feat(cli): TUI block visual grammar, context statusline, and activity strip #1053

Problem

The interactive TUI is hard to scan during agent work:

• Tool cards are label-heavy and often two lines, so long turns waste vertical space.
• Thinking chrome is mixed Chinese while structural labels elsewhere are English.
• Message roles add noisy User / maka rows.
• The status line only shows opaque remaining context when present (ctx 92k), not total window size or usage ratio — and remaining is often missing.
• There is no bottom activity strip for the in-flight turn (Grok-style Working… + elapsed). Busy state today only affects the terminal title spinner.

Desired outcome

A locked, Grok-inspired but Maka-native transcript and chrome grammar that stays on the existing pi-tui terminal scrollback model (no alt-screen pager rewrite):

1. Compact, single-line tool rows with status discs and English thinking chrome.
2. Message chrome without speaker labels; spacing separates human-facing text from agent work.
3. Status line shows ctx used/window pct% when facts exist.
4. Activity strip above the editor shows per-turn progress: Working… 12s.

Locked visual contracts

Tools (collapsed always 1 line)

● Name  primary  ·  duration  ·  summary ›

Examples:

● Read  package.json  ·  0s  ·  3 lines ›
● Bash  $ npm test  ·  5s  ·  (31 lines) ok ›
● Bash  $ npm test  ·  running 12s ›
● Edit  src/cli.ts  ·  0s  ·  +12 −3 ›

• Disc: muted ● = done (no done word); accent ● = running; red ● = error.
• No diamond (◆) — not Grok brand language.
• Duration: seconds only. Prefer integer seconds on the activity strip; tool-row duration also in s (no millisecond unit).
• Live output and stop hints only when expanded (Ctrl+O). Collapse never adds a second live line (avoids height jitter).
• Expanded header uses the same ● grammar; body indented.
• Expand affordance: dim trailing › when expandable. Shortcuts taught in welcome/help only (not on every row).

Thinking

• English only: Thinking… / Thinking › (no 思考, no per-row Ctrl+T teaching text).
• No left glyph/prefix.
• Body only when expanded (Ctrl+T).

Messages

• User: ASCII > prefix + body — no User label.
• Assistant: bare default text — no maka label.
• Chosen for weak-terminal / native feel (no full-width user background block in v1).

Spacing

• Thinking + tools: 0 blank lines between them (agent-work stack).
• Vertical gap around user prompts and assistant prose (human-facing boundaries).

Statusline (session chrome)

Show context as used / window · percent, not remaining-only:

ctx 52k/200k 26%

• Window from model metadata / connection override.
• Used from latest usage: prefer window - contextRemaining when remaining exists; else last token_usage input/total.
• Omit the whole ctx segment until enough facts exist.
• Keep cost/cache/model/mode/cwd as today unless they must yield width.

Activity strip (per-turn chrome)

Sits between transcript and editor (not inside the statusline).

While a turn is running:

Working… 12s

• English Working… (ellipsis character fine).
• Elapsed in integer seconds only (12s, not 12.4s, not 1200ms).
• No current-tool summary on this line (duplicates the tool stack above).
• Idle: reserve one blank row so chrome height does not jump.
• Cancel remains existing keys (Ctrl+C / Esc); no required [stop] chrome in v1.

Explicit non-goals

• No ◆ diamond, no alt-screen / in-app pager rewrite, no multi-theme system.
• No CLI i18n in this epic (desktop locale is feat(desktop): make UI language selection coherent and complete #1052; CLI is a separate concern).
• No wholesale welcome / rewind Chinese → English cleanup required here (optional follow-up).
• Activity strip does not re-list the current tool.

Delivery seams

1. Semantic color slots in packages/cli tui-ansi (foundation; minimal behavior change).
2. Tool + Thinking one-line grammar (compact + expanded headers).
3. Message chrome + spacing (> user, bare assistant, gap policy).
4. Statusline ctx used/window pct% wiring + render tests.
5. Activity strip Working… Ns (integer seconds) + idle reserved row + layout chrome height.

Each seam should be independently reviewable and revertable.

Implementation notes (non-binding)

• Primary surfaces: packages/cli/src/tui-ansi.ts, pi-transcript*.ts, pi-tui-layout.ts, pi-tui-runner.ts.
• Layout today is transcript → editor → statusline; insert activity above the editor and include it in chromeRows.
• busy / turnRunning already exist in the runner; title spinner can remain; activity strip is the in-viewport signal.
• Prefer pure render helpers + unit tests for string contracts before broad runner tests.

Alternatives considered

• Port Grok’s diamond + fullscreen pager — rejected (brand + architecture).
• Remaining-only ctx — rejected (no total/ratio).
• Always two-line tools for live tails — rejected (settle height jitter); expand for detail.
• Activity line with tool summary / fractional seconds — rejected (duplicate + noise).

References

• Product direction shaped against Grok Build TUI (scan rhythm, activity strip, context used/window), adapted to Maka brand (logo blue) and pi-tui scrollback.
• Related: feat(desktop): make UI language selection coherent and complete #1052 (desktop locale; CLI out of scope there).