Merge pull request #473 from irisitymichaelgrundberg/feat/session-watching-badge

feat(approvals): let a session watching its own background work keep quiet (#468)

# Conflicts:
#	src/config/cli-registry/stock.ts

src/config/cli-registry/schema.ts

@@ -325,8 +325,29 @@ const capabilitiesSchema = z
             (src) => compileVersionRegex(src) !== null,
             'workingLine must be a regex compileVersionRegex() accepts: at most 200 characters, no nested quantifiers'
           ),
+        // Same guard, same reasons: this one runs over the foot of a pane capture every
+        // time a session settles, and ~/.codeman/clis.json can set it.
+        watchingLine: z
+          .string()
+          .min(1)
+          .refine(
+            (src) => compileVersionRegex(src) !== null,
+            'watchingLine must be a regex compileVersionRegex() accepts: at most 200 characters, no nested quantifiers'
+          )
+          .optional(),
+        // Bounded hard: this is how far up the screen a config file may push the search,
+        // and every row it adds is one more row the agent itself may be able to write.
+        watchingLines: z.number().int().min(1).max(8).optional(),
       })
       .strict()
+      // A window with nothing to search is a typo, not a configuration. Refused at LOAD
+      // time for the same reason `privilegedParams[].param` is checked against the params
+      // the entry declares: the failure is otherwise silent and looks like a feature that
+      // simply never fires.
+      .refine(
+        (v) => v.watchingLines === undefined || v.watchingLine !== undefined,
+        'watchingLines has nothing to bound without a watchingLine'
+      )
       .optional(),
     model: z
       .object({ source: z.enum(['flag', 'claude-settings-file', 'none']), param: z.string().optional() })

src/config/cli-registry/stock.ts

@@ -220,6 +220,21 @@ const CLAUDE: CliEntry = {
     workDetect: {
       promptGlyph: '❯',
       workingLine: String.raw`…\s*\((?:\d+h\s+)?(?:\d+m\s+)?\d+s\b|esc to interrupt`,
+      // Claude prints what it started in the background on the footer row beneath its
+      // composer, as `⏵⏵ bypass permissions on · 1 monitor · ← for agents`. The labels are
+      // the CLI's own words for each kind of background task, and group 1 is the one
+      // Codeman badges the session with. Verified against a live 2.1.278 pane on
+      // 2026-09-21.
+      // ⚠️ Two things keep an agent from writing its own label here, and both matter.
+      // The footer is the LAST row, so the default one-row window (`WATCHING_TAIL_LINES`)
+      // holds nothing but Ink's own chrome — in particular it leaves out the status line
+      // directly above, whose content comes from a `statusLine` command a bypassed
+      // session can write into its own `.claude/settings.json`. And the leading `·` keeps
+      // the match on the footer's own item list rather than on any text that happens to
+      // carry a count. A footer that ever drew the chip as its only item would report no
+      // watching rather than open that door. See `watchingLabel()` in
+      // `session-activity.ts`.
+      watchingLine: String.raw`·\s*(\d+ (?:monitors?|shells?|teams?|local agents?|cloud sessions?|MCP tasks?|background tasks?|(?:background|remote) dynamic workflows?|Artifact comment monitors?))`,
     },
     requiresMux: false,
     // Claude installs Codeman's own hooks block into every workspace it runs in, so its
@@ -532,7 +547,37 @@ const CODEX: CliEntry = {
     // `Working (2m 49s • esc to interrupt)` above it while a turn runs. It animates no
     // braille spinner, and it never prints `esc to interrupt` at rest, so that phrase
     // alone separates a running turn from an idle one.
-    workDetect: { promptGlyph: '›', workingLine: '[Ee]sc to interrupt' },
+    // Codex pins a row of its own while a background terminal it started is still
+    // running: `  1 background terminal running · /ps to view · /stop to close`. Unlike
+    // Claude's footer chip that row sits ABOVE the composer, which puts it third from the
+    // bottom once the status line and the composer are counted, hence `watchingLines`.
+    // Measured against a live codex-cli 0.154.0 pane on 2026-09-22: the row appears when
+    // the terminal starts, follows the composer down as the conversation grows, and is
+    // gone after `/stop`.
+    // ⚠️ This entry CANNOT promise what Claude's does, and the difference is Codex's
+    // layout rather than its pattern. The third row from the bottom is the chip only
+    // while a terminal runs; with none running it is the last row of the transcript,
+    // which the agent writes. Matching the complete row raises the bar — an assistant
+    // message has to end with this exact line, to the character — but nothing here makes
+    // forging it impossible, so do not read the Claude comment above as applying here.
+    // What contains it is that codex declares `hooks: 'none'`: no hook event from a codex
+    // session ever reaches `notePrompt()`, so there is no idle item to pre-acknowledge
+    // and a forged label costs a wrong badge and nothing else. A CLI that gains hook
+    // signals must not keep a pattern this soft.
+    // ⚠️ Background TERMINALS are the only background work codex advertises on screen.
+    // A sub-agent started without waiting outlives the turn just as a terminal does —
+    // measured 2026-09-22, the sandboxed process was still running — and the pane shows
+    // nothing at all for it: the last rows are the composer and the status line, and
+    // `Sub-agents running` lives in the on-demand `/subagents` panel, not above the
+    // composer. So a codex session waiting on a sub-agent reads as plainly idle here.
+    // Nothing is misfiled by that (codex raises no idle prompts), and there is no row to
+    // match until codex pins one.
+    workDetect: {
+      promptGlyph: '›',
+      workingLine: '[Ee]sc to interrupt',
+      watchingLine: String.raw`^\s{0,4}(\d+ background terminals?) running · /ps to view · /stop to close$`,
+      watchingLines: 3,
+    },
     // Two columns, like claude's, measured on a live 0.154.0 answer: the `•`/`›`/`⚠`
     // markers sit in the gutter, prose continuations sit at 2, and a nested YAML block
     // the model wrote rendered at 2/4/6/8 for its own 0/2/4/6. Replayed at 100, 120,

