Task 13: Interactive Prompting and Commands While Executing

This task is specific to codex-rs.

Status

General Status: Merged
Summary: Implemented interactive prompt overlay allowing user input during streaming without aborting runs.

Goal

Allow users to interleave composing prompts and issuing slash-commands while the agent is actively executing (e.g. streaming completions), without aborting the current run.

Acceptance Criteria

While the LLM is streaming a response or executing a tool, the input box remains active for user edits and slash-commands.
Sending a message or /-command does not implicitly cancel or abort the ongoing execution.
Any tool invocation messages from the agent must still be immediately followed by their corresponding tool output messages (or the API will error).
Ensure the TUI correctly preserves the stream and appends new user input at the bottom, scrolling as needed.
No deadlocks or lost events if the agent finishes while the user is typing; buffer and render properly.
Update tests to simulate concurrent user input during streaming and validate UI state.

Implementation

How it was implemented

Modified BottomPane::handle_key_event in tui/src/bottom_pane/mod.rs to special-case the StatusIndicatorView while is_task_running, forwarding key events to ChatComposer and preserving the overlay.
Updated BottomPane::render_ref to always render the composer first and then overlay the active view, ensuring the input box remains visible and editable under the status indicator.
Added unit tests in tui/src/bottom_pane/mod.rs to verify input is forwarded during task execution and that the status indicator overlay is removed upon task completion.

How it works
During LLM streaming or tool execution, the StatusIndicatorView remains active as an overlay. The modified event handler detects this overlay and forwards user key events to the underlying ChatComposer without dismissing the overlay. On task completion (set_task_running(false)), the overlay is automatically removed (via should_hide_when_task_is_done), returning to the normal input-only view.

Notes

Look at the ChatComposer and streaming loop in tui/src/bottom_pane/chat_composer.rs for input and stream handling.
Ensure event loop in app.rs multiplexes between agent stream events and user input events without blocking.
Consider locking or queuing tool-use messages to guarantee prompt tool-output pairing.

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