yoi/work-items/open/20260529-084551-tui-composer-input-history-recall/item.md

id	slug	title	status	kind	priority	labels	created_at	updated_at	assignee	legacy_ticket
20260529-084551-tui-composer-input-history-recall	tui-composer-input-history-recall	Recall composer input history from cursor boundary	open	feature	P2	tui composer input-history	2026-05-29T08:45:51Z	2026-05-29T08:45:51Z	null	null

Background

The TUI currently has manual rewind (Ctrl+R / :rewind) and queued-input restoration (Alt+Q), but it does not have a non-destructive composer input history like shell/readline history. Users should be able to recall previously submitted inputs into the composer without rewinding the Pod/session history.

Add local TUI composer history based on sent inputs. This is an editing convenience only: recalling history must not mutate Pod history, send protocol messages, or create hidden context.

Requirements

• Record submitted composer inputs in a local input history.
  • Record only non-blank user submissions that are accepted for sending or queued for later sending.
  • Preserve typed segments (Segment atoms such as file refs, knowledge refs, workflow invocations, paste/file chips) rather than flattening to plain text.
  • Avoid consecutive duplicate entries when the same input is submitted repeatedly.
  • Keep history bounded to a modest fixed size.
• Add composer recall navigation.
  • When the composer cursor is at the start of the buffer, Up recalls the previous input history entry instead of moving within the composer.
  • When browsing history, Up continues to older entries and Down moves back toward newer entries.
  • When the browse cursor returns past the newest entry, restore the draft that was present before history browsing began.
  • If the cursor is not at the start of the composer, preserve the existing multiline cursor-up behavior.
  • If the cursor is at the end of the composer while browsing history, Down should move toward newer history; outside history browsing it should preserve the existing multiline cursor-down behavior.
• Preserve drafts safely.
  • Starting history browsing with a non-empty draft must save that draft and restore it when the user navigates back past the newest history entry or cancels/edits out of history browsing.
  • Editing a recalled entry should leave history-browse mode and edit the recalled content as a normal draft.
  • Submitting a recalled entry should submit normally and append/update history using the same rules.
• Keep the feature local to the TUI client.
  • Do not add Pod protocol methods/events.
  • Do not persist input history across TUI restarts in this ticket unless it falls out naturally from existing snapshot/history data. Session-log user messages remain the authoritative durable record.
  • Multi-Pod dashboard/direct-send behavior can share the same history if simple, but per-Pod history is acceptable if it fits the existing app structure better; document the chosen behavior in tests or code comments.
• Maintain existing controls.
  • Ctrl+R / :rewind remains destructive rewind picker behavior.
  • Alt+Q remains queued-input restoration.
  • Page/turn scroll keys continue to operate on conversation history.

Acceptance criteria

• After sending several messages, pressing Up at the start of an empty composer recalls the most recent submitted input, with typed segments preserved.
• Repeated Up/Down walks older/newer history entries and restores the pre-browse draft after the newest entry.
• Up inside a multiline composer when the cursor is not at the start still moves the cursor within the composer.
• Editing a recalled entry exits history-browse mode and does not mutate stored history until submission.
• Consecutive duplicate submissions do not create duplicate adjacent history entries.
• History recall does not call Pod methods and does not alter visible transcript/history until the recalled input is submitted.
• Tests cover empty composer recall, non-empty draft restoration, multiline cursor-boundary behavior, typed segment preservation, duplicate suppression, and submission from recalled history.
• cargo fmt --check
• Focused TUI tests/checks pass.