src/config/cli-registry/types.ts

@@ -344,6 +344,24 @@ export interface CliCapabilities {
     promptGlyph: string;
     /** Source of a regex matching the status line this CLI draws while a turn runs. */
     workingLine: string;
+    /**
+     * Source of a regex matching the row this CLI draws while work it started in the
+     * background is still running, e.g. Claude's `· 1 monitor ·` footer chip or Codex's
+     * `1 background terminal running · /ps to view`. Capture group 1 is the label Codeman
+     * shows, and the whole match stands in when the pattern declares no group. A CLI that
+     * omits this reports no background work, which is what every CLI did before the field
+     * existed.
+     */
+    watchingLine?: string;
+    /**
+     * How many rows at the FOOT of the screen that row can appear in, counting non-blank
+     * rows only. Claude writes its chip on the last row and keeps the default; Codex pins
+     * its own above the composer, which puts it third from the bottom, so it declares
+     * more. Keep each number as small as that CLI's layout allows: every extra row is
+     * another row an agent might be able to write, and the label is what silences an
+     * alert. See `watchingLabel()` in `session-activity.ts`.
+     */
+    watchingLines?: number;
   };
   /**
    * How many columns this CLI indents its transcript body by, so a copy taken from its

src/session-activity.ts

@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
  * in 12/12 windows and the four idle ones in 0/12.
  */
 
+import { stripAnsi } from './utils/regex-patterns.js';
+
 /**
  * A gap longer than this ends a run of continuous output. Claude repaints at
  * least once a second while working, so this leaves generous headroom.
@@ -91,3 +93,68 @@ export function isSustainedActivity(streak: ActivityStreak | null, streakMs: num
 export function isPaneQuiet(lastActivityAt: number, now: number, silenceMs: number = IDLE_SILENCE_MS): boolean {
   return now - lastActivityAt >= silenceMs;
 }
+
+/**
+ * How many rows at the foot of a pane capture may hold the background-work row, for a
+ * CLI that declares no number of its own (`capabilities.workDetect.watchingLines`).
+ *
+ * One, because the tightest window is the right default and Claude Code needs no more:
+ * it draws its chip on the LAST row of the screen. Blank rows are dropped before the
+ * window is taken, so a trailing blank costs nothing, and a CLI that ever prints a row
+ * BELOW its chip loses the badge rather than gaining a hole.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ The size of this window is a trust boundary, not a tidiness measure, and the row
+ * it excludes first is the one that taught us so: Claude's status line sits directly
+ * above the footer, its content comes from a `statusLine` command, and a session running
+ * with permissions bypassed can write that command into `.claude/settings.json` in its
+ * own workspace. A window of two therefore let an agent print `· 1 monitor ·` onto a row
+ * of its own and silence its own idle alert. Every row added here is another row
+ * somebody may be able to write, so widen this only for a CLI whose layout forces it,
+ * and never to a whole-pane search.
+ */
+export const WATCHING_TAIL_LINES = 1;
+
+/** Longest label a badge will carry. A footer chip is a handful of words. */
+export const MAX_WATCHING_LABEL_CHARS = 40;
+
+/**
+ * What a pane says is still running in the background, e.g. `1 monitor` or `2 shells`.
+ *
+ * The CLI writes that chip while a monitor, a backgrounded shell or a cloud session it
+ * started is still going, which is exactly the case where the agent has ended its turn
+ * without wanting anything from the user. `pattern` comes from the CLI's own registry
+ * entry (`capabilities.workDetect.watchingLine`); group 1 is the label when the pattern
+ * declares one, and the whole match stands in when it does not.
+ *
+ * Each candidate row is tested on its own, bottom row first, so a pattern can anchor
+ * itself with `^` or `$` against a single row rather than against a joined block. Blank
+ * rows are dropped before the window is taken, because a CLI that leaves a blank line
+ * between its chrome rows would otherwise spend the window on nothing. The answer is
+ * stripped of ANSI and capped, because it ends up on a badge and in an approval card.
+ *
+ * @param tailLines how many non-blank rows from the bottom to look at, defaulting to
+ *   `WATCHING_TAIL_LINES`; a CLI declares its own when its row is not the last one
+ * @returns the label, or null when the pane shows no background work
+ */
+export function watchingLabel(
+  paneText: string | null | undefined,
+  pattern: RegExp,
+  tailLines: number = WATCHING_TAIL_LINES
+): string | null {
+  if (!paneText) return null;
+  const lines = stripAnsi(paneText)
+    .split('\n')
+    .map((line) => line.trimEnd())
+    .filter((line) => line !== '');
+  for (const line of lines.slice(-Math.max(1, tailLines)).reverse()) {
+    // A pattern compiled by compileVersionRegex() never carries the `g` flag, but a
+    // caller reaching in from a test or a config reload might, and a stale lastIndex
+    // would make the same screen match every other call.
+    pattern.lastIndex = 0;
+    const match = pattern.exec(line);
+    if (!match) continue;
+    const label = (match[1] ?? match[0]).trim().slice(0, MAX_WATCHING_LABEL_CHARS);
+    if (label) return label;
+  }
+  return null;
+}

