Roadmap: make streaming conversation and tool activity feel alive in TUI and Desktop #291

Source

• Source type: source:user
• Source evidence: user request for a best-in-class CLI and Desktop experience.
• Public inspiration reviewed on 2026-07-31: OpenCode, Cline, and Codex.

Problem statement

Long agent turns mix reasoning summaries, tool calls, streaming text, approvals, failures, retries, and final evidence. The same run should remain readable, lively, and controllable in both compact terminals and spacious Desktop windows.

User value

Users can understand what is happening now, inspect details only when needed, and confidently interrupt or resume without drowning in logs.

Scope

• A shared event presentation model for assistant text, tools, subagents, approvals, warnings, diffs, and results.
• Progressive-disclosure activity cards with elapsed time, liveness, status, and bounded raw detail.
• Stable auto-scroll, unread markers, keyboard navigation, selection, copy, and follow-mode controls.
• Consistent color semantics with reduced-color and reduced-motion fallbacks.

Non-goals

• Exposing private chain-of-thought.
• Fabricating progress messages when no runtime event exists.
• Replacing durable receipts with UI-only history.

Acceptance criteria

• Streaming output stays readable and responsive during long mixed tool runs.
• Every visible status maps to a real runtime event and durable outcome where required.
• Users can expand, collapse, copy, interrupt, and resume activity without losing their reading position.
• Failures preserve partial output and present an actionable next step.
• TUI and Desktop render the same event sequence with surface-appropriate density.

Test plan

Deterministic event-stream fixtures, long-output performance tests, keyboard interaction tests, failure/retry tests, and visual E2E captures.

Dogfood plan

Run a multi-tool repository task with a long build, one recoverable failure, a diff, and an approval; compare the resulting TUI and Desktop timelines against the same raw receipt.

Risk and security notes

Tool output may contain secrets or terminal control sequences. Redact before presentation and neutralize unsafe escape sequences in both surfaces.

Duplicate search evidence

Builds on #158, #195, and completed children #159–#163/#203. The roadmap is specifically for a unified, high-fidelity cross-surface activity system.

Parent/child relationship

This is a roadmap parent. Split into vertical children for stream rendering, tool cards, follow-mode navigation, failure recovery, and cross-surface parity.

Dependency order

Shared event contract first, TUI renderer second, Desktop renderer after its gate, parity and stress proof last.

Product and governance guardrails

• Treat the linked projects as behavior-level inspiration only. Do not copy third-party source code, assets, screenshots, branding, or visual identity.
• Preserve one underlying run/session model across TUI and Desktop; do not create demo-only state or simulated execution evidence.
• Any native Desktop acceptance remains gated by Desktop: launch a secure macOS session shell #106 and the maintainer-authored macOS evidence required by Governance: add head-bound macOS Electron screenshot check #133. A TUI or shared-core child may proceed independently only when its acceptance does not depend on that gate.
• Keep approval, sandbox, redaction, lease, and append-only evidence guarantees intact.