This PR groups the TUI fixes that restore macOS Terminal usability and clean up the theme/composer regressions:
- copy transcript selections on macOS drag-release so Terminal.app users can copy while mouse tracking is enabled
- copy composer selections on macOS drag-release; composer selection is internal to TextInput and does not use the global Ink selection bus
- keep IDE Cmd+C forwarding setup macOS-only, and make keybinding conflict checks respect simple when-clause overlap/negation
- force truecolor before chalk initializes (unless NO_COLOR / FORCE_COLOR / HERMES_TUI_TRUECOLOR opt-outs apply) so the default banner keeps its gold/amber/bronze gradient in Terminal.app
- move TUI surfaces onto semantic theme tokens and preserve skin prompt symbols as bare tokens with renderer-owned spacing
- render focused placeholders as dim hint text in TTY mode instead of inverse/selected-looking synthetic cursor text
* feat(tui): pluggable busy-indicator styles (kaomoji/emoji/unicode/ascii)
The status-bar `FaceTicker` rotated through wide-and-variable kaomoji
glyphs (`(｡•́︿•̀｡)`, `( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)`, …) every 2.5s. Real display widths range
from ~5 to ~16 columns, so the rest of the bar (cwd, ctx %, voice,
bg counter) shifted on every cycle. Padding the verb alone (#17116)
helped but didn't address the dominant jitter source — the glyph
itself.
Add four indicator styles, configurable + hot-swappable:
* `kaomoji` (default — preserves the existing vibe; verb is now
pad-stable so the only width churn left is the kaomoji itself).
* `emoji` — single 2-col emoji frame (`⚕ 🌀🤔✨🍵🔮`).
* `unicode` — `unicode-animations` braille spinner (1-col, smooth).
* `ascii` — `| / - \` (1-col, max compat).
Wires:
* `display.tui_status_indicator` in `DEFAULT_CONFIG` (default
`kaomoji`).
* New JSON-RPC `config.set/get indicator` keys, narrow allow-list.
* `applyDisplay` reads the field and patches `UiState.indicatorStyle`,
so the existing `mtime` poll picks up `~/.hermes/config.yaml` edits
within ~5s without a TUI restart.
* `/indicator [style]` slash command (alias `/indicator-style`,
subcommand completion `kaomoji|emoji|unicode|ascii`). Bare form
shows the current style; setter fires `config.set` and
optimistically `patchUiState({ indicatorStyle })` so the live TUI
swaps immediately, matching the `/skin` UX.
* `CommandDef("indicator", ..., subcommands=...)` so classic CLI
autocomplete + TUI `complete.slash` both surface it.
* `FaceTicker` decouples spinner cadence from verb cadence — the
glyph runs at the spinner's authored interval (or `FACE_TICK_MS`
for kaomoji), the verb stays on the original 2.5s cycle, and both
re-arm cleanly when style changes.
Tests:
* `normalizeIndicatorStyle` rejects unknown / non-string input.
* `applyDisplay → tui_status_indicator` covers fan-out + fallback.
* `/indicator <style>` hot-swaps `UiState.indicatorStyle` after a
successful `config.set`.
* `/indicator sparkle` rejects with the usage hint and never hits
the gateway.
* Slash-parity matrix gets `'/indicator'` → `config.get`.
Validation:
cd ui-tui && npm run type-check — clean; npm test --run — 398/398.
scripts/run_tests.sh tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py
tests/hermes_cli/test_commands.py — 220/220.
* chore(tui): drop /indicator-style alias to declutter autocomplete
* fix(tui): drop verb-width pad — /indicator handles glyph jitter directly
* fix(tui): unicode indicator style hides the verb (cleanest option)
* refactor(tui): single source of truth for INDICATOR_STYLES; cleaner error format
Round 1 Copilot review on PR #17150:
- Exported `INDICATOR_STYLES` const tuple from `interfaces.ts`;
`IndicatorStyle` union type is derived from it. `useConfigSync`
builds its validation Set from the tuple, and `session.ts` uses it
for both the usage hint and the runtime allow-list — adding/removing
a style now touches one line.
- Backend `config.set indicator` error message: switched
`sorted(allowed)` list repr to `pick one of ascii|emoji|kaomoji|unicode`
(matches the TUI usage hint), and reports the normalized `raw`
instead of the original `value`. Backend allowed tuple now has a
comment pointing back at `INDICATOR_STYLES` so the two stay aligned.
Note: kept the verb portion unpadded per design intent — fixed-width
padding was the exact UX the `/indicator` command was added to remove.
