Adds a gate so we can A/B test whether bypassing the alt-screen +
viewport constraint lets the terminal's native scrollback beat our
virtualization on scroll perf.
Result: definitively NO. Inline mode is 40x worse on every metric
that moves, because AlternateScreen is what constrains the ScrollBox
to the viewport height. Without it, the ScrollBox grows to contain
every child of the transcript and every frame re-renders all 1100
messages.
Profile under hold-wheel_up (1106-msg session, 30Hz for 6s):
metric fullscreen inline delta
patches_total 28,864 1,111,574 +3751%
writeBytes_total 42 KB 1.6 MB +3881%
fps_throughput 15.8 fps 1.75 fps -89%
frames 179 18 -90%
gap_p50_ms 17 (~60fps) 726 (~1fps) +4170%
yoga_p99 34 ms 405 ms +1083%
renderer_p99 14 ms 169 ms +1062%
flickers 0 5 offscreen —
This is actually the cleanest data we've gotten so far:
* AlternateScreen is LOAD-BEARING for perf — its viewport height
constraint is what lets useVirtualHistory's culling work. No
constraint → ScrollBox grows unbounded → every fiber mounts.
* The outer terminal (Cursor's xterm.js) parsed 1.6 MB of ANSI in
under 10 seconds with drain p99 = 8.83 ms and 0 backpressure
frames. Our terminal-write hypothesis from last session was
wrong: the bottleneck is React + Yoga, not the wire.
* Doing proper inline mode (non-virtualized transcript in
scrollback, composer pinned below) is not a flag flip — it's a
different UI architecture. Leaving this flag in so anyone
re-running the experiment gets the same numbers, but not
building the architecture until we're sure the perf win is
worth the UX loss (it probably isn't — the fullscreen + virt
path is the one we should optimize, not replace).
Keeping the flag as an experiment gate. Flip HERMES_TUI_INLINE=1
and run scripts/profile-tui.py --compare to reproduce.
Profiled with scripts/profile-tui.py under hold-PageUp + hold-wheel.
The placeholder → microtask-upgrade pattern did not reduce renderer
p99 (63ms → 63ms) or max (96ms → 142ms, slightly worse). Each fresh
row still pays the Md cost — just on a follow-up commit instead of
inline — and the follow-up commit shows up as a second heavy frame
a few ms later.
The real bottlenecks turned out to be:
1. wheel step too large (fixed in 7ca16eea)
2. outer terminal ANSI parse throughput (diagnosing next)
3. React commit frequency during hold-scroll (needs coalescing)
None of which DeferredMd addresses. Clearing the complexity so the
next experiments land on a simpler substrate.
Adds DeferredMd — a wrapper around <Md> that renders a lightweight
<Text> placeholder on first mount and upgrades to the full markdown
subtree on a queueMicrotask follow-up. Rationale: fresh MessageLine
mounts during PageUp hold run our markdown tokenizer + syntax
highlighter synchronously, producing the 63-112ms renderer spikes
profiled earlier. A plain <Text> placeholder only needs Yoga to wrap
the pre-stripped string (no tokenizer, no highlight), then the Md
subtree builds in a follow-up React commit.
Upgrade cache: once a (theme, compact, text) tuple has been upgraded,
a WeakMap-keyed Set remembers it so remounts (scroll-out then
scroll-back) mount straight into <Md> — no placeholder round-trip.
WeakMap on theme means palette swaps re-upgrade naturally.
Honesty note: profiling under hold-PageUp showed this didn't reduce
renderer p99 measurably — the upgrade commit just pays the Md cost on
a follow-up frame instead of inline. The bigger bottleneck turned out
to be React commit frequency (3.5 commits/sec during 30Hz scroll
input, with 200ms+ silent gaps between commits dominating perceived
FPS), which this change doesn't address. Keeping the deferred path
anyway because:
1. It's correct and tested — no regressions across 352 tests
2. Defensive for pathological fresh-mount cases (giant code blocks,
wide tables) that aren't in the current profile fixture
3. Pairs naturally with useVirtualHistory's useDeferredValue to keep
React's concurrent scheduler able to interrupt upgrade commits
If the follow-up perf investigation (terminal write throughput / patch
volume / commit frequency) shows DeferredMd is net-neutral-or-worse in
practice, this can be reverted with a one-line swap back to <Md> in
messageLine.tsx:115.
Companion to the streaming 2-column fix in 7242361a — these two
touched messageLine.tsx together so they land as a pair.
StreamingMd returned <><Md/><Md/></> — a bare Fragment with two <Md>
children. Each <Md> returns a <Box flexDirection="column">, but its
parent in messageLine.tsx (line 169) is `<Box width={...}>` with no
flexDirection, which Ink defaults to 'row'. So during streaming the
two column boxes rendered side-by-side, producing the visible "tokens
jumble into two columns until it fixes itself" bug — the "fix" was
message.complete flipping isStreaming→false, which swaps the
StreamingMd subtree for a single DeferredMd/Md child (no siblings → row
direction is harmless).
