diff --git a/ui/src/components/workspace/Terminal.tsx b/ui/src/components/workspace/Terminal.tsx
index 6204e32d..50a57894 100644
--- a/ui/src/components/workspace/Terminal.tsx
+++ b/ui/src/components/workspace/Terminal.tsx
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ import type { ReactElement } from 'react';
 
 import { FitAddon } from '@xterm/addon-fit';
 import { WebLinksAddon } from '@xterm/addon-web-links';
-import { WebglAddon } from '@xterm/addon-webgl';
 import { Terminal as Xterm } from '@xterm/xterm';
 import '@xterm/xterm/css/xterm.css';
 
@@ -11,6 +10,7 @@ import {
   parseServerControl,
   type ClientControlMessage,
 } from './protocol';
+import { attachWebglRenderer } from './renderer';
 import { darkTheme } from './theme';
 // Lazy-import so the demo subtree (transcripts, fixtures, handlers) is
 // dynamic-imported only when demo mode is actually on. With a static import,
@@ -127,14 +127,11 @@ export function TerminalView(props: TerminalViewProps): ReactElement {
     term.loadAddon(new WebLinksAddon());
     term.open(container);
 
-    let webgl: WebglAddon | null = null;
-    try {
-      webgl = new WebglAddon();
-      webgl.onContextLoss(() => webgl?.dispose());
-      term.loadAddon(webgl);
-    } catch {
-      webgl = null;
-    }
+    // WebGL by default; degrades to the DOM renderer on addon failure /
+    // context loss, or when the `openalice.terminal.renderer` escape hatch
+    // forces 'dom' (GPU-pipeline corruption can't be auto-detected — see
+    // renderer.ts).
+    const webgl = attachWebglRenderer(term);
 