Stable width comes from the glyph; verbs cycling is part of the kawaii
aesthetic. Reply on the verb thread will explain.
* fix(tui): drop type collapse + gate verb timer + DEFAULT_INDICATOR_STYLE
Round 2 Copilot review on PR #17150:
- `tui_status_indicator?: 'ascii' | ... | string` collapses to `string`
in TS — consumers got no narrowing. Documented as plain `string` with
a comment about runtime validation via `normalizeIndicatorStyle`.
- `FaceTicker` always started a 2.5s verb interval, even for the
`unicode` style which hides the verb entirely. Now gated on
`showVerb` from `renderIndicator` — `unicode` stays calm.
Pre-emptive self-review (avoid round 3):
- Three call sites duplicated the literal `'kaomoji'` default
(uiStore, normalizeIndicatorStyle, slash command). Added
`DEFAULT_INDICATOR_STYLE` to interfaces.ts and threaded it through
so changing the default touches one line.
* fix(tui-gateway): normalize config.get indicator output to match TUI render
Round 4 Copilot review on PR #17150: `config.get` for `indicator`
returned the raw `display.tui_status_indicator` value without
validation, so a hand-edited config.yaml with stray casing or an
unknown style would leave `/indicator` printing one thing while
the TUI rendered the kaomoji default (frontend's
`normalizeIndicatorStyle` does this normalization on receive).
Lifted the allow-list to module scope as `_INDICATOR_STYLES` /
`_INDICATOR_DEFAULT`, reused by both `config.set` and `config.get`.
Comment notes the alignment with `INDICATOR_STYLES` /
`DEFAULT_INDICATOR_STYLE` in interfaces.ts so adding/removing a
style is a one-line change on each end.
Tests cover: known value verbatim, casing/whitespace normalize,
unknown→default, unset→default.
* fix(tui-gateway): preserve falsy-input diagnostics in config.set indicator error
Round 5 Copilot review on PR #17150: `raw = str(value or "").strip().lower()`
collapsed any falsy non-string (`0`, `False`, `[]`) to empty string,
so the error message read `unknown indicator: ` with nothing after —
losing the original input.
Switched to `("" if value is None else str(value)).strip().lower()`
so only `None` (the genuine 'no value' case) becomes blank. Used
`{raw!r}` in the error so the diagnostic is unambiguous (`'0'` vs `0`).
Tests:
- known-value happy path (`'EMOJI'` → `'emoji'`)
- falsy non-string inputs (`0` / `False` / `[]`) surface meaningfully
- `None` keeps the blank-repr error
- 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
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.
Trim comment noise, remove redundant typing, normalize sticky prompt viewport args to top→bottom order, and reuse one sticky viewport helper instead of duplicating the math.
Sticky prompt selection only considered the top edge of the viewport, so it could keep showing an older user prompt even when a newer one was already visible lower down. Suppress sticky output whenever a user message is visible in the viewport and cover it with a regression test.
Renderer-driven follow-to-bottom was restoring the viewport to the tail without notifying ScrollBox subscribers, so StickyPromptTracker could stay stale-visible. Notify on render-time scroll/sticky changes and treat near-bottom as bottom for prompt hiding.
- normalizeStatusBar collapses to one ternary expression
- /statusbar slash hoists the toggle value and flattens the branch tree
- shift-tab yolo comment reduced to one line
- cursorLayout/offsetFromPosition lose paragraph-length comments
- appLayout collapses the three {!overlay.agents && …} into one fragment
- StatusRule drops redundant flexShrink={0} (Yoga default)
- server.py uses a walrus + frozenset and trims the compat helper
Net -43 LoC. 237 vitest + 46 pytest green, layouts unchanged.
The heart was rendered as a literal space when inactive. Because it's
absolutely positioned at right:0 inside the composer row, that blank
still overpainted the rightmost input cell. On wrapped 2-line drafts,
editing near the boundary made the final visible character appear to
jump in/out as it crossed the overpainted column.
When inactive, render nothing; only mount the heart while it's actually
animating.
Previous revision added marginTop={1} to the input which stacked as a
phantom gap BETWEEN status and input. The breathing row should sit
ABOVE the status-in-top cluster, not inside it.
