Dump full text content (incl. scrollback) of a window of Terminal.app with partial name of the window title.

dumpTerminalWindowByPartialName.m

// I have set my terminal to set wintitle with escape sequence every time a new window is created so that I can dump window by just tty name.
// I have this command in .profile: wintitle $(basename $(tty))
// where wintitle is:
// $ type wintitle
// wintitle is a function
// wintitle () 
// { 
//     echo -en "\e]0;$1\x01\e\\"
// }

// escape sequence source: https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html. For more interesting escape sequence magics, checkout vttest(1) (also by Thomas E. Dickey)
// mostly written by chatgpt 4. No right reserved. Plz star!

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
#import <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

void dumpFirstAXText(AXUIElementRef element, BOOL *found) {
    if (*found) return; // Stop if already found a text area

    CFTypeRef elementRole;
    AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(element, kAXRoleAttribute, &elementRole);

    if (elementRole) {
        NSString *role = CFBridgingRelease(elementRole);

        if ([role isEqualToString:(NSString *)kAXTextAreaRole]) {
            CFTypeRef value;
            AXError error = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(element, kAXValueAttribute, &value);
            if (error == kAXErrorSuccess && value) {
                NSString *text = CFBridgingRelease(value);
                printf("%s\n", [text UTF8String]); // Print to stdout
                *found = YES; // Mark as found
                return; // Stop after finding the first match
            }
        }
    }

    // Recursively search child elements if not found
    CFArrayRef children;
    AXError error = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(element, kAXChildrenAttribute, (CFTypeRef *)&children);

    if (error == kAXErrorSuccess && children) {
        for (CFIndex i = 0; i < CFArrayGetCount(children) && !*found; i++) {
            AXUIElementRef child = (AXUIElementRef)CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(children, i);
            dumpFirstAXText(child, found);
        }
        CFRelease(children);
    }
}

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    @autoreleasepool {
        if (argc != 2) {
            fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <window title substring>\n", argv[0]);
            return 1;
        }

        // Copy argv[1] before overwriting
        NSString *searchString = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:argv[1]];

        // Overwrite argv[1] in-place, to avoid dumping itself. (arguments appear in window title)
        char* p = *(argv+1);
        while(*p != '\0'){
            *p = 'x';
            p++;
        }

        NSArray *runningApps = [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] runningApplications];

        for (NSRunningApplication *app in runningApps) {
            if ([[app bundleIdentifier] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.Terminal"]) {
                AXUIElementRef appElement = AXUIElementCreateApplication([app processIdentifier]);
                CFArrayRef windows;
                AXError error = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appElement, kAXWindowsAttribute, (CFTypeRef *)&windows);

                if (error == kAXErrorSuccess && windows) {
                    for (CFIndex i = 0; i < CFArrayGetCount(windows); i++) {
                        AXUIElementRef window = (AXUIElementRef)CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(windows, i);
                        CFTypeRef title;
                        AXError error = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(window, kAXTitleAttribute, &title);

                        if (error == kAXErrorSuccess && title && CFStringFind(title, (__bridge CFStringRef)(searchString), 0).location != kCFNotFound) {
                            fprintf(stderr, "Found window: %s\n", [(__bridge NSString *)(title) UTF8String]);
                            BOOL found = NO;
                            dumpFirstAXText(window, &found); // Dump content of the first AXTextArea
                            if (found) break; // Exit if found
                        }

                        if (title) CFRelease(title);
                    }
                    CFRelease(windows);
                }
                CFRelease(appElement);
                break; // Stop after processing Terminal
            }
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

compile with:
cc dumpTerminalWindowByPartialName.m -o dumpTerminalWindowByPartialName -framework Cocoa (you will need Xcode commandline tools)

then run with: ./dumpTerminalWindowByPartialName YOURWINDOWNAMEHERE