     safeFit(fit);
     let lastCols = term.cols;
diff --git a/ui/src/components/workspace/__tests__/renderer.spec.ts b/ui/src/components/workspace/__tests__/renderer.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fe41f9bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/src/components/workspace/__tests__/renderer.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from 'vitest'
+
+import type { Terminal } from '@xterm/xterm'
+
+// Observe construction/load/dispose instead of real WebGL (jsdom has none).
+const disposeSpy = vi.fn()
+const onContextLossSpy = vi.fn()
+let constructed = 0
+let throwOnLoad = false
+
+vi.mock('@xterm/addon-webgl', () => ({
+  WebglAddon: class {
+    onContextLoss = onContextLossSpy
+    dispose = disposeSpy
+    constructor() {
+      constructed++
+    }
+  },
+}))
+
+const { attachWebglRenderer } = await import('../renderer')
+
+function fakeTerm(): Terminal {
+  return {
+    loadAddon: vi.fn(() => {
+      if (throwOnLoad) throw new Error('no webgl context')
+    }),
+  } as unknown as Terminal
+}
+
+afterEach(() => {
+  localStorage.clear()
+  vi.clearAllMocks()
+  constructed = 0
+  throwOnLoad = false
+})
+
+describe('attachWebglRenderer', () => {
+  it('loads the WebGL addon by default and returns it', () => {
+    const term = fakeTerm()
+    const addon = attachWebglRenderer(term)
+    expect(constructed).toBe(1)
+    expect(term.loadAddon).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1)
+    expect(addon).not.toBeNull()
+  })
+
+  it('escape hatch: renderer=dom skips WebGL without constructing the addon', () => {
+    localStorage.setItem('openalice.terminal.renderer', 'dom')
+    const term = fakeTerm()
+    expect(attachWebglRenderer(term)).toBeNull()
+    expect(constructed).toBe(0)
+    expect(term.loadAddon).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+  })
+
+  it('any other flag value keeps the WebGL default', () => {
+    localStorage.setItem('openalice.terminal.renderer', 'webgl')
+    expect(attachWebglRenderer(fakeTerm())).not.toBeNull()
+    expect(constructed).toBe(1)
+  })
+
+  it('degrades to null and disposes the addon when loading throws', () => {
+    throwOnLoad = true
+    expect(attachWebglRenderer(fakeTerm())).toBeNull()
+    expect(constructed).toBe(1)
+    expect(disposeSpy).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1)
+  })
+})
diff --git a/ui/src/components/workspace/renderer.ts b/ui/src/components/workspace/renderer.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e20da82e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/src/components/workspace/renderer.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+import { WebglAddon } from '@xterm/addon-webgl';
+import type { Terminal } from '@xterm/xterm';
+
+/**
+ * Renderer escape hatch for the workspace terminal (and the demo replay).
+ *
+ * The WebGL renderer's glyph rasterization is plain Canvas2D (shared with the
+ * DOM renderer), but the rasterized glyphs then ride a GPU pipeline — texture
+ * upload, WebGL context, driver compositing — and that pipeline has a known
+ * family of environment-specific corruption bugs (black boxes over CJK,
+ * garbled cells; see e.g. microsoft/vscode#137047, #163936, #288682 — same
+ * xterm atlas). None of them throw, so they can't be auto-detected; VS Code's
+ * answer is the `terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration` escape hatch.
+ *
+ * Ours is this localStorage flag:
+ *
+ *   localStorage.setItem('openalice.terminal.renderer', 'dom'); // + reload
+ *
+ * Anything other than 'dom' (including unset) keeps the WebGL default. On top
+ * of the flag, the loader degrades to the DOM renderer automatically when the
+ * addon throws at construction/load or the WebGL context is lost.
+ */
+const RENDERER_STORAGE_KEY = 'openalice.terminal.renderer';
+
+function webglDisabled(): boolean {
+  try {
+    return localStorage.getItem(RENDERER_STORAGE_KEY) === 'dom';
+  } catch {
+    return false; // storage unavailable → default renderer path
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Try to attach the WebGL renderer to `term`. Returns the addon (caller owns
+ * disposal on unmount) or null when the flag forces DOM / the addon failed —
+ * xterm keeps/reverts to its built-in DOM renderer in both cases, which is
+ * also what happens automatically on a later context loss.
+ */
+export function attachWebglRenderer(term: Terminal): WebglAddon | null {
+  if (webglDisabled()) return null;
+  let webgl: WebglAddon | null = null;
+  try {
+    webgl = new WebglAddon();
+    webgl.onContextLoss(() => webgl?.dispose());
+    term.loadAddon(webgl);
+    return webgl;
+  } catch {
+    try {
+      webgl?.dispose();
+    } catch {
+      /* ignore */
+    }
+    return null;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/ui/src/demo/DemoTerminalReplay.tsx b/ui/src/demo/DemoTerminalReplay.tsx
index 2e382ee6..fdb9ae7d 100644
--- a/ui/src/demo/DemoTerminalReplay.tsx
+++ b/ui/src/demo/DemoTerminalReplay.tsx
@@ -3,10 +3,11 @@ import type { ReactElement } from 'react'
 
 import { FitAddon } from '@xterm/addon-fit'
 import { WebLinksAddon } from '@xterm/addon-web-links'
-import { WebglAddon } from '@xterm/addon-webgl'
+import type { WebglAddon } from '@xterm/addon-webgl'
 import { Terminal as Xterm } from '@xterm/xterm'
 import '@xterm/xterm/css/xterm.css'
 
+import { attachWebglRenderer } from '../components/workspace/renderer'
 import { darkTheme } from '../components/workspace/theme'
 import { DemoTerminalStub } from './DemoTerminalStub'
 import { transcriptsByWorkspace } from './fixtures/transcripts'
@@ -93,12 +94,9 @@ function ReplayPane({ label, transcript }: { label: string; transcript: Transcri
         window.setTimeout(init, 25)
         return
       }
-      try {
-        webgl = new WebglAddon()
-        term.loadAddon(webgl)
-      } catch {
-        // WebGL addon is best-effort; fall back to DOM renderer silently.
-      }
+      // Best-effort WebGL (shared loader: escape-hatch flag + context-loss
+      // degradation); falls back to the DOM renderer silently.
+      webgl = attachWebglRenderer(term)
       try { fit.fit() } catch { /* noop */ }
       resizeObserver = new ResizeObserver(() => {
         try { fit.fit() } catch { /* noop */ }