src/session.ts

@@ -84,6 +84,8 @@ import {
   trackActivityStreak,
   isSustainedActivity,
   isPaneQuiet,
+  watchingLabel,
+  WATCHING_TAIL_LINES,
   IDLE_RECHECK_MS,
   PANE_PROBE_MIN_INTERVAL_MS,
   PANE_PROBE_RECHECK_MS,
@@ -500,8 +502,35 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter {
   private _activityStreak: ActivityStreak | null = null; // Unbroken run of PTY repaints (working detection)
   private _lastPaneProbeAt = 0; // Throttle for the tmux screen probe
   private _lastPaneProbeWorking: boolean | null = null; // Its last verdict (null = could not read)
+  /**
+   * Background work the pane's own footer reports, e.g. `1 monitor`; null for none.
+   *
+   * Cached BESIDE `_lastPaneProbeWorking` and refreshed only by a capture that really
+   * happened, so it goes stale exactly as that verdict does. The probe returns its
+   * cached boolean without re-capturing inside `PANE_PROBE_MIN_INTERVAL_MS`, and a
+   * label derived from a capture nobody took would be a guess wearing a fact's clothes.
+   *
+   * ⚠️ It then FREEZES once `_confirmIdle()` concludes: `activityTimeout` is null from
+   * there, and nothing looks at the pane again until it produces output. That is
+   * correct rather than merely tolerable, because work ending repaints the pane either
+   * way — a monitor firing wakes the agent, and codex drops its background-terminal row
+   * on its own. Do not add a timer to keep this fresh; it would spend a `capture-pane`
+   * per idle session per tick to learn nothing.
+   *
+   * A server restart is not a hole in that either, though it looks like one: this field
+   * is live state and starts empty. Reconciliation re-attaches the pane, the attach
+   * repaint carries the composer glyph, and the idle confirmation that arms on it probes
+   * and re-reads the label with no input from anyone — measured 2026-09-23 on a restarted
+   * instance, back within ~20 s for a session whose background terminal was still
+   * running. A session that comes back with no label has no chip on its screen.
+   */
+  private _watching: string | null = null;
   /** Lazily compiled `capabilities.workDetect.workingLine`. See _workingLinePattern(). */
   private _workingLineRe: RegExp | undefined = undefined;
+  /** Lazily compiled `capabilities.workDetect.watchingLine`. See _watchingLinePattern(). */
+  private _watchingLineRe: RegExp | null | undefined = undefined;
+  /** Resolved with the pattern above: how many rows at the foot of the screen to search. */
+  private _watchingWindow = WATCHING_TAIL_LINES;
   private _trustDialogAccepted: boolean = false; // Stops the trust-dialog scan (answered, or given up)
   private _trustDialogAttempts = 0; // Keystrokes sent at the trust dialog
   private _lastTrustDialogScanAt = 0; // Throttle for the trust-dialog screen read
@@ -1218,6 +1247,16 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter {
     return this._isWorking;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * What the pane says is still running in the background, e.g. `1 monitor`, or null when
+   * nothing is. A session with a label here has ended its turn without wanting anything
+   * from the user, so a surface that would otherwise file it under "needs you" can say
+   * what it is waiting for instead.
+   */
+  get watching(): string | null {
+    return this._watching;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Check if the session's process tree has active child processes beyond Claude itself.
    * Detects running bash tools, test suites, builds, servers, etc. that Claude spawned.
@@ -1779,6 +1818,7 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter {
       totalCost: this._totalCost,
       messageCount: this._messages.length,
       isWorking: this._isWorking,
+      watching: this._watching,
       lastPromptTime: this._lastPromptTime,
       // Buffer statistics for monitoring long-running sessions
       bufferStats: {
@@ -2937,9 +2977,60 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter {
     this._lastPaneProbeAt = now;
     const text = this._mux.capturePaneText?.(this._muxSession.muxName) ?? null;
     this._lastPaneProbeWorking = text === null ? null : this._workingLinePattern().test(text);
+    this._readWatching(text);
     return this._lastPaneProbeWorking;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Read the background-work chip off the same capture the working probe just took.
+   *
+   * The two questions are different. A turn that is running is work the user is waiting
+   * for; a monitor, a backgrounded shell or a cloud session the agent started is work
+   * the AGENT is waiting for, and it is the reason a pane can sit at its composer with
+   * nothing to say and still not want anything from the user. `_confirmIdle` takes this
+   * capture at exactly the moment the turn ends, which is the moment the answer starts
+   * mattering.
+   *
+   * A capture that could not be read leaves the last answer standing, the way the
+   * working probe treats its own null: no evidence is not evidence of none.
+   */
+  private _readWatching(paneText: string | null): void {
+    const pattern = this._watchingLinePattern();
+    // Called only from the probe, and only with what a capture returned: `null` is
+    // "the screen could not be read", which is not evidence that nothing is running.
+    if (!pattern || paneText === null) return;
+    const label = watchingLabel(paneText, pattern, this._watchingWindow);
+    if (label === this._watching) return;
+    this._watching = label;
+    // ⚠️ This CHANGES while the session's status does not, so it needs an event of its
+    // own. The label is usually set on the idle transition, which broadcasts anyway, but
+    // it CLEARS when the work ends — and for a CLI whose background work ends without
+    // taking a turn (measured on codex: a background terminal finishing repaints the row
+    // away and nothing else happens) the session is idle before and after. Without this,
+    // the server knew the badge was gone and every open page went on drawing it until
+    // some unrelated event arrived.
+    this.emit('watchingChanged');
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The regex matching this CLI's background-work chip, or null for a CLI whose registry
+   * entry declares none. Compiled once per session, like the working-line pattern, and
+   * null rather than a fallback: no other CLI has been measured drawing such a chip, and
+   * guessing one would badge sessions on the strength of an unread screen.
+   */
+  private _watchingLinePattern(): RegExp | null {
+    if (this._watchingLineRe === undefined) {
+      // The pattern and the window it runs over are one decision, so they are resolved
+      // together: how far up the screen a CLI's row can sit is as much a property of its
+      // layout as the row itself. Claude writes on the last row and keeps the default,
+      // Codex pins one above its composer and declares more.
+      const detect = getCli(this.mode)?.capabilities.workDetect;
+      this._watchingLineRe = detect?.watchingLine ? compileVersionRegex(detect.watchingLine) : null;
+      this._watchingWindow = detect?.watchingLines ?? WATCHING_TAIL_LINES;
+    }
+    return this._watchingLineRe;
+  }
+
   /**
    * The regex matching this CLI's "a turn is running" status line.
    *
@@ -4191,6 +4282,9 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter {
   async stop(killMux: boolean = true): Promise<void> {
     // Set stopped flag first to prevent new timers from being created
     this._isStopped = true;
+    // A pane that is gone is watching nothing. Nothing probes a stopped session, so
+    // without this the last chip it drew would ride along on its row forever.
+    this._watching = null;
 