Wrap the two <Md> siblings in a flexDirection="column" Box so they
stack. Localized fix so the non-streaming path (single-child, works
fine in a row parent) is untouched.
Reported by user:
> "tokens streaming... going into 2 columns randomly and jumbling
> together until it fixes itself"
No test changes — findStableBoundary tests still pass (the layout
change is parent-structural, not in the boundary logic). Build clean,
tsc clean, 352 tests pass.
Split in-flight assistant text at the last stable block boundary so only
the unclosed tail re-tokenizes per stream delta. Previously the full
text was rendered as plain <Text> during streaming and only flipped to
<Md> at message.complete — cheap per delta but loses live markdown
formatting.
New StreamingMd component holds a monotonically-growing stablePrefix
in a ref (idempotent under StrictMode double-render), renders it as
one <Md> that memoizes across deltas, and renders the unstable suffix
as a second <Md> that re-parses on each delta. Cost per delta drops
from O(total length) to O(unstable length).
findStableBoundary walks back to the last "\n\n" outside an open
fenced code block — splitting inside an open fence would orphan the
opener and break highlighting in the prefix.
Adapted from claude-code's src/components/Markdown.tsx:186 but built
on our line-based tokenizer instead of marked.lexer. 9 new tests cover
fence balance, boundary walk, and empty input.
Part of the --tui perf audit (see audit #7).
- add reusable overlay key and help-text helpers for picker-style overlays
- make model, session, skills, and pager hints consistently support Esc/q close behavior
- run the requested ui-tui lint+format pass and include resulting formatting updates
- guard text-measure cache eviction key in hermes-ink so ui-tui type-check stays green
Inline diff segments were anchored relative to assistant narration, but the
turn details pane still rendered after streamSegments. On completion that put
the diff before the tool telemetry that produced it. When a turn has anchored
diff segments, commit the accumulated thinking/tool trail as a pre-diff trail
message, then render the diff and final summary.
Recovers the manual click on the details accordion: with #14968's new
SECTION_DEFAULTS (thinking/tools start `expanded`), every panel render
was OR-ing the local open toggle against `visible.X === 'expanded'`.
That pinned `open=true` for the default-expanded sections, so clicking
the chevron flipped the local state but the panel never collapsed.
Local toggle is now the sole source of truth at render time; the
useState init still seeds from the resolved visibility (so first paint
is correct) and the existing useEffect still re-syncs when the user
mutates visibility at runtime via `/details`.
Same OR-lock cleared inside SubagentAccordion (`showChildren ||
openX`) — pre-existing but the same shape, so expand-all on the
spawn tree no longer makes inner sections un-collapsible either.
Round-2 Copilot review on #14968 caught two leftover spots that didn't
fully respect per-section overrides:
- messageLine.tsx (trail branch): the previous fix gated on
`SECTION_NAMES.some(...)`, which stayed true whenever any section was
visible. With `thinking: 'expanded'` as the new built-in default,
that meant `display.sections.tools: hidden` left an empty wrapper Box
alive for trail messages. Now gates on the actual content-bearing
sections for a trail message — `tools` OR `activity` — so a
tools-hidden config drops the wrapper cleanly.
- messageLine.tsx (showDetails): still keyed off the global
`detailsMode !== 'hidden'`, so per-section overrides like
`sections.thinking: expanded` couldn't escape global hidden for
assistant messages with reasoning + tool metadata. Recomputed via
resolved per-section modes (`thinkingMode`/`toolsMode`).
- types.ts: rewrote the SectionVisibility doc comment to reflect the
actual resolution order (explicit override → SECTION_DEFAULTS →
global), so the docstring stops claiming "missing keys fall back to
the global mode" when SECTION_DEFAULTS now layers in between.
All three lookups (thinking/tools/activity) are computed once at the
top of MessageLine and shared by every branch.
Copilot review on #14968 caught that the early returns gated on the
global `detailsMode === 'hidden'` short-circuited every render path
before sectionMode() got a chance to apply per-section overrides — so
`details_mode: hidden` + `sections.tools: expanded` was silently a no-op.
Three call sites had the same bug shape; all now key off the resolved
section modes:
- ToolTrail: replace the `detailsMode === 'hidden'` early return with
an `allHidden = every section resolved to hidden` check. When that's
true, fall back to the floating-alert backstop (errors/warnings) so
quiet-mode users aren't blind to ambient failures, and update the
comment block to match the actual condition.
- messageLine.tsx: drop the same `detailsMode === 'hidden'` pre-check
on `msg.kind === 'trail'`; only skip rendering the wrapper when every
section resolves to hidden (`SECTION_NAMES.some(...) !== 'hidden'`).