- StatusRulePane at="top" now carries its own marginTop={1} so it
always has a one-row gap above (separating it from transcript or,
when queue is present, from the last queue item)
- Input Box marginTop flips: 0 in top mode (status is the separator),
1 in bottom/off mode (input itself caps the composer cluster)
- Net: status and input are tight together in 'top'; input and status
are tight together at the bottom in 'bottom'; one-row breathing room
above whichever element sits on top of the cluster
Three bugs rolled together, all in the composer area:
- StatusRule was measuring as 2 rows in Yoga due to a quirk with the
complex nested <Text wrap="truncate-end"> content. Lock the outer box
to height={1} so 'top' mode actually abuts the input instead of
leaving a phantom blank row between them
- FloatingOverlays (slash completions, /model picker, /resume, /skills
browser, pager) was anchored to the status box. In 'bottom' mode the
status box moved away, so overlays vanished. Move the overlays into
the input row (which is position:relative) so they always pop up
above the input regardless of status position
- Drop the <Text> </Text> fallback in the sticky-prompt slot (only
render a row when there's an actual sticky prompt to show) and
collapse the now-unused Box column wrapping the input. Saves two
rows of dead vertical space in the default layout
Four real issues Copilot flagged:
1. delegate_tool: `_build_child_agent` never passed `toolsets` to the
progress callback, so the event payload's `toolsets` field (wired
through every layer) was always empty and the overlay's toolsets
row never populated. Thread `child_toolsets` through.
2. event handler: the race-protection on subagent.spawn_requested /
subagent.start only preserved `completed`, so a late-arriving queued
event could clobber `failed` / `interrupted` too. Preserve any
terminal status (`completed | failed | interrupted`).
3. SpawnHud: comment claimed concurrency was approximated by "widest
level in the tree" but code used `totals.activeCount` (total across
all parents). `max_concurrent_children` is a per-parent cap, so
activeCount over-warns for multi-orchestrator runs. Switch to
`max(widthByDepth(tree))`; the label now reads `⚡W/cap+extra` where
W is the widest level (drives the ratio) and `+extra` is the rest.
4. spawn_tree.list: comment said "peek header without parsing full list"
but the code json.loads()'d every snapshot. Adds a per-session
`_index.jsonl` sidecar written on save; list() reads only the index
(with a full-scan fallback for pre-index sessions). O(1) per
snapshot now vs O(file-size).
Adds a live + post-hoc audit surface for recursive delegate_task fan-out.
None of cc/oc/oclaw tackle nested subagent trees inside an Ink overlay;
this ships a view-switched dashboard that handles arbitrary depth + width.
Python
- delegate_tool: every subagent event now carries subagent_id, parent_id,
depth, model, tool_count; subagent.complete also ships input/output/
reasoning tokens, cost, api_calls, files_read/files_written, and a
tail of tool-call outputs
- delegate_tool: new subagent.spawn_requested event + _active_subagents
registry so the overlay can kill a branch by id and pause new spawns
- tui_gateway: new RPCs delegation.status, delegation.pause,
subagent.interrupt, spawn_tree.save/list/load (disk under
\$HERMES_HOME/spawn-trees/<session>/<ts>.json)
TUI
- /agents overlay: full-width list mode (gantt strip + row picker) and
Enter-to-drill full-width scrollable detail mode; inverse+amber
selection, heat-coloured branch markers, wall-clock gantt with tick
ruler, per-branch rollups
- Detail pane: collapsible accordions (Budget, Files, Tool calls, Output,
Progress, Summary); open-state persists across agents + mode switches
via a shared atom
- /replay [N|last|list|load <path>] for in-memory + disk history;
/replay-diff <a> <b> for side-by-side tree comparison
- Status-bar SpawnHud warns as depth/concurrency approaches caps;
overlay auto-follows the just-finished turn onto history[1]
- Theme: bump DARK dim #B8860B → #CC9B1F for readable secondary text
globally; keep LIGHT untouched
Tests: +29 new subagentTree unit tests; 215/215 passing.
Selected rows in the model/session/skills pickers and approval/clarify
prompts only changed from dim gray to cornsilk, which reads as low
contrast on lighter themes and LCDs (reported during TUI v2 blitz).
Switch the selected row to `inverse bold` with the brand accent color
across modelPicker, sessionPicker, skillsHub, and prompts so the
highlight is terminal-portable and unambiguous. Unselected rows stay
dim. Also extends the sessionPicker middle meta column (which was
always dim) to inherit the row's selection state.
Drops `lastUserAt` plumbing and the right-edge idle ticker. Matches the
claude-code / opencode convention: elapsed rides with the busy indicator
(spinner verb), nothing at idle.
- `turnStartedAt` driven by a useEffect on `ui.busy` — stamps on rising
edge, clears on falling edge. Covers agent turns and !shell alike.