     this._clearAllTimers();
 

src/tui/tui-approvals.ts

@@ -28,8 +28,11 @@
 import type { ApprovalItem, ApprovalOption } from '../web/approval-inbox.js';
 import type { TuiApprovalAnswer } from './tui-client.js';
 
-/** Card severity, in the same red/yellow vocabulary the web inbox uses. */
-export type TuiApprovalTone = 'err' | 'warn';
+/**
+ * Card severity, in the same red/yellow vocabulary the web inbox uses, plus the quiet
+ * third case: an item that opened acknowledged asks for nothing and reads grey.
+ */
+export type TuiApprovalTone = 'err' | 'warn' | 'info';
 
 export interface TuiApprovalCard {
   tone: TuiApprovalTone;
@@ -50,8 +53,14 @@ function clean(text: string | undefined): string {
   return (text ?? '').replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim().slice(0, MAX_CARD_TEXT);
 }
 
+/**
+ * How loud the card is. An idle prompt the inbox opened ALREADY acknowledged is not
+ * asking for anything — the session is watching work it started itself — so it drops to
+ * `info` and out of the warning vocabulary the other two share with the web inbox.
+ */
 export function approvalTone(item: ApprovalItem): TuiApprovalTone {
-  return item.kind === 'idle' ? 'warn' : 'err';
+  if (item.kind !== 'idle') return 'err';
+  return item.acknowledgedReason ? 'info' : 'warn';
 }
 
 /**
@@ -65,9 +74,13 @@ export function approvalCard(item: ApprovalItem): TuiApprovalCard {
   const summary = clean(item.toolSummary) || clean(item.toolName);
 
   if (item.kind === 'idle') {
+    // Say what it is waiting for rather than asking for a reply, in the same words the
+    // web drawer uses for the same item. The prompt is still answerable, so the hint
+    // stays either way.
+    const quiet = clean(item.acknowledgedReason);
     return {
-      tone: 'warn',
-      title: message || 'waiting for your reply',
+      tone: approvalTone(item),
+      title: quiet ? `quiet, ${quiet}` : message || 'waiting for your reply',
       detail: [],
       options: [],
       hint: 'p to reply',

src/tui/tui-model.ts

@@ -74,13 +74,25 @@ export function isLiveRow(session: TuiSessionRow): boolean {
  * outranks a stale `busy` status because the hook is the newer signal. An
  * errored session has no state of its own here and joins the waiting tier,
  * since it is equally something only a human can clear.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ An ACKNOWLEDGED item no longer decides the row. `acknowledgedAt` means the
+ * alert this prompt armed has been spent, either because somebody opened the
+ * session on another device or because the inbox opened the item that way for a
+ * session watching its own background work. The item itself stays pending and
+ * answerable, so the row keeps carrying it and the approval card still renders;
+ * it simply stops dragging the session into NEEDS YOU. The web has honoured
+ * that since acknowledgement existed (`approvals-ui.js` clears the pending hook
+ * that `_mobileOverviewState` reads), and this gate is where the TUI had been
+ * reading past it: acknowledging on a phone cleared the alert everywhere except
+ * here. Only `idle` can be acknowledged, so a permission or question dialog is
+ * unaffected by construction, and both are checked ahead of the flag anyway.
  */
 export function classifySession(session: TuiSessionRow, approval?: ApprovalItem): TuiSessionState {
   if (!isLiveRow(session)) return 'recent';
   if (approval) {
     if (approval.kind === 'permission') return 'blocked-permission';
     if (approval.kind === 'question') return 'blocked-question';
-    return 'waiting';
+    if (!approval.acknowledgedAt) return 'waiting';
   }
   if (session.status === 'error') return 'waiting';
   if (session.isWorking === true || session.status === 'busy') return 'working';
@@ -96,7 +108,11 @@ export function classifySession(session: TuiSessionRow, approval?: ApprovalItem)
  * turn's own start is the pane's last Enter.
  */
 export function stateSince(state: TuiSessionState, session: TuiSessionRow, approval?: ApprovalItem): number {
-  if (approval) return approval.createdAt;
+  // The prompt's own age measures the state only while the prompt is what put the
+  // row in that state. An acknowledged item still rides along on a row that is
+  // plainly idle or working, and dating such a row from it would report how long
+  // ago the prompt arrived as though it were how long the session has been quiet.
+  if (approval && STATE_GROUP[state] === 'needs-you') return approval.createdAt;
   if (state === 'working') return session.lastSubmitAt ?? session.createdAt ?? 0;
   return session.lastActivityAt ?? session.createdAt ?? 0;
 }

