M7: Steer from the interactive input during an Interactive agent Turn

[Sandstorm831]

Parent

Spec #276; implementation sub-issue of M7 #275.

What to build

While an Interactive agent step's Turn is live and the Run Projection offers steer-turn, Enter in the interactive input sends the draft as a Steer through the existing Steer Operation. When Steer is unavailable (Claude Code today), the input shows the Offer's unavailable reason. Interrupt stays reachable, and the s key and its Steer box stay for Agent steps. The Workbench guidance lines saying Steer is hidden while an Interactive step owns the input are amended (stories 100–102).

Acceptance criteria

• A Projection Port test proves Steer is accepted during a live Interactive agent Turn.
• Renderer tests prove Enter sends a Steer during a live Interactive agent Turn, the unavailable reason shows when Steer is not offered, and Interrupt remains reachable.
• The Workbench guidance amendment has landed.
• Prototype Crucible's launch and Run information architecture #23 evidence: keymap and focus, small terminals and resize, large content, interaction tuning, meaning without colour, and renderer and platform evidence, each shown by testRender frames with the fake Renderer Port.
• CI scenario: the Port and Workbench renderer tests are green on Windows x64, macOS arm64, and Linux x64.

Blocked by

• M7: Report structural violations from one rule catalogue in a dedicated gate step #277
• M7: Report guidance-structure violations in the contract and check Module guidance shape #278
• M7: Report vendor-provenance violations in the contract #279
• M7: Report release-workflow violations in the contract #280
• M7: Enforce unused code and clear today's findings #281
• M7: Fail lint on any warning and add two OpenCode style rules #282
• M7: Label who holds the Turn and settle an interactive send on admission #290
• M7: Show a working scanner while a Turn works #292

Implementation packet

Owner: TUI presentation (Workbench key routing and interactive input), Workbench guidance

Ratchet: renderer and Port tests for Enter-to-Steer during an Interactive agent Turn

Deletes: hiding Steer while an Interactive agent step owns the input

Gate: ADR 0027 three-OS CI and recorded human evidence, with the slice scenario above.

Dependencies: no new runtime dependency

[Sandstorm831]

Starting context

Refreshed at ce2dc03 now that #292, the last blocker, has closed. It replaces the draft written against b976b6c. OpenCode is cited at 228e9095ba, the snapshot the session-screen research used.