- FaceTicker renders ` · {fmtDuration}` while busy; 1 s clock for the
counter, existing 2500 ms cycle for face/verb rotation.
- On busy → idle, if the block ran ≥ 1 s, emit a one-shot
`done in {fmtDuration}` sys line (≡ claude-code's `thought for Ns`).
Status bar ticker was too hot in peripheral vision. The moment the elapsed
value matters is when the prompt returns — so surface it there. Dim
`fmtDuration` next to the GoodVibesHeart, idle-only (hidden while busy),
so quick turns and active streaming stay quiet.
StatusRule now renders `{sinceLastMsg}/{sinceSession}` (e.g. `12s/3m 45s`)
when a user has submitted in the current session; falls back to the total
alone otherwise. Wires `lastUserAt` through the state/session lifecycle:
- useSubmission stamps `setLastUserAt(Date.now())` on send
- useSessionLifecycle nulls it in reset/resetVisibleHistory
- /branch slash nulls it on fork
- turnController gates scheduleStreaming / reasoning recorders on
streaming + showReasoning so disabling them keeps the buffer silent
until message.complete flushes
- createGatewayEventHandler only surfaces inline_diff previews when
inlineDiffs is on
- StatusRule takes a showCost prop and renders `· $X.XXXX` with the
same toFixed(4) formatting as /usage when usage.cost_usd is present
- Usage grows cost_usd?: number to match the gateway payload
- Existing handler tests flip showReasoning on in beforeEach so
reasoning-flow assertions keep their meaning
Sticky prompt:
The loop was skipping `first` (the first row in the viewport) when
looking for a user message scrolled above the top edge. If `first`
itself was a user row that had just ticked above the viewport, we'd
fall through the early-return guard (`role === 'user' && !above`),
then walk from `first - 1` backward — never rechecking `first`, never
finding anything, returning '' and leaving the sticky empty. This is
why it felt "stuck" at the start: one-turn sessions with the user row
exactly at/near the top never surfaced the breadcrumb.
Collapsed the two branches into one loop starting at `first`: nearest
user wins — still-on-screen → empty (redundant to echo), already
above → text. Same semantics, covers the gap.
Scrollbar:
`useSyncExternalStore` snapshot was `scrollTop:vp:scrollHeight` —
scrollHeight ticks up by ~1 row on every streamed chunk, forcing a
re-render per chunk. Quantized snapshot to the displayed values
(`thumbTop:thumbSize:vp`) so we only re-render when the bar actually
changes. Drops render count per turn by ~100x during streaming and
stops the "constantly resizes" flicker.
The status bar was showing stale lifecycle text ("running…") while the
face+verb stream flickered through the thinking panel as Python pushed
thinking.delta events. That's backwards — the face ticker is the
primary "I'm alive" signal, it belongs in the status bar; the thinking
panel is for substantive reasoning and tool activity.
Status bar now reads `ui.busy`: when true, renders a local `<FaceTicker>`
cycling FACES × VERBS on a 2.5s interval, unaffected by server events.
When false, the bar shows the actual status string (ready, starting
agent…, interrupted, etc.).
Side effect: `scheduleThinkingStatus` still patches `ui.status` with
Python's face text, but while busy the bar ignores that string and uses
the ticker instead. No server-side changes needed — Python keeps
emitting thinking.delta as a liveness heartbeat, the TUI just doesn't
let it fight the status bar.
Hoist turn state from a 286-line hook into $turnState atom + turnController
singleton. createGatewayEventHandler becomes a typed dispatch over the
controller; its ctx shrinks from 30 fields to 5. Event-handler refs and 16
threaded actions are gone.
Fold three createSlash*Handler factories into a data-driven SlashCommand[]
registry under slash/commands/{core,session,ops}.ts. Aliases are data;
findSlashCommand does name+alias lookup. Shared guarded/guardedErr combinator
in slash/guarded.ts.
Split constants.ts + app/helpers.ts into config/ (timing/limits/env),
content/ (faces/placeholders/hotkeys/verbs/charms/fortunes), domain/ (roles/
details/messages/paths/slash/viewport/usage), protocol/ (interpolation/paste).
Type every RPC response in gatewayTypes.ts (26 new interfaces); drop all
`(r: any)` across slash + main app.
Shrink useMainApp from 1216 -> 646 lines by extracting useSessionLifecycle,
useSubmission, useConfigSync. Add <Fg> themed primitive and strip ~50
`as any` color casts.
Tests: 50 passing. Build + type-check clean.
Brooklyn Nicholson