Question formatting

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Ian Gulliver
2026-10-16 07:04:24 -07:00
parent 2967fa086a
commit b0b433bc6c
28 changed files with 468 additions and 496 deletions
+4 -4
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@@ -64,9 +64,9 @@ Clients reach `tailscale serve` over HTTP/2; it proxies to byre over HTTP/1.1 an
## Previews
An agent shows the human a server it runs with the `expose_port` MCP tool (`internal/agents/preview.go`): `name` labels it, `port` is where it listens. The agent starts the server itself, usually as a background command; byre doesn't supervise it, so it dies with the agent's `claude` process (a byre restart, compaction, the task closing) and the agent starts it again when asked. The call is refused when `port` is outside the task's block or nothing accepts a connection on `127.0.0.1:<port>`. Otherwise byre runs `tailscale serve --bg --https=<port> http://127.0.0.1:<port>` (`internal/tailscale`, which runs the macOS CLI at `/Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale`, since byre's environment has no `tailscale` on its `PATH`), so the server is at `https://<byre's ts.net name>:<port>/` with Tailscale's identity headers, and records a row in the `previews` table (task, name, port, time) with a `preview.exposed` event, which the transcript shows as a note linking the URL. Each port gets its own HTTPS port rather than a path under byre's, since path-prefix proxying breaks apps that use absolute paths. Exposing a name or port the task already has replaces that row, and a port it no longer uses is turned off with `tailscale serve --https=<port> off`. A server must listen on `127.0.0.1`: while `tailscale serve` holds a port, binding `0.0.0.0` on it fails with "address already in use". When the task is merged or discarded, byre turns off each of its ports (`Manager.Unexpose`); the rows stay. `GET /api/tasks/{taskId}/previews` lists a task's rows by name, and `tailscale serve status` shows what is served.
An agent shows the human a server it runs with the `expose_port` MCP tool (`internal/agents/preview.go`): `name` labels it, `port` is where it listens. The agent starts the server itself, usually as a background command; byre doesn't supervise it, so it dies with the agent's `claude` process (a byre restart, compaction, the task closing) and the agent starts it again when asked. The call is refused when `port` is outside the task's block or nothing accepts a connection on `127.0.0.1:<port>`. Otherwise byre runs `tailscale serve --bg --https=<port> http://127.0.0.1:<port>` (`internal/tailscale`, which runs the macOS CLI at `/Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale`, since byre's environment has no `tailscale` on its `PATH`, with `TAILSCALE_BE_CLI=1`, without which the app executable launched from the service exits 0 without running the subcommand), then reads `tailscale serve status --json` and fails the call if no `Web` host for that port is listed, so the server is at `https://<byre's ts.net name>:<port>/` with Tailscale's identity headers, and records a row in the `previews` table (task, name, port, time) with a `preview.exposed` event, which the transcript shows as a note linking the URL. Each port gets its own HTTPS port rather than a path under byre's, since path-prefix proxying breaks apps that use absolute paths. Exposing a name or port the task already has replaces that row, and a port it no longer uses is turned off with `tailscale serve --https=<port> off`. A server must listen on `127.0.0.1`: while `tailscale serve` holds a port, binding `0.0.0.0` on it fails with "address already in use". When the task is merged or discarded, byre turns off each of its ports (`Manager.Unexpose`); the rows stay. `GET /api/tasks/{taskId}/previews` lists a task's rows by name, and `tailscale serve status` shows what is served.
The **Preview** tab (`web/src/preview.ts`) lists the task's previews by name and port, shows the selected one (the first by default; the choice is kept per task in memory) in an iframe, and links it in a new tab. It fetches the list when it opens, when the selected task changes, and on each `preview.exposed` in the task's stream, which also reloads the iframe.
The right pane's top row shows the task's previews at its right end as links, one per name, each opening its URL in a new window (`previewLinks` in `web/src/preview.ts`). It fetches the list when the selected task changes and on each `preview.exposed` in the task's stream. Previews are never framed inside byre.
## Previewing byre
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ Each user has one long-running lead agent, shown in the left pane. It is not tie
- **Compaction.** The pane's **Compact** button asks the lead for a handoff (`leadHandoffPrompt`). The lead can't see its own context size, so the first time one of its turns ends (other than a handoff or a `compact_self` turn) with the latest `session.context` `used` at half its `window` or more, byre holds a signal for it giving the percentage and asking it to call `compact_self` at the next logical point (`warnLeadContext` in `internal/agents/lead.go`); it is sent once per live process, so a byre restart can send it again once the window is known. The lead calls `compact_self`; when that turn ends normally, byre sends the same request. The handoff turn ends the session, and a new lead session starts from `leadHandoffPreamble` plus the handoff; held input follows once that turn ends.
- **Restarts.** On shutdown, byre marks each running lead session idle with "byre stopped mid-turn" and holds a restart notice for it, so a lead is never left `running` for a build without lead support to find. After a crash, startup resumes a running lead like a task session. Startup then delivers any held input.
The UI is two panes filling the window, with no navbar. The left has three tabs: Lead, the lead's transcript and composer (the same view as a task transcript, with only the Compact button in its header), Status and Settings, and at the end of its tab strip the connection dot and the user's name. Which left tab is selected is kept only in the page; the Lead view stays mounted while another tab shows, and Status or Settings mounts each time its tab is selected. The right shows the focused task, or project with no task: a top row holding only the task picker, centred, then the tab strip, then the selected tab's view with its own header. The tabs are Transcript, Changes, Files, Terminal, Preview, Inbox, Reviews and Project, the lead's `tabs` first. Preview shows only once the task's stream has a `preview.exposed`, Reviews only once it has a `review.*` event, and Inbox only while the task has open items; the selected tab always shows. Tabs that don't fit in the strip move, from the end, into a **More ▾** menu (`web/src/panes.ts`); the selected tab never moves there, and More carries the Inbox highlight and count when Inbox is in it. ⌘P (Ctrl+P elsewhere) selects the Project tab, keeping the right pane's task, and replaces the browser's print shortcut. ⌘L (Ctrl+L elsewhere) selects the Lead tab and puts the cursor in the lead's composer, and replaces the browser's address bar shortcut. ⌘S (Ctrl+S elsewhere) opens the right pane's task's Merge confirmation, from any tab, when the Merge button would be enabled, and replaces the browser's save shortcut.