Input	Why it matters	Authority
Spec #276 stories 100–102, Implementation Decisions › Run Workbench › Steer during an Interactive agent step, Interrupt and Steer fixes › "Steer during Interactive agent steps", Testing Decisions › Seams 3 ("Steer is accepted during a live Interactive agent Turn") and 4 ("Enter-to-Steer with an unavailable reason"), Out of Scope (ADR 0035's Steer lifecycle; headless), and Further Notes › Human confirmations (Enter is the Steer key)	The target. Enter in the interactive input sends the draft through the existing steer-turn Operation while steer-turn is offered. When Steer is unavailable, the input shows the Offer's reason. Interrupt stays reachable, and s keeps its Steer box for Agent steps. The fix is in the TUI. The spec does not say when or how the reason shows, or what the input shows while a Steer is pending.	Canonical spec
Application Steer path: submitSteerTurn and steerTurnAndSettle; execution's bindSteer for every Turn, with driveInteractiveTurn going through the same drive; steerTurnOffer, built in the same snapshot as the interrupt Offer; run-control › Turn interrupt and steer	Steer is not tied to a Step kind. The unavailable reason is the profile's evidence, word for word. For real Claude Code it is 170 characters (claude-code.ts). A refused Steer settles steer-unavailable, turn-control-rejected, or steer-rejected.	Current behavior
#290's admission push: observedOwner.admitTurn, runInteractiveSend's admission wrapper, run-control › send settles at admission, and #290's change review	The send now settles applied at durable Turn admission, and the admission pushes a snapshot to an open run Projection. That snapshot carries steer-turn beside interrupt-turn whenever the profile has steer evidence, so the Workbench now receives steer-turn during a live interactive Turn. This is read from the code at ce2dc03, not re-measured. No Application change is needed.	Current behavior
Measured at b976b6c with a scratch Port probe on 2026-09-30: the real Application, the fake Harness, and interactive-agent.test.ts's helpers. Not re-run at ce2dc03.	With a profile that declares steer, during a live human Turn a fresh read offered interrupt-turn, steer-turn (available), and cancel-run. steer-turn settled applied. settleOnSteer released the Turn, the send settled applied, and the Run returned to blocked with Send and End offered. With the Claude-style profile, the Offer carried the evidence as reason, and a submitted Steer settled not-applied steer-unavailable. So the required Port test was green at b976b6c: it pins behaviour, it does not fix it. Since then #290 settles the send at admission, so the send now settles applied before the Steer, not after settleOnSteer releases the Turn.	Current behavior
Port test prior art: interactive-agent's profile() (steer unavailable), launchInteractive, awaitInterruptOffer, BLOCKING_TURN and the #290 send-at-admission test, and the #219 interrupted-Turn test; the fake's settleOnSteer and steer; the Codex Agent-step Steer test	Fixtures touched. The suite lives under tests/headless but drives the Port directly. The #290 test is the nearest model: it awaits the send's applied, then reads the live Turn's Offers while the Turn is still live. BLOCKING_TURN already supplies block. A steer-available copy of profile(), plus settleOnSteer, is all the probe needed. No new fake knob.	Current tests
Workbench routing: Turn-scoped Offers, rail accounting that drops Steer in an interactive Step, interactiveInterrupt, dispatchSend, Steer state and dispatchSteer, the Steer settlement effects, handleInteractiveKey, s gated off in an interactive Step, and the rail's interrupt and steer rows	These lines hide Steer during an interactive Step. #290 replaced interactiveTurnLive with interactiveInterrupt, the one live-Turn signal the TUI reads. Enter during a live Turn still calls dispatchSend, which does nothing because no send Offer exists. dispatchSteer reads steerDraft, not the input's draft. A refused Steer keeps its draft and an applied one clears it, as ADR 0035 later requires. The view.steer seam already exists.	Current behavior
InteractiveInput, its hint memo and hint line, and INTERACTIVE_HEIGHT	Three fixed rows, and INTERACTIVE_HEIGHT is still 3. The hint is now a memoised union: a plain text line, or the unarmed live-Turn Interrupt for the scanner to lead. The armed ⚠ Press esc again… replaces the line, and a refusal still replaces the hint line. A refusal holds that line until the next dispatch or a Ctrl+E/Ctrl+N arm clears it. Arming the Interrupt does not clear it, so while a refusal shows, the scanner and the armed confirm are both hidden (read from the code).	Current behavior
WorkingScanner, the leaf #292 added	It leads the hint line as <scanner> esc esc interrupt — <consequence>. It draws the mark only while the lead label fits whole, and yields otherwise; the consequence clips first. reducedMotion is a mount option and draws a static [⋯]. The Steer cue has to fit beside it. Computed from markShown, not rendered: esc esc interrupt keeps the mark from 29 columns, while a label like enter steer · esc esc interrupt would need 43, so the mark would yield in a 40-column terminal (38 inner).	Current behavior
OpenCode 228e9095ba packages/tui/src/component/prompt/index.tsx:L930-L1147 (submit; draft cleared at :L1122-L1146 without awaiting), :L392-L420 (two-press interrupt, 5 s reset), :L1513-L1593 (busy status row); packages/tui/src/routes/session/index.tsx:L243-L249 (pending); research › QUEUED is not a seam fact	OpenCode's input behaviour. The prompt stays editable while busy, Enter submits, and the server queues the message, marked QUEUED. OpenCode has no Steer and no unavailable state. Secant maps a mid-Turn Enter to Steer instead, and keeps the draft on refusal.	Research
ADR 0035 › Steer and ADR 0036 › Bottom region and keys	The later redesign. enter means "Send, or Steer while a Turn works", and a late Steer is refused with its draft kept. Do not build delivery states, Claude Code Steer, or returning undelivered Steers on Interrupt.	Advisory
Workbench renderer tests: the hand-driven Steer seam, STEER_OFFER with a 34-character fake reason, liveInteractiveRunOf, the live interactive Interrupt and its small-terminal check, the #292 scanner group, the Steer group, and the leaf's mark-yields test	Fixtures touched, and the prior art. The scanner tests assert the hint line's exact shape (^ {3}[■⬝]{8} esc esc interrupt — stop this Turn), so a Steer cue on that line changes them. No test pins "Steer hidden during an interactive Step", so none is rewritten for that. A test with a reason as long as Claude Code's, at a narrow width, is what shows the clip.	Current tests
Workbench › interactive input, › draft and label, › working scanner, › rail hidden, and › native Steer	The guidance to amend. "Enter dispatches send-interactive-turn" and "mutually exclusive with the interactive input (a Turn is live vs. the Run is blocked)" become untrue. The input is active through a live interactive Turn, while the Run reads running. The scanner bullet names the hint line's shape, so amend it if the Steer cue joins that line.	Current guidance

