diff --git a/ui-tui/src/app.tsx b/ui-tui/src/app.tsx
index 06399ba7ad..88dcf84e64 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/app.tsx
+++ b/ui-tui/src/app.tsx
@@ -709,7 +709,10 @@ export function App({ gw }: { gw: GatewayClient }) {
         historyDraftRef.current = ''
       }
 
-      if (full.startsWith('/') && slashRef.current(full)) {
+      if (full.startsWith('/')) {
+        appendMessage({ role: 'system', text: full, kind: 'slash' })
+        pushHistory(full)
+        slashRef.current(full)
         clearInput()
 
         return
@@ -793,7 +796,7 @@ export function App({ gw }: { gw: GatewayClient }) {
       send(full)
     },
     // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
-    [busy, enqueue, gw, listPasteIds, pastes, resolvePasteTokens, sid]
+    [appendMessage, busy, enqueue, gw, listPasteIds, pastes, pushHistory, resolvePasteTokens, sid]
   )
 
   // ── Input handling ───────────────────────────────────────────────
diff --git a/ui-tui/src/components/messageLine.tsx b/ui-tui/src/components/messageLine.tsx
index 91d1fe8c33..8b8b30894b 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/components/messageLine.tsx
+++ b/ui-tui/src/components/messageLine.tsx
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ export const MessageLine = memo(function MessageLine({
   const { body, glyph, prefix } = ROLE[msg.role](t)
 
   const content = (() => {
+    if (msg.kind === 'slash') {
+      return <Text color={t.color.dim}>{msg.text}</Text>
+    }
+
     if (msg.role === 'assistant') {
       return hasAnsi(msg.text) ? <Text wrap="wrap">{msg.text}</Text> : <Md compact={compact} t={t} text={msg.text} />
     }
@@ -41,9 +45,11 @@ export const MessageLine = memo(function MessageLine({
       return (
         <Text color={body}>
           {head}
+
           <Text color={t.color.dim} dimColor>
             [long message]
           </Text>
+
           {rest.join('')}
         </Text>
       )
@@ -53,7 +59,7 @@ export const MessageLine = memo(function MessageLine({
   })()
 
   return (
-    <Box flexDirection="column" marginTop={msg.role === 'user' ? 1 : 0}>
+    <Box flexDirection="column" marginTop={msg.role === 'user' || msg.kind === 'slash' ? 1 : 0}>
       {msg.thinking && (
         <Text color={t.color.dim} dimColor wrap="truncate-end">
           💭 {msg.thinking.replace(/\n/g, ' ').slice(0, 200)}
diff --git a/ui-tui/src/components/thinking.tsx b/ui-tui/src/components/thinking.tsx
index 5dbcfdab47..f4f5130eec 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/components/thinking.tsx
+++ b/ui-tui/src/components/thinking.tsx
@@ -3,15 +3,21 @@ import { memo, useEffect, useState } from 'react'
 import spinners, { type BrailleSpinnerName } from 'unicode-animations'
 
 import { FACES, TOOL_VERBS, VERBS } from '../constants.js'
-import { isToolTrailResultLine, lastCotTrailIndex } from '../lib/text.js'
+import {
+  isToolTrailResultLine,
+  lastCotTrailIndex,
+  pick,
+  scaleHex,
+  THINKING_COT_FADE,
+  THINKING_COT_MAX,
+  thinkingCotTail
+} from '../lib/text.js'
 import type { Theme } from '../theme.js'
 import type { ActiveTool, ActivityItem } from '../types.js'
 
 const THINK: BrailleSpinnerName[] = ['helix', 'breathe', 'orbit', 'dna', 'waverows', 'snake', 'pulse']
 const TOOL: BrailleSpinnerName[] = ['cascade', 'scan', 'diagswipe', 'fillsweep', 'rain', 'columns', 'sparkle']
 
-const pick = <T,>(a: T[]) => a[Math.floor(Math.random() * a.length)]!
-
 const tone = (item: ActivityItem, t: Theme) =>
   item.tone === 'error' ? t.color.error : item.tone === 'warn' ? t.color.warn : t.color.dim
 
@@ -128,7 +134,8 @@ export const Thinking = memo(function Thinking({ reasoning, t }: { reasoning: st
     return () => clearInterval(id)
   }, [])
 
-  const tail = reasoning.slice(-160).replace(/\n/g, ' ')
+  const tail = thinkingCotTail(reasoning)
+  const clipped = reasoning.length > THINKING_COT_MAX
 
   return (
     <>
@@ -138,8 +145,17 @@ export const Thinking = memo(function Thinking({ reasoning, t }: { reasoning: st
       </Text>
 
       {tail ? (
-        <Text color={t.color.dim} dimColor wrap="truncate-end">
-          💭 {tail}
+        <Text wrap="truncate-end">
+          {clipped &&
+            Array.from({ length: Math.min(THINKING_COT_FADE, tail.length) }, (_, i) => (
+              <Text color={scaleHex(t.color.dim, (i + 1) / (THINKING_COT_FADE + 1))} key={i}>
+                {tail[i]}
+              </Text>
+            ))}
+
+          <Text color={t.color.dim} dimColor>
+            {clipped ? tail.slice(THINKING_COT_FADE) : tail}
+          </Text>
         </Text>
       ) : null}
     </>
diff --git a/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts b/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts
index ddb6f9fdd4..7f835c0cd4 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts
+++ b/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts
@@ -53,6 +53,23 @@ export const lastCotTrailIndex = (trail: readonly string[]) => {
   return -1
 }
 
+export const THINKING_COT_MAX = 160
+export const THINKING_COT_FADE = 5
+
+export const thinkingCotTail = (reasoning: string) => reasoning.replace(/\n/g, ' ').slice(-THINKING_COT_MAX)
+
+/** Scale #RRGGBB by k ∈ [0,1] — used for left-edge fade toward terminal bg. */
+export const scaleHex = (hex: string, k: number) => {
+  const h = hex.replace('#', '')
+
+  const ch = (o: number) =>
+    Math.round(parseInt(h.slice(o, o + 2), 16) * k)
+      .toString(16)
+      .padStart(2, '0')
+
+  return `#${ch(0)}${ch(2)}${ch(4)}`
+}
+
 export const estimateRows = (text: string, w: number, compact = false) => {
   let inCode = false
   let rows = 0
diff --git a/ui-tui/src/types.ts b/ui-tui/src/types.ts
index 3254c2674a..1cfa035403 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/types.ts
+++ b/ui-tui/src/types.ts
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ export interface ClarifyReq {
 export interface Msg {
   role: Role
   text: string
-  kind?: 'intro'
+  kind?: 'intro' | 'slash'
   info?: SessionInfo
   thinking?: string
   tools?: string[]