src/tui/tui-render.ts

@@ -462,7 +462,8 @@ export function computeListWindow(
  * The pending dialog, drawn above the tail: the question, the parsed options
  * with their digits, and the keys that answer them. Red for a permission or
  * question prompt, yellow for an idle one, the same severity vocabulary the web
- * inbox uses.
+ * inbox uses. An idle prompt that opened acknowledged carries neither: it reads
+ * grey with the idle glyph, because nothing about it wants the reader.
  */
 export function renderApprovalCard(
   item: ApprovalItem,
@@ -472,8 +473,8 @@ export function renderApprovalCard(
 ): string[] {
   const paint = painterFor(opts.color);
   const card = approvalCard(item);
-  const color = card.tone === 'err' ? SGR.red : SGR.yellow;
-  const glyph = card.tone === 'err' ? glyphs.blockedPermission : glyphs.waiting;
+  const color = card.tone === 'err' ? SGR.red : card.tone === 'warn' ? SGR.yellow : SGR.gray;
+  const glyph = card.tone === 'err' ? glyphs.blockedPermission : card.tone === 'warn' ? glyphs.waiting : glyphs.idle;
   const lines: string[] = [];
   const push = (text: string, style: string): void => {
     lines.push(padDisplay(paint(clipStyledLine(text, width), style), width));
@@ -571,10 +572,19 @@ function previewBody(
 // Chrome
 // ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
-/** Sessions with a prompt waiting on a human, which is what the badge counts. */
+/**
+ * Sessions with a prompt waiting on a human, which is what the badge counts.
+ *
+ * An ACKNOWLEDGED item is not one of them. Its alert has been spent, either by somebody
+ * opening the session elsewhere or because the inbox opened it that way for a session
+ * watching its own background work, and the row has already left NEEDS YOU by the same
+ * flag (`classifySession`). Counting it here would put a number in the header for a
+ * group the reader can see is empty.
+ */
 export function pendingApprovalCount(model: TuiRenderModel): number {
   let count = 0;
-  for (const group of model.groups()) for (const row of group.rows) if (row.approval) count++;
+  for (const group of model.groups())
+    for (const row of group.rows) if (row.approval && !row.approval.acknowledgedAt) count++;
   return count;
 }
 

src/web/approval-inbox.ts

@@ -71,6 +71,15 @@ export interface ApprovalItem {
    * and reach the user's other devices. See `acknowledge()`.
    */
   acknowledgedAt?: number;
+  /**
+   * Why the item arrived already acknowledged, for display only: the inbox
+   * writes `watching 1 monitor` for a session that went quiet because work it
+   * started itself is still running. A human acknowledgement leaves this unset,
+   * so a card can say "quiet, watching 1 monitor" rather than implying somebody
+   * looked. ⚠️ Pane-derived text, so it is bounded at the source and must not
+   * reach the DOM as markup — see `watchingLabel()` in `session-activity.ts`.
+   */
+  acknowledgedReason?: string;
   /**
    * Present only when the frame parsed confidently. Gates which digits the
    * answer endpoint accepts; absent → only approve('1')/deny(Esc) are allowed.
@@ -93,6 +102,12 @@ interface NotePromptArgs {
   toolSummary?: string;
   message?: string;
   cwd?: string;
+  /**
+   * What the session's pane says is still running in the background
+   * (`Session.watching`, e.g. `1 monitor`). An idle prompt from such a session
+   * opens ALREADY acknowledged: see `notePrompt()`.
+   */
+  watching?: string | null;
   /** Returns the raw (ANSI-bearing) pane frame, or null when unavailable. */
   capture?: () => string | null;
 }
@@ -217,6 +232,22 @@ export class ApprovalInbox {
    * Record a prompt for a session, superseding any previous item, and return
    * the new item. Captures context immediately and once more after a short
    * delay (see RECAPTURE_DELAY_MS).
+   *
+   * ⚠️ An idle prompt from a session that is WATCHING its own background work
+   * opens already acknowledged (`args.watching`). Claude Code ends the turn
+   * after arming a monitor or backgrounding a shell and then reports the pane
+   * idle a minute later, so the alert that follows asks a human to look at a
+   * session that wants nothing from them. Acknowledging is deliberately what
+   * happens here rather than skipping the item: the prompt is real and stays
+   * pending, answerable and available as Read My Mind context, and only the
+   * alert it would have armed is spent. A wrong label therefore costs a card
+   * that does not blink, never an alert that was never created.
+   *
+   * It re-arms by itself. The next idle prompt supersedes this item and builds
+   * a fresh one, so once the background work ends and the session goes quiet
+   * for an ordinary reason, that item carries no acknowledgement and alerts
+   * normally. Only `idle` is eligible: a permission or question dialog blocks
+   * the agent whatever else it started, so its alert must survive.
    */
   notePrompt(args: NotePromptArgs): ApprovalItem {
     this.resolveForSession(args.sessionId, 'superseded');
@@ -231,6 +262,10 @@ export class ApprovalInbox {
       message: args.message,
       cwd: args.cwd,
     };
+    if (args.kind === 'idle' && args.watching) {
+      item.acknowledgedAt = item.createdAt;
+      item.acknowledgedReason = `watching ${args.watching}`;
+    }
     this.applyCapture(item, args.capture);
     this.items.set(args.sessionId, item);
     if (args.capture) this.captures.set(args.sessionId, args.capture);