The UI is two panes filling the window, with no navbar. The left has three tabs: Lead, the lead's transcript and composer (the same view as a task transcript, with only the Compact button in its header), Status and Settings, and at the end of its tab strip the connection dot and the user's name. Which left tab is selected is kept only in the page; the Lead view stays mounted while another tab shows, and Status or Settings mounts each time its tab is selected. The right shows the focused task, or project with no task: a top row holding the task picker, centred, and the task's preview links at its right end (see "Previews"), then the tab strip, then the selected tab's view with its own header. The tabs are Transcript, Changes, Files, Terminal, Inbox, Reviews and Project, the lead's `tabs` first. Reviews shows only once it has a `review.*` event, and Inbox only while the task has open items; the selected tab always shows. Tabs that don't fit in the strip move, from the end, into a **More ▾** menu (`web/src/panes.ts`); the selected tab never moves there, and More carries the Inbox highlight and count when Inbox is in it. ⌘P (Ctrl+P elsewhere) selects the Project tab, keeping the right pane's task, and replaces the browser's print shortcut. ⌘L (Ctrl+L elsewhere) selects the Lead tab and puts the cursor in the lead's composer, and replaces the browser's address bar shortcut. ⌘S (Ctrl+S elsewhere) opens the right pane's task's Merge confirmation, from any tab, when the Merge button would be enabled, and replaces the browser's save shortcut.
## TODO
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ The **Project** tab is the dashboard of the right pane's project (the focused ta
## Inbox
Agents ask questions with the `ask_human` MCP tool. Each question carries a `context` with the background the human needs to answer without reading the transcript, and its choices are written inline in that context as Markdown list items: `- ( ) text` for pick-one choices, with exactly one `- (*) text` marking the recommendation, or `- [ ] text` for pick-any choices, with `- [x] text` marking the recommended ones. There is no separate list of options. byre parses the choices out of `context` (`internal/agents/choices.go`; list items inside code fences and blockquotes don't count) and stores their text in the payload as `options`, with `multiple` (pick-any) and `recommended`. The UI renders the context as Markdown with a radio button or checkbox in place of each choice's marker. A malformed call (no `context` or `why_blocked`, fewer than two choices, pick-one and pick-any choices mixed, a pick-one question without exactly one recommendation, two choices with the same text, an unknown attachment kind, a foreign `thread_id`) is rejected with a message saying what to fix, and nothing is filed. The call returns the item's id as `question_id`. An agent withdraws a question it no longer needs answered (the human answered it in a chat message, say) with the `cancel_question` MCP tool and that id: an `open` question of its own session becomes `dismissed` with no `resolved_by` (its `inbox.updated` event has actor `agent`), which also stops a blocking one from holding back delivery; anything else is rejected with a message saying why. Each agent error (a turn that ends in error without a human interrupt, a process that dies mid-turn) also files an item.
Agents ask questions with the `ask_human` MCP tool. Each question carries a `context` with the background the human needs to answer without reading the transcript, and its choices are written inline in that context as Markdown list items: `- ( ) text` for pick-one choices, with exactly one `- (*) text` marking the recommendation, or `- [ ] text` for pick-any choices, with `- [x] text` marking the recommended ones. There is no separate list of options. byre parses the choices out of `context` (`internal/agents/choices.go`; list items inside code fences and blockquotes don't count) and stores their text in the payload as `options`, with `multiple` (pick-any) and `recommended`. The UI renders the context as Markdown with a radio button or checkbox in place of each choice's marker. The tool's description tells agents to keep everything about one choice (what it does, its example, code, trade-offs) in lines indented beneath that choice rather than in text above the list; those lines render inside the option, and only the marker line's text is the option. A malformed call (no `context` or `why_blocked`, fewer than two choices, pick-one and pick-any choices mixed, a pick-one question without exactly one recommendation, two choices with the same text, an unknown attachment kind, a foreign `thread_id`) is rejected with a message saying what to fix, and nothing is filed. The call returns the item's id as `question_id`. An agent withdraws a question it no longer needs answered (the human answered it in a chat message, say) with the `cancel_question` MCP tool and that id: an `open` question of its own session becomes `dismissed` with no `resolved_by` (its `inbox.updated` event has actor `agent`), which also stops a blocking one from holding back delivery; anything else is rejected with a message saying why. Each agent error (a turn that ends in error without a human interrupt, a process that dies mid-turn) also files an item.
`GET /api/inbox` is one query over open items, oldest first; `project_id` and `task_id` narrow it to a project or task view, and `state` picks another state. Blocking questions and errors are `blocked`; non-blocking questions are `fyi`. The Inbox tab is task-specific: it shows one of the selected task's open items at a time, the oldest, and the next one once that is answered or dismissed; it shows nothing when no task is selected. The tab is hidden while the task has no open items, unless it is selected. While the selected task has open items, the Inbox tab's button is highlighted in the warn colours (`.attention` in `web/style.css`) and carries their count. Answering or dismissing the task's last open item from the Inbox tab switches the pane to the Transcript tab. The other way round, a new question from the selected task arriving while the Transcript tab is shown switches the pane to the Inbox tab; questions already open when the page loaded don't.