-agent/tests/tui-keyless-smoke.e2e.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ env.update({
     "COLUMNS": "100",
     "LINES": "30",
 })
+# Deterministic banner: a developer shell's COLORTERM=truecolor would switch the
+# banner to the per-letter gradient (one SGR per letter), breaking the literal
+# DEEPSEEK assertions. The gradient path has its own unit and snapshot coverage.
+env.pop("COLORTERM", None)
 if resume_session_id:
     env["RESUME_SESSION_ID"] = resume_session_id
 pid, fd = pty.fork()
diff --git a/packages/examples/tui-demo/src/bin.ts b/packages/examples/tui-demo/src/bin.ts
index 237e4391b5..5073e203df 100644
--- a/packages/examples/tui-demo/src/bin.ts
+++ b/packages/examples/tui-demo/src/bin.ts
@@ -11,8 +11,16 @@ import { boot, installFailLoud, loadEnv, resolveConfigPath } from '@deepseek-ai/
 const NAME = 'dsh-tui-demo'
 
 /* v8 ignore start -- thin self-executing composition over the unit-tested
-   dsh-app-boot helpers; exercised end-to-end by the keyless Loader-path and
-   built-bin smokes */
+   dsh-app-boot helpers; exercised end-to-end by the tui-agent PTY smoke and
+   the built-bin fail-loud smoke */
+// Refuse pipes BEFORE booting: a compose-time throw inside the Loader tree is
+// logged per-entry rather than rethrown, so a piped launch would otherwise
+// settle into an idle UI-less process instead of exiting nonzero.
+if (!process.stdin.isTTY || !process.stdout.isTTY) {
+  process.stderr.write(`${NAME}: the TUI requires stdin and stdout to be interactive TTYs; `
+    + 'use the one-shot dsh-cli-demo bin for pipes and automation\n')
+  process.exit(1)
+}
 installFailLoud(NAME)
 loadEnv(NAME)
 await boot(NAME, resolveConfigPath(process.argv[2] ?? './cordis.yml', undefined))