The ephemeral no-tools side-question variant of /btw confused users who
expected 'by-the-way' to mean 'run this off to the side with tools' —
they'd type /btw and get a toolless agent that couldn't do the work.
/bg worked because it was /background with full tools.
Collapse the two: /btw and /bg both alias to /background. One command,
one behavior, no more gotchas about which variant has tools.
Removed:
- _handle_btw_command in cli.py and gateway/run.py
- _run_btw_task + _active_btw_tasks state in gateway/run.py
- prompt.btw JSON-RPC method + btw.complete event in tui_gateway
- BtwStartResponse type + btw.complete case in ui-tui
- Standalone /btw slash tree registration in Discord
- Standalone btw CommandDef in hermes_cli/commands.py
Updated:
- background CommandDef aliases: (bg,) -> (bg, btw)
- TUI session.ts: local btw handler merged into background
- Docs and tips updated to describe /btw as a /background alias
PR #16046 added /busy and /verbose hints to the classic CLI and the
gateway runner but skipped the Ink TUI (and therefore the dashboard
/chat page, which embeds the TUI via PTY). This extends the same
latch to the TUI with TUI-native wording.
The TUI's busy-input model is not the /busy knob from the CLI —
single Enter while busy auto-queues, double Enter on an empty line
interrupts. The new busy-input hint teaches THAT gesture instead of
telling the user to flip a config that does not apply.
Changes:
- agent/onboarding.py — add busy_input_hint_tui() + tool_progress_hint_tui()
- tui_gateway/server.py — onboarding.claim JSON-RPC (Ink triggers busy
hint on enqueue) + _maybe_emit_onboarding_hint helper hooked into
_on_tool_complete for the 30s/tool_progress=all path. Same
config.yaml latch so each hint fires at most once per install across
CLI, gateway, and TUI combined.
- ui-tui/src/gatewayTypes.ts — OnboardingClaimResponse + onboarding.hint event
- ui-tui/src/app/createGatewayEventHandler.ts — render the hint event as sys()
- ui-tui/src/app/useSubmission.ts — claim busy_input_prompt on first
busy enqueue
- tests/agent/test_onboarding.py — +3 cases for TUI hint shape
- tests/tui_gateway/test_protocol.py — +4 cases for onboarding.claim
- website/docs/user-guide/tui.md — new 'Interrupting and queueing'
section explaining the TUI's double-Enter model and the hints
Validation:
scripts/run_tests.sh tests/agent/test_onboarding.py \
tests/tui_gateway/test_protocol.py \
tests/gateway/test_busy_session_ack.py
-> 66 passed
npm --prefix ui-tui run type-check -> clean
npm --prefix ui-tui run lint -> clean
npm --prefix ui-tui run build -> clean
Follow-up on #16020 salvage. Three corrections:
1. Truth signal for /copy
Before: success was 'OSC 52 sequence was emitted to stdout'. That's
false on local Linux inside tmux (emitSequence=false), so /copy kept
printing 'clipboard copy failed' to users whose xclip/wl-copy had
already succeeded fire-and-forget.
Fix: setClipboard() now returns { sequence, success } where success =
native-fired OR tmux-buffer-loaded OR osc52-emitted. copyNative()
returns a boolean telling setClipboard whether a native attempt was
made. /copy only shows 'failed' when literally no path was taken.
2. Dashboard keybinding
Before: Ctrl+C for copy on non-Mac (Ctrl+Shift+C for paste).
That swallows SIGINT when a stale selection is present and breaks
the xterm/gnome-terminal/konsole/Windows-Terminal convention where
Ctrl+C in a terminal emulator is always SIGINT. The real bug was
that clipboard writes lost user-gesture through OSC-52 round-trips,
which the direct writeText already fixes.
Fix: revert copyModifier to Ctrl+Shift+C on non-Mac. Direct
writeText in the keydown handler preserves user gesture. term.write
Escape replaced with term.clearSelection() (works without relying
on TUI input mode).
3. Error toast text
Before: 'see HERMES_TUI_DEBUG_CLIPBOARD' — tells users how to
debug but not how to fix.
Fix: point users at HERMES_TUI_FORCE_OSC52=1 first (the actual
escape hatch), mention the debug var second.
- Dashboard copy: direct Clipboard API on Ctrl+C/Cmd+C (user gesture);
send Escape to TUI to clear selection; Ctrl+Shift+C kept as fallback.
- TUI /copy: copySelection() async; only reports success if OSC52 emitted.
- Add HERMES_TUI_FORCE_OSC52 env var to override native-tool detection.
- Fixes "copied N chars" false-positive when clipboard backend absent.
Changes:
web/src/pages/ChatPage.tsx — direct navigator.clipboard.writeText
ui-tui/packages/hermes-ink/src/ink/ink.tsx — async copySelection
ui-tui/packages/hermes-ink/src/ink/termio/osc.ts — HERMES_TUI_FORCE_OSC52
ui-tui/src/app/slash/commands/core.ts — async /copy with honest feedback
Problem: Ctrl+C in Hermes TUI shows 'copied' but clipboard often empty.
Root causes:
- Native Linux tools (xclip, wl-copy) require DISPLAY/WAYLAND_DISPLAY; in
headless Docker/SSH they fail or hang.
- OSC 52 fallback requires terminal emulator support; when absent, sequence
is dropped silently.
- Dashboard OSC 52 → Clipboard API path fails due to missing user gesture;
errors were silently caught.
- User feedback 'copied selection' was shown unconditionally, regardless of
success.