src/web/public/app.js

@@ -4623,6 +4623,11 @@ class CodemanApp {
     return {
       state,
       pill: this._sidebarRichPillLabel(state),
+      // What the pane's own footer says is still running in the background ("1 monitor",
+      // "2 shells"). A row that has one went quiet because the agent is waiting for that,
+      // which is a different thing from waiting for the user — so it rides BESIDE the
+      // state pill and never replaces it.
+      watching: typeof session.watching === 'string' ? session.watching : '',
       createdAt: Number(session.createdAt) || 0,
       since: this._mobileOverviewSince ? this._mobileOverviewSince(state, session) : null,
     };
@@ -4658,6 +4663,17 @@ class CodemanApp {
       parts.push(stamp(row.since.key, row.since.at, 'for', 'tab-meta-since'));
     }
     parts.push(`<span class="tab-pill tab-pill--${escapeHtml(row.state)}">${escapeHtml(row.pill)}</span>`);
+    // The word is duplicated from mobile-overview.js for the same reason the pill labels
+    // above are: it is one word, and this file must render a complete row even when a
+    // stale cached mobile-overview.js has arrived without it.
+    // The visible text is that constant. The pane-derived label appears only in the
+    // tooltip, where escapeHtml() (which escapes both quote characters) is what this file
+    // already relies on for every untrusted string it puts in an attribute, and where the
+    // source caps it at MAX_WATCHING_LABEL_CHARS before it ever gets here.
+    if (row.watching) {
+      const title = escapeHtml(`Still running in the background: ${row.watching}`);
+      parts.push(`<span class="tab-pill tab-pill--watching" title="${title}">watching</span>`);
+    }
     // Both absolute stamps ALSO on the line itself, not only on the two items.
     // Below 288px the rail hides `.tab-meta-created` (the `tab-rail-tight`
     // rule), and a tooltip on a `display: none` element has no hover target —
@@ -4695,7 +4711,11 @@ class CodemanApp {
     const prev = tab.dataset.tabState;
     // The since ANCHOR moves without the state changing (each new turn re-stamps
     // lastSubmitAt), so key the compare on both.
-    const sig = `${row.state}:${row.since ? row.since.at : 0}:${row.createdAt}`;
+    // Unescaped on purpose, and it still matches the attribute the initial render wrote:
+    // that one goes through escapeHtml() because it is interpolated into markup, and the
+    // browser hands the decoded string back through `dataset`. `watching` is the only
+    // pane-derived value in this signature, which is why it is the only one escaped there.
+    const sig = `${row.state}:${row.since ? row.since.at : 0}:${row.createdAt}:${row.watching}`;
     if (tab.dataset.tabMetaSig === sig) return;
     tab.dataset.tabMetaSig = sig;
     tab.dataset.tabState = row.state;
@@ -5319,7 +5339,7 @@ class CodemanApp {
       const richMeta = this._sidebarRichMetaHTML(richRow);
       const richClass = richRow ? ` tab-state-${richRow.state}` : '';
       const richData = richRow
-        ? ` data-tab-state="${richRow.state}" data-tab-meta-sig="${richRow.state}:${richRow.since ? richRow.since.at : 0}:${richRow.createdAt}"`
+        ? ` data-tab-state="${richRow.state}" data-tab-meta-sig="${richRow.state}:${richRow.since ? richRow.since.at : 0}:${richRow.createdAt}:${escapeHtml(richRow.watching)}"`
         : '';
 
       // '' whenever the server said nothing about this pane's agent, which covers

src/web/public/approvals-ui.js

@@ -222,6 +222,15 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
       return;
     }
     list.innerHTML = items.map((item) => this._approvalCardHtml(item)).join('');
+    // The quiet reason is the only pane-derived string on a card, and it is the one
+    // an agent could write itself (it prints its own footer row), so it reaches the
+    // DOM as text and never as markup. The card leaves an empty span for it.
+    for (const item of items) {
+      if (!item.acknowledgedReason) continue;
+      const card = list.querySelector(`[data-approval-id="${CSS.escape(item.id)}"]`);
+      const slot = card && card.querySelector('.approval-quiet');
+      if (slot) slot.textContent = 'quiet, ' + item.acknowledgedReason;
+    }
   },
 
   _approvalCardHtml(item) {
@@ -260,6 +269,9 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
       `<span class="approval-session" data-i18n-skip>${escapeHtml(item.sessionName || item.sessionId.slice(0, 8))}</span>` +
       `<span class="approval-age" data-i18n-skip>${age}</span>` +
       `</div>` +
+      // Filled by renderApprovalsDrawer through textContent, never here: see the note
+      // there. An item a human acknowledged carries no reason and gets no line.
+      (item.acknowledgedReason ? `<div class="approval-quiet" data-i18n-skip></div>` : '') +
       (summary ? `<div class="approval-summary" data-i18n-skip>${escapeHtml(summary)}</div>` : '') +
       (item.context ? `<pre class="approval-context">${escapeHtml(item.context)}</pre>` : '') +
       `<div class="approval-actions">${actions}</div>` +

src/web/public/home-sessions.js

@@ -212,6 +212,9 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
         dir: this._shortenHomePath ? this._shortenHomePath(session.workingDir) : session.workingDir || '',
         state,
         pill: HOME_SESSIONS_PILL_LABEL[state] || state,
+        // What the pane's footer says is still running in the background, straight off
+        // the session payload. Same field, same meaning as on the phone overview.
+        watching: typeof session.watching === 'string' ? session.watching : '',
         // Epoch ms, straight off the session payload; formatting happens at
         // render time so the clock below can redo it without a re-render.
         createdAt: Number(session.createdAt) || 0,
@@ -450,6 +453,12 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
     // what stops it ellipsizing.
     const meta = this._buildHomeSessionsMeta(row);
     meta.appendChild(pill);
+    // Built by the phone overview so both home screens word the badge identically.
+    // Guarded like every other cross-file call here: a stale cached mobile-overview.js
+    // must cost the badge, not the rail.
+    if (row.watching && typeof this._buildWatchingBadge === 'function') {
+      meta.appendChild(this._buildWatchingBadge(row.watching, 'home-sessions-pill'));
+    }
     item.appendChild(meta);
 
     return item;

src/web/public/mobile-overview.js

@@ -61,6 +61,14 @@ const MOBILE_OVERVIEW_RUN_MODES = [
 ];
 
