- tui_gateway: new `setup.status` RPC that reuses CLI's
`_has_any_provider_configured()`, so the TUI can ask the same question
the CLI bootstrap asks before launching a session
- useSessionLifecycle: preflight `setup.status` before both `newSession`
and `resumeById`, and render a clear "Setup Required" panel when no
provider is configured instead of booting a session that immediately
fails with `agent init failed`
- createGatewayEventHandler: drop duplicate startup resume logic in
favor of the preflighted `resumeById`, and special-case the
no-provider agent-init error as a last-mile fallback to the same
setup panel
- add regression tests for both paths
- tui_gateway: route approvals through gateway callback (HERMES_GATEWAY_SESSION/
HERMES_EXEC_ASK) so dangerous commands emit approval.request instead of
silently falling through the CLI input() path and auto-denying
- approval UX: dedicated PromptZone between transcript and composer, safer
defaults (sel=0, numeric quick-picks, no Esc=deny), activity trail line,
outcome footer under the cost row
- text input: Ctrl+A select-all, real forward Delete, Ctrl+W always consumed
(fixes Ctrl+Backspace at cursor 0 inserting literal w)
- hermes-ink selection: swap synchronous onRender() for throttled
scheduleRender() on drag, and only notify React subscribers on presence
change — no more per-cell paint/subscribe spam
- useConfigSync: silence config.get polling failures instead of surfacing
'error: timeout: config.get' in the transcript
The gateway was gating `reasoning.delta` and `reasoning.available`
behind `_reasoning_visible(sid)` (true iff `display.show_reasoning:
true` or `tool_progress_mode: verbose`). With the default config,
neither was true — so reasoning events never reached the TUI,
`turn.reasoning` stayed empty, `reasoningTokens` stayed 0, and the
Thinking expander showed no token label for the whole turn. Tools
still reported tokens because `tool.start` had no such gate.
Then `message.complete` fired with `payload.reasoning` populated, the
TUI saved it into `msg.thinking`, and the finalized row's expander
sprouted "~36 tokens" post-hoc. That's the "tokens appear after the
turn" jank.
Remove the gate on emission. The TUI is responsible for whether to
display reasoning content (detailsMode + collapsed expander already
handle that). Token counting becomes continuous throughout the turn,
matching how tools work.
Also dropped the now-unused `_reasoning_visible` and
`_session_show_reasoning` helpers. `show_reasoning` config key stays
in place — it's still toggled via `/reasoning show|hide` and read
elsewhere for potential future TUI-side gating.
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.
"Ink" is the React reconciler — implementation detail, not branding.
Consistent naming: the classic CLI is the CLI, the new one is the TUI.
Updated docs: user-guide/tui.md, user-guide/cli.md cross-link, quickstart,
cli-commands reference, environment-variables reference.
Updated code: main.py --tui help text, server.py user-visible setup
error, AGENTS.md "TUI Architecture" section.
Kept "Ink" only where it is literally the library (hermes-ink internal
source comments, AGENTS.md tree note flagging ui-tui/ as a React/Ink dir).
Python (tui_gateway/server.py):
- hoist `_wait_agent` next to `_sess` so `_sess` no longer forward-refs
- simplify `_wait_agent`: `ready.wait()` already returns True when set,
no separate `.is_set()` check, collapse two returns into one expr
- factor `_sess_nowait` for handlers that don't need the agent (currently
`terminal.resize` + `input.detect_drop`) — DRY up the duplicated
`_sessions.get` + "session not found" dance
- inline `session = _sessions[sid]` in the session.create build thread so
agent/worker writes don't re-look-up the dict each time
- rename inline `ready_event` → `ready` (it's never ambiguous)
TS:
- `useSessionLifecycle.newSession`: hoist `r.info ?? null` into `info`
so it's one lookup, drop ceremonial `{ … }` blocks around single-line
bodies
- `createGatewayEventHandler.session.info`: wrap the case in a block,
hoist `ev.payload` into `info`, tighten comments
- `useMainApp` flush effect: collapse two guard returns into one
- `bootBanner.ts`: lift `TAGLINE` + `FALLBACK` to module constants, make
`GRADIENT` readonly, one-liner return via template literal
- `theme.ts`: group `selectionBg` inside the status* block (it's a UI
surface bg, same family), trim the comment
Previously `session.create` blocked for ~1.2s on `_make_agent` (mostly
`run_agent` transitive imports + AIAgent constructor). The UI waited
through that whole window before sid became known and the banner/panel
could render.
Now `session.create` returns immediately with `{session_id, info:
{model, cwd, tools:{}, skills:{}}}` and spawns a background thread that
does the real `_make_agent` + `_init_session`. When the agent is live,
the thread emits `session.info` with the full payload.
Python side:
- `_sessions[sid]` gets a placeholder dict with `agent=None` and a
`threading.Event()` named `agent_ready`
- `_wait_agent(session, rid, timeout=30)` blocks until the event is set
(no-op when already set or absent, e.g. for `session.resume`)
- `_sess()` now calls `_wait_agent` — so every handler routed through it
(prompt.submit, session.usage, session.compress, session.branch,
rollback.*, tools.configure, etc.) automatically holds until the agent
is live, but only during the ~1s startup window
- `terminal.resize` and `input.detect_drop` bypass the wait via direct
dict lookup — they don't touch the agent and would otherwise block
the first post-startup RPCs unnecessarily
TS side:
- `session.info` event handler now patches the intro message's `info`
in-place so the seeded banner upgrades to the full session panel when
the agent finishes initializing
- `appLayout` gates `SessionPanel` on `info.version` being present
(only set by `_session_info(agent)`, not by the partial payload from
`session.create`) — so the panel only appears when real data arrives
Net effect on cold start:
T=~400ms banner paints (seeded intro)
T=~245ms ui.sid set (session.create responds in ~1ms after ready)
T=~1400ms session panel fills in (real session.info event)
Pre-session keystrokes queue as before (already handled by the flush
effect); `prompt.submit` will wait on `agent_ready` on the Python side
when the flush tries to send before the agent is live.
Resumed sessions showed raw JSON tool output in content boxes instead
of the compact trail lines seen during live use. The root cause was
two separate rendering paths with no shared code.
Extract buildToolTrailLine() into lib/text.ts as the single source
of truth for formatting tool trail lines. Both the live tool.complete
handler and toTranscriptMessages now call it.
Server-side, reconstruct tool name and args from the assistant
message's tool_calls field (tool_name column is unpopulated) and
pass them through _tool_ctx/build_tool_preview — the same path
the live tool.start callback uses.
session.resume was building conversation history with only role and
content, stripping tool_call_id, tool_calls, and tool_name. The API
requires tool messages to reference their parent tool_call, so resumed
sessions with tool history would fail with HTTP 500.
Use get_messages_as_conversation() which already preserves the full
message structure including tool metadata and reasoning fields.
- session.list RPC now queries both tui and cli sources, merged by recency
- Session picker shows source label for non-tui sessions (e.g. ", cli")
- Added source field to SessionItem interface