Solution implemented:
- Short-circuit Linux native clipboard probing when no display server is
present (no DISPLAY and no WAYLAND_DISPLAY). Avoids futile attempts and
timeouts.
- Add HERMES_TUI_DEBUG_CLIPBOARD env var (1/true). When set, TUI logs to
stderr which clipboard path is used, probe results on Linux, and whether
OSC 52 was emitted. Greatly improves diagnosability.
- Improve dashboard clipboard error handling: replace empty catch blocks
with console.warn messages for OSC 52 decode/Write failures and direct
copy/paste errors. Makes browser permission/user-gesture failures visible
in DevTools.
- Add comprehensive clipboard troubleshooting documentation to README and
AGENTS, covering OSC 52 verification, tmux config, Docker/headless
constraints, env vars, dashboard caveats, and fallback strategies.
Technical details:
- in ui-tui/packages/hermes-ink/src/ink/termio/osc.ts:
- Early return on Linux if both DISPLAY and WAYLAND_DISPLAY unset.
- Refactor probe sequence to async with 500ms timeout,
caching result; subsequent copies use cached tool immediately.
- Emit debug logs when HERMES_TUI_DEBUG_CLIPBOARD=1.
- in ink.tsx: log when OSC 52 not emitted (native
or tmux path in use) in debug mode.
- : OSC 52 handler and Ctrl+Shift+C handler now
log warnings to console on Clipboard API rejection with error message.
- Documentation: new 'Clipboard Troubleshooting' section in README; new
'Clipboard environment variables and pitfalls' subsection in AGENTS.md
(Known Pitfalls).
Tests: full ui-tui test suite (292 tests) passes; clipboard and OSC tests
unaffected. No breaking changes.
Files changed:
- ui-tui/packages/hermes-ink/src/ink/termio/osc.ts
- ui-tui/packages/hermes-ink/src/ink/ink.tsx
- web/src/pages/ChatPage.tsx
- README.md
- AGENTS.md
- CHANGELOG.md (new)
- resolveEditor() now returns argv (string[]) so EDITOR='code --wait'
and VISUAL='emacsclient -t' tokenize correctly into spawnSync's
separate command + args. Previously the whole string was passed as
argv[0] and would ENOENT.
- Skip the POSIX X_OK PATH walk on Windows; return ['notepad.exe']
there since fs.constants.X_OK is not meaningful and PATHEXT-based
resolution would need its own implementation.
- Surface openEditor() rejections via actions.sys instead of letting
them become unhandled promise rejections in the useInput callback.
- Hotkey docs/comment now say Cmd/Ctrl+G to match isAction()'s
platform-action-modifier behavior (Cmd on macOS, Ctrl elsewhere).
- editor.ts: collapse two private helpers into one flatMap-driven lookup,
keep `isExecutable` as the only named primitive, document the fallback
chain with prompt_toolkit parity
- editor.test.ts: hoist the `exe` helper out of `describe`, drop the
empty afterEach + dead mkdir branch, materialize expected paths before
the resolveEditor call so argument evaluation order doesn't bite
- useComposerState.openEditor: rmSync the mkdtemp dir (was leaking),
early-return on bad exit / empty buffer, run cleanup in finally
- useInputHandlers: cheap `ch.toLowerCase() === 'g'` guard before the
modifier check
- hermes-ink/screen.ts: pick up `npm run fix` import-sort cleanup so
lint passes
Base CLI's editor UX was better because prompt_toolkit picks the system
editor first, then friendly terminal editors before vi. Do not override
that with a vim-first chain.
Keep the CLI on prompt_toolkit's picker and only set tempfile_suffix='.md'
to avoid the complex-tempfile EEXIST path. Update the TUI resolver to
match prompt_toolkit's fallback order: $VISUAL, $EDITOR, editor, nano,
pico, vi, emacs.
Setting buffer.tempfile = 'prompt.md' pushed prompt_toolkit into its
complex-tempfile path, which creates a temp dir and then calls
os.makedirs() on that same path when no subdirectory is present. That
raises EEXIST before the editor can launch.
Keep prompt_toolkit on the simple tempfile path with .md suffix, and
make the editor fallback chain explicit on both surfaces:
$VISUAL -> $EDITOR -> nvim -> vim -> vi -> nano.
The cherry-picked approach serialized the UI-shaped transcript on the Node
side, producing a third JSON format alongside cli.py save_conversation and
tui_gateway session.save. Simpler to call the existing session.save method,
which already writes the canonical agent history (raw OpenAI messages +
model) to an absolute-path file.
- /save still short-circuits before the slash worker
- Empty transcript -> 'no conversation yet'
- No active session -> 'no active session - nothing to save'
- Otherwise: rpc('session.save', {session_id}) and echo back the file path
- Tests updated to assert RPC contract; new test covers the no-sid case
prompt_toolkit's default editor list is: $VISUAL, $EDITOR, /usr/bin/editor,
/usr/bin/nano, /usr/bin/pico, /usr/bin/vi, /usr/bin/emacs — so when
neither env var is set, the base CLI launched nano. The TUI fell back
to a literal 'vi'. Same Ctrl+G keystroke, two different editors.
Pick the same chain on both surfaces:
$VISUAL → $EDITOR → vim → vi → nano
CLI: override input_area.buffer._open_file_in_editor on the TextArea
once at app build time. Local to that buffer; doesn't touch
os.environ or affect other subprocesses.
TUI: extract resolveEditor() into ui-tui/src/lib/editor.ts. PATH walk
with accessSync(X_OK), no shelling out. Six-line unit test verifies
the priority order and the multi-entry PATH walk.
