From d95f3e9445df28c899b4a2977c80b8518ff500e6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@linux.dev>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:41:38 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] user/chat: route Thinking to a new Autonomous pane

Thinking content was silently dropped in the UI (empty Vec). Now that
Thinking is prompt-visible, surface it in a dedicated Autonomous pane
rendered in gray so it's visually distinct from conversation and
tool-call output.

Co-Authored-By: Proof of Concept <poc@bcachefs.org>
---
 src/user/chat.rs | 16 ++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/user/chat.rs b/src/user/chat.rs
index fe3db5b..bd2df25 100644
--- a/src/user/chat.rs
+++ b/src/user/chat.rs
@@ -167,6 +167,7 @@ enum PaneTarget {
     ConversationAssistant,
     Tools,
     ToolResult,
+    Autonomous,
 }
 
 const MAX_PANE_LINES: usize = 10_000;
@@ -472,8 +473,11 @@ impl InteractScreen {
             AstNode::Leaf(leaf) => {
                 let text = leaf.body().text().to_string();
                 match leaf.body() {
-                    NodeBody::Memory { .. } | NodeBody::Thinking(_)
-                        | NodeBody::Log(_) | NodeBody::Dmn(_) => vec![],
+                    NodeBody::Memory { .. } | NodeBody::Log(_) | NodeBody::Dmn(_) => vec![],
+                    NodeBody::Thinking(_) => {
+                        if text.is_empty() { vec![] }
+                        else { vec![(PaneTarget::Autonomous, text, Marker::None)] }
+                    }
                     NodeBody::Content(_) => {
                         if text.is_empty() || text.starts_with("<system-reminder>") { vec![] }
                         else { vec![(PaneTarget::Conversation, text, Marker::User)] }
@@ -547,6 +551,12 @@ impl InteractScreen {
                         self.tools.push_line(format!("  {}", line), Color::DarkGray);
                     }
                 }
+                PaneTarget::Autonomous => {
+                    self.autonomous.current_color = Color::Gray;
+                    self.autonomous.append_text(&text);
+                    self.autonomous.pending_marker = marker;
+                    self.autonomous.flush_pending();
+                }
             }
         }
     }
@@ -558,6 +568,8 @@ impl InteractScreen {
                     => self.conversation.pop_line(),
                 PaneTarget::Tools | PaneTarget::ToolResult
                     => self.tools.pop_line(),
+                PaneTarget::Autonomous
+                    => self.autonomous.pop_line(),
             }
         }
     }