- useMainApp.ts: rebuild `showProgressArea` around `anyPanelVisible`
instead of branching on the global mode. This also fixes the
suppressed Copilot concern about an empty wrapper Box rendering above
the streaming area when ToolTrail returns null.
Regression test in details.test.ts pins the override-escapes-hidden
behaviour for tools/thinking/activity. 271/271 vitest, lints clean.
- domain/details: extract `norm()`, fold parseDetailsMode + resolveSections
into terser functional form, reject array values for resolveSections
- slash /details: destructure tokens, factor reset/mode into one dispatch,
drop DETAIL_MODES set + DetailsMode/SectionName imports (parseDetailsMode
+ isSectionName narrow + return), centralize usage strings
- ToolTrail: collapse 4 separate xxxSection vars into one memoized
`visible` map; effect deps stabilize on the memo identity instead of
4 primitives
FloatingOverlays (SessionPicker, ModelPicker, SkillsHub, pager,
completions) was nested inside the !isBlocked guard in ComposerPane.
When any overlay opened, isBlocked became true, which removed the
entire composer box from the tree — including the overlay that was
trying to render. This made /resume with no args appear to do nothing
(the input line vanished and no picker appeared).
Since 99d859ce (feat: refactor by splitting up app and doing proper
state), isBlocked gated only the text input lines so that
approval/clarify prompts and pickers rendered above a hidden composer.
The regression happened in 408fc893 (fix(tui): tighten composer — status
sits directly above input, overlays anchor to input) when
FloatingOverlays was moved into the input row for anchoring but
accidentally kept inside the !isBlocked guard.
so here, we render FloatingOverlays outside the !isBlocked guard inside
the same position:relative Box, so overlays
stay visible even when text input is hidden. Only the actual input
buffer lines and TextInput are gated now.
Fixes: /resume, /history, /logs, /model, /skills, and completion
dropdowns when blocked overlays are active.
Visual polish on top of the segment-anchor change: diff blocks were
butting up against the narration around them. Tag diff-only segments
with `kind: 'diff'` (extended on Msg) and give them `marginTop={1}` +
`marginBottom={1}` in MessageLine, matching the spacing we already
use for user messages. Also swaps the regex-based `diffSegmentBody`
check for an explicit `kind === 'diff'` guard so the dedupe path is
clearer.
TTS feedback loop (hermes_cli/voice.py)
The VAD loop kept the microphone live while speak_text played the
agent's reply over the speakers, so the reply itself was picked up,
transcribed, and submitted — the agent then replied to its own echo
("Ha, looks like we're in a loop").
Ported cli.py:_voice_tts_done synchronisation:
- _tts_playing: threading.Event (initially set = "not playing").
- speak_text cancels the active recorder before opening the speakers,
clears _tts_playing, and on exit waits 300 ms before re-starting the
recorder — long enough for the OS audio device to settle so afplay
and sounddevice don't race for it.
- _continuous_on_silence now waits on _tts_playing (up to 60 s) before
re-arming the mic with another 300 ms gap, mirroring
cli.py:10619-10621. If the user flips voice off during the wait the
loop exits cleanly instead of fighting for the device.
Without both halves the loop races: if the silence callback fires
before TTS starts it re-arms immediately; if TTS is already playing
the pause-and-resume path catches it.
Red REC badge (ui-tui appChrome + useMainApp)
Classic CLI (cli.py:_get_voice_status_fragments) renders "● REC" in
red and "◉ STT" in amber. TUI was showing a dim "REC" with no dot,
making it hard to spot at a glance. voiceLabel now emits the same
glyphs and appChrome colours them via t.color.error / t.color.warn,
falling back to dim for the idle label.
When the user runs /voice and then presses Ctrl+B in the TUI, three
handlers collaborate to consume the chord and none of them dispatch
voice.record:
- isAction() is platform-aware — on macOS it requires Cmd (meta/super),
so Ctrl+B fails the match in useInputHandlers and never triggers
voiceStart/voiceStop.
- TextInput's Ctrl+B pass-through list doesn't include 'b', so the
keystroke falls through to the wordMod backward-word branch on Linux
and to the printable-char insertion branch on macOS — the latter is
exactly what timmie reported ("enters a b into the tui").
- /voice emits "voice: on" with no hint, so the user has no way to
know Ctrl+B is the recording toggle.
Introduces isVoiceToggleKey(key, ch) in lib/platform.ts that matches
raw Ctrl+B on every platform (mirrors tips.py and config.yaml's
voice.record_key default) and additionally accepts Cmd+B on macOS so
existing muscle memory keeps working. Wires it into useInputHandlers,
adds Ctrl+B to TextInput's pass-through list so the global handler
actually receives the chord, and appends "press Ctrl+B to record" to
the /voice on message.
Empirically verified with hermes --tui: Ctrl+B no longer leaks 'b'
into the composer and now dispatches the voice.record RPC (the
downstream ImportError for hermes_cli.voice is a separate upstream
bug — follow-up patch).
Brooklyn Nicholson