diff --git a/ext/REPLExt/precompile.jl b/ext/REPLExt/precompile.jl
index a295f66fc8..268cbc1204 100644
--- a/ext/REPLExt/precompile.jl
+++ b/ext/REPLExt/precompile.jl
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ let
         original_load_path = copy(LOAD_PATH)
         __init__()
         Pkg.UPDATED_REGISTRY_THIS_SESSION[] = true
-        Pkg.DEFAULT_IO[] = Pkg.UnstableIO(devnull)
+        Pkg.DEFAULT_IO[] = Pkg.unstableio(devnull)
         withenv("JULIA_PKG_SERVER" => nothing, "JULIA_PKG_UNPACK_REGISTRY" => nothing) do
             tmp = Pkg._run_precompilation_script_setup()
             cd(tmp) do
diff --git a/src/API.jl b/src/API.jl
index 212d2c3de1..6a3b74be9f 100644
--- a/src/API.jl
+++ b/src/API.jl
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import FileWatching
 
 import Base: StaleCacheKey
 
-import ..depots, ..depots1, ..logdir, ..devdir, ..printpkgstyle, ..UnstableIO
+import ..depots, ..depots1, ..logdir, ..devdir, ..printpkgstyle
 import ..Operations, ..GitTools, ..Pkg, ..Registry
 import ..can_fancyprint, ..pathrepr, ..isurl, ..PREV_ENV_PATH
 using ..Types, ..TOML
@@ -1146,8 +1146,8 @@ function precompile(ctx::Context, pkgs::Vector{PackageSpec}; internal_call::Bool
     end
 
     io = ctx.io
-    if io isa UnstableIO
-        # precompile does quite a bit of output and using the UnstableIO can cause
+    if io isa IOContext{IO}
+        # precompile does quite a bit of output and using the IOContext{IO} can cause
         # some slowdowns, the important part here is to not specialize the whole
         # precompile function on the io
         io = io.io
diff --git a/src/Operations.jl b/src/Operations.jl
index 7e837c74c8..c812c13205 100644
--- a/src/Operations.jl
+++ b/src/Operations.jl
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import ..Artifacts: ensure_artifact_installed, artifact_names, extract_all_hashe
                     artifact_exists, select_downloadable_artifacts
 using Base.BinaryPlatforms
 import ...Pkg
-import ...Pkg: pkg_server, Registry, pathrepr, can_fancyprint, printpkgstyle, stderr_f, OFFLINE_MODE, UnstableIO
+import ...Pkg: pkg_server, Registry, pathrepr, can_fancyprint, printpkgstyle, stderr_f, OFFLINE_MODE
 import ...Pkg: UPDATED_REGISTRY_THIS_SESSION, RESPECT_SYSIMAGE_VERSIONS, should_autoprecompile
 
 #########
@@ -2108,8 +2108,8 @@ end
 function subprocess_handler(cmd::Cmd, ctx, sandbox_ctx, error_msg::String)
     stdout = sandbox_ctx.io
     stderr = stderr_f()
-    stdout isa UnstableIO && (stdout = stdout.io)
-    stderr isa UnstableIO && (stderr = stderr.io)
+    stdout isa IOContext{IO} && (stdout = stdout.io)
+    stderr isa IOContext{IO} && (stderr = stderr.io)
     @debug "Running command" cmd
     p = run(pipeline(ignorestatus(cmd); stdout, stderr), wait = false)
     interrupted = false
diff --git a/src/Pkg.jl b/src/Pkg.jl
index 4e776c93c7..d62ceb2e3f 100644
--- a/src/Pkg.jl
+++ b/src/Pkg.jl
@@ -40,17 +40,20 @@ const RESPECT_SYSIMAGE_VERSIONS = Ref(true)
 # For globally overriding in e.g. tests
 const DEFAULT_IO = Ref{Union{IO,Nothing}}(nothing)
 
-struct UnstableIO <: IO
-    io::IO
+# See discussion in https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/52249
+function unstableio(@nospecialize(io::IO))
+    # Needed to prevent specialization https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/52249#discussion_r1401199265
+    _io = Base.inferencebarrier(io)
+    IOContext{IO}(
+        _io,
+        get(_io,:color,false) ? Base.ImmutableDict{Symbol,Any}(:color, true) : Base.ImmutableDict{Symbol,Any}()
+    )
 end
-Base.write(io::UnstableIO, b::UInt8) = write(io.io, b)::Int
-Base.get(io::UnstableIO, val, default) = get(io.io, val, default)
-Base.print(io::UnstableIO, arg::Union{SubString{String}, String}) = print(io.io, arg)
-stderr_f() = something(DEFAULT_IO[], UnstableIO(stderr))
-stdout_f() = something(DEFAULT_IO[], UnstableIO(stdout))
+stderr_f() = something(DEFAULT_IO[], unstableio(stderr))
+stdout_f() = something(DEFAULT_IO[], unstableio(stdout))
 const PREV_ENV_PATH = Ref{String}("")
 
-can_fancyprint(io::IO) = ((io isa Base.TTY) || (io isa UnstableIO && io.io isa Base.TTY)) && (get(ENV, "CI", nothing) != "true")
+can_fancyprint(io::IO) = ((io isa Base.TTY) || (io isa IOContext{IO} && io.io isa Base.TTY)) && (get(ENV, "CI", nothing) != "true")
 should_autoprecompile() = Base.JLOptions().use_compiled_modules == 1 && Base.get_bool_env("JULIA_PKG_PRECOMPILE_AUTO", true)
 
 include("utils.jl")
diff --git a/src/precompile.jl b/src/precompile.jl
index 35dde8b3dd..72b796a5cb 100644
--- a/src/precompile.jl
+++ b/src/precompile.jl
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ let
 
         Pkg.UPDATED_REGISTRY_THIS_SESSION[] = true
         # Default 30 sec grace period means we hang 30 seconds before precompiling finishes
-        DEFAULT_IO[] = UnstableIO(devnull)
+        DEFAULT_IO[] = unstableio(devnull)
         Downloads.DOWNLOADER[] = Downloads.Downloader(; grace = 1.0)
 
         # We need to override JULIA_PKG_UNPACK_REGISTRY to fix https://github.com/JuliaLang/Pkg.jl/issues/3663