Decisions

Settled with the human on 2026-10-01: both drafting recommendations, as written.

1. The unavailable reason shows on the refusal line, at Enter. On Enter with a non-blank draft, during a live Turn whose Steer is unavailable, dispatch nothing, keep the draft, and show steer unavailable · <reason> on the refusal line, clipped with …. The hint line keeps the scanner and the Interrupt, and the rail stays without a Steer row, as it has been without the Interrupt since M6: Expose live Interactive interrupt and preserve its Session #219. Arming the Interrupt clears this refusal, so the armed confirm is never hidden. Why: the reason matters at the moment the human tries to send (story 101). Claude Code's reason is 170 characters, and after M7: Show a working scanner while a Turn works #292 the hint line also carries the scanner beside esc esc interrupt — …, so a standing copy would be cut at any usual width. The refusal line already replaces the hint line, so the reason gets the full width when it matters.
   • Design: the Workbench dispatcher (handleInteractiveKey in run-workbench.tsx) owns the choice and never fabricates an Application Problem. The input's refusal line stays the one seam for anything refused: its value widens from Problem to a small presentation union (an Application refusal, or the unavailable Steer Offer), so both render on the same line. The reason is the SteerTurnOffer's reason word for word, the Application-owned profile evidence; the presentation owns only the steer unavailable · prefix. The shared two-press Interrupt arm clears it in one place. Tests cross the fake Renderer Port and testRender's mock input, with no test-only hook.
2. A pending Steer follows M7: Label who holds the Turn and settle an interactive send on admission #290's send rule. Clear the draft only on applied, keep it on a refusal, and leave no lingering pending state: no … steering… hint and no blurred field in the interactive input. Why: one input has one rule. M7: Label who holds the Turn and settle an interactive send on admission #290 deleted the lingering send state, and ADR 0036 has no sending state.
   • Design: Enter-to-Steer reuses the existing steer-turn Operation through the view.steer seam and the Workbench's Steer settlement path, reading the input's draft instead of steerDraft. The settled outcome clears or keeps that draft. A second Enter while a Steer is in flight is ignored in the dispatcher, with no visible state. The s box keeps its own compose state for Agent steps. The Port test crosses the Projection Port beside the M6: Expose live Interactive interrupt and preserve its Session #219 test, and the renderer tests cross the fake Renderer Port.

Reading rule

Start with the spec's Steer bullet, then handleInteractiveKey beside dispatchSteer, then InteractiveInput and WorkingScanner.

• During a live interactive Turn, Enter with a non-blank draft dispatches steer-turn against the Offer's turnId. A blank draft is refused before dispatch. Esc stays the two-press Interrupt. Bare letters, s included, still type into the field.
• Fit the Steer cue and the refusal beside the scanner, on the existing hint and refusal line. Do not change INTERACTIVE_HEIGHT unless its accounting changes with it.
• The Port test sits beside the M6: Expose live Interactive interrupt and preserve its Session #219 test and asserts through the Operation outcome and the Projection. It covers the available case (applied, Turn still live) and the unavailable one (not-applied).
• Leave the Application, the s box for Agent steps, and headless unchanged.
• M7: Refuse a failed Codex control call without losing the Turn #297 (still open) changes what a failed Codex turn/steer settles (a rejected receipt, the Turn kept). That is refusal copy only; no shared file.

Owner: TUI presentation (Workbench key routing and interactive input), Workbench guidance
Ratchet: renderer and Port tests for Enter-to-Steer during an Interactive agent Turn
Deletes: hiding Steer while an Interactive agent step owns the input
Gate: ADR 0027 three-OS CI and recorded human evidence, with the slice scenario above.
Dependencies: no new runtime dependency