 /** Pill copy per state. Kept short: a phone row has ~90px for it. */
+/**
+ * The one word every surface puts on the watching badge, and the tooltip that says
+ * what the pane actually reported. Both live here so the phone overview, the desktop
+ * home rail and the rich sidebar rows cannot word the same badge three ways.
+ */
+const WATCHING_BADGE_TEXT = 'watching';
+const watchingBadgeTitle = (label) => 'Still running in the background: ' + label;
+
 const MOBILE_OVERVIEW_PILL_LABEL = {
   needs: 'needs you',
   error: 'error',
@@ -185,6 +193,10 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
         dir: this._shortenHomePath ? this._shortenHomePath(session.workingDir) : session.workingDir || '',
         state,
         pill: MOBILE_OVERVIEW_PILL_LABEL[state] || state,
+        // What the pane's own footer says is still running in the background ("1 monitor",
+        // "2 shells"), straight off the session payload. A row that has one is quiet
+        // because the agent is waiting for that, not because it is waiting for you.
+        watching: typeof session.watching === 'string' ? session.watching : '',
         // Epoch ms, straight off the session payload; formatting happens at
         // render time so the clock can redo it without a re-render.
         createdAt: Number(session.createdAt) || 0,
@@ -713,6 +725,8 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
     pill.textContent = row.pill;
     item.appendChild(pill);
 
+    if (row.watching) item.appendChild(this._buildWatchingBadge(row.watching, 'mobile-overview-pill'));
+
     const chevron = document.createElement('span');
     chevron.className = 'mobile-overview-chevron';
     chevron.setAttribute('aria-hidden', 'true');
@@ -734,6 +748,40 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
     return item;
   },
 
+  // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+  // Watching badge
+  // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+
+  /**
+   * The badge a session wears while work it started in the background is still
+   * running: a monitor, a backgrounded shell, a cloud session.
+   *
+   * It says one word, and the label the pane itself printed ("1 monitor") rides in
+   * the tooltip, because the badge shares a row with the state pill on the narrowest
+   * screen this app renders on. It does NOT replace that pill: an agent can arm a
+   * monitor and ask the user a question in the same breath, so the row still says
+   * "needs you" and this says what else is going on.
+   *
+   * Shared with the desktop home rail (home-sessions.js), for the same reason
+   * `_mobileOverviewState` is: one badge, one wording, one place to change it. The
+   * caller names its own pill class, because each surface styles its pills itself and
+   * the phone's live inside a media query the desktop never enters.
+   */
+  _buildWatchingBadge(label, baseClass) {
+    const badge = document.createElement('span');
+    const base = baseClass || 'mobile-overview-pill';
+    badge.className = base + ' ' + base + '--watching';
+    badge.setAttribute('data-i18n-skip', '');
+    badge.textContent = WATCHING_BADGE_TEXT;
+    // The label rides in BOTH, because a tooltip is desktop-only: a phone has no hover
+    // target, and a screen reader gets the one word either way. This is the surface the
+    // badge was built for first, so "watching" with no way to learn what would be the
+    // wrong place to save a line.
+    badge.title = watchingBadgeTitle(label);
+    badge.setAttribute('aria-label', watchingBadgeTitle(label));
+    return badge;
+  },
+
   // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
   // Age stamps: started / how long in this state
   // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

src/web/public/mobile.css

@@ -2977,6 +2977,13 @@ html.mobile-init .file-browser-panel {
     color: var(--green);
   }
 
+  /* Accent, and none of the three above: a session watching work it started itself
+     is not asking the user for anything, and red and yellow are what say it is. */
+  .mobile-overview-pill--watching {
+    border-color: var(--accent);
+    color: var(--accent);
+  }
+
   .mobile-overview-chevron {
     flex-shrink: 0;
     color: var(--text-muted);

src/web/public/settings-ui.js

@@ -14,6 +14,14 @@
 Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
   // Hooks (Claude Code hook events)
   _onHookIdlePrompt(data) {
+    // A prompt the server opened ALREADY acknowledged raises no alert here. Today that
+    // means the session is watching work it started itself (`acknowledgedReason` reads
+    // "watching 1 monitor"), so the pane is quiet because the agent is waiting for its
+    // own monitor, not for you. The item still exists and still shows in the drawer;
+    // only the tab alert and the desktop notification are declined. A page that reloads
+    // instead of receiving this event reaches the same conclusion from `acknowledgedAt`
+    // in seedApprovals (approvals-ui.js).
+    if (data.acknowledgedReason) return;
     // Always track pending hook - alert will show when switching away from session
     if (data.sessionId) {
       this.setPendingHook(data.sessionId, 'idle_prompt');

src/web/public/styles.css

@@ -12427,6 +12427,17 @@ kbd {
   color: var(--text-dim);
   font-size: 0.68rem;
 }
+/* Why this card is not blinking at anyone: the session is watching work it
+   started itself. Accent, like the watching badge on a session row, and never
+   the red or yellow that mean a human is needed. */
+.approval-quiet {
+  margin-bottom: 6px;
+  color: var(--accent);
+  font-size: 0.68rem;
+  overflow: hidden;
+  text-overflow: ellipsis;
+  white-space: nowrap;
+}
 .approval-summary {
   color: var(--text);
   font-size: 0.76rem;
@@ -16314,6 +16325,17 @@ html[data-tab-orientation='vertical'] .home-sessions {
   color: color-mix(in srgb, var(--green) 45%, var(--text-muted));
 }
 
+/* Accent, deliberately none of the three above: a session that is watching something
+   it started (a monitor, a backgrounded shell, a cloud session) is not asking for
+   anything, so it must not borrow the red or the yellow that mean it is. This badge
+   sits BESIDE the state pill rather than replacing it, since an agent can arm a
+   monitor and ask a question in the same breath. */
+.home-sessions-pill--watching {
+  background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--accent) 14%, transparent);
+  border-color: color-mix(in srgb, var(--accent) 40%, transparent);
+  color: var(--accent);
+}
+
 /* Row accents: same language as the session tabs and the phone overview — red
    means a question is pending, yellow means it wants input, green means work is
    happening. Nothing else on this screen may reuse these colors. */
@@ -18376,6 +18398,16 @@ html[data-tab-orientation='vertical'][data-tab-rail-detail='rich']:not(.tab-rail
   color: color-mix(in srgb, var(--green) 45%, var(--text-muted));
 }
 
+/* Accent, deliberately none of the three above: a watching session is waiting for
+   work it started itself, not for the user, and the red and yellow here are spoken
+   for by sessions that ARE waiting for the user. */
+html[data-sidebar-detail="rich"] .session-sidebar .tab-pill--watching,
+html[data-tab-orientation='vertical'][data-tab-rail-detail='rich']:not(.tab-rail-compact) .tab-rail .tab-pill--watching {
+  background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--accent) 14%, transparent);
+  border-color: color-mix(in srgb, var(--accent) 40%, transparent);
+  color: var(--accent);
+}
+
 /* Three lines of content per row instead of two, so give them room to breathe
    and stop the row actions crowding the pill.
 

src/web/routes/hook-event-routes.ts

@@ -176,6 +176,12 @@ export function registerHookEventRoutes(
     // identity beyond the shared per-instance secret, so a prompt claimed for a
     // session that can never show one must not create an answerable item).
     let approvalId: string | undefined;
+    // Set when the item opened ALREADY acknowledged, which today means the session is
+    // watching work it started itself. It rides the broadcast so a live page declines to
+    // arm the alert (a reloading page learns the same thing from `acknowledgedAt` when it
+    // seeds from /api/approvals), and it suppresses the push: an alert nobody can answer
+    // is worth even less on a phone than in a tab.
+    let acknowledgedReason: string | undefined;
     const approvalKind = APPROVAL_KIND_BY_EVENT[event];
     if (session && hooksAvailableForMode(session.mode, sessionHookOptions(session))) {
       if (approvalKind) {
@@ -194,6 +200,10 @@ export function registerHookEventRoutes(
           toolSummary: typeof toolSummary === 'string' ? toolSummary : undefined,
           message: typeof safeData.message === 'string' ? safeData.message : undefined,
           cwd: typeof safeData.cwd === 'string' ? safeData.cwd : undefined,
+          // What the pane says is still running in the background. An idle prompt from a
+          // session that is watching its own work opens acknowledged, so it never arms an
+          // alert nobody can answer; notePrompt() carries the whole reasoning.
+          watching: session.watching,
           // Visible tmux frame first (it IS the dialog); raw byte-buffer tail as
           // the fallback for direct-PTY sessions and the no-op test mux.
           capture: () => {
@@ -203,6 +213,7 @@ export function registerHookEventRoutes(
           },
         });
         approvalId = item.id;
+        acknowledgedReason = item.acknowledgedReason;
       } else if (APPROVAL_RESOLVING_EVENTS.has(event)) {
         approvalInbox.resolveForSession(sessionId, 'resolved_in_terminal');
       }
@@ -213,6 +224,7 @@ export function registerHookEventRoutes(
       timestamp: Date.now(),
       ...safeData,
       ...(approvalId && { approvalId }),
+      ...(acknowledgedReason && { acknowledgedReason }),
     });
     // Full state ride-along, same shape as the working/idle handlers: the home
     // screens rank the blocked group on lastActivityAt, and without this a
@@ -224,12 +236,17 @@ export function registerHookEventRoutes(
     // on approvalId, and the answer route refuses keystrokes for dsh dialogs
     // (third-party TUI, unmeasured contract) — so a dsh push stays a plain
     // notification instead of offering buttons whose answer would be refused.
-    ctx.sendPushNotifications(`hook:${event}`, {
-      sessionId,
-      sessionName,
-      ...safeData,
-      ...(approvalId && session?.mode !== 'deepseek' && { approvalId }),
-    });
+    // Nothing to push for a prompt that opened acknowledged: the agent is waiting for its
+    // own monitor or backgrounded shell, and a phone buzzing about it is the same false
+    // alarm as the tab alert, delivered where it is hardest to ignore.
+    if (!acknowledgedReason) {
+      ctx.sendPushNotifications(`hook:${event}`, {
+        sessionId,
+        sessionName,
+        ...safeData,
+        ...(approvalId && session?.mode !== 'deepseek' && { approvalId }),
+      });
+    }
 
     // Track in run summary. `prompt_submitted` fires on EVERY prompt of every
     // Claude pane; only the ones where the conversation actually moved (a /clear

src/web/session-listener-wiring.ts

@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ export interface SessionListenerRefs {
   exit: (code: number | null) => void;
   working: () => void;
   idle: () => void;
+  watchingChanged: () => void;
   taskCreated: (task: BackgroundTask) => void;
   taskUpdated: (task: BackgroundTask) => void;
   taskCompleted: (task: BackgroundTask) => void;
@@ -263,6 +264,17 @@ export function createSessionListeners(session: Session, deps: SessionListenerDe
       }
     },
 
+    /**
+     * Pushes the session state when `Session.watching` changes without the status
+     * changing with it. That is the badge appearing or, more often, going away: a CLI can
+     * finish its background work without taking a turn, so the row is idle before and
+     * after and no other broadcast fires. There is no SSE event of its own, because the
+     * badge reads off the session payload every surface already has.
+     */
+    watchingChanged: () => {
+      deps.broadcastSessionStateDebounced(session.id);
+    },
+
     // ─── Background Task Events ──────────────────────────────
 
     /** Broadcasts `task:created` — new background task discovered */
@@ -495,6 +507,7 @@ export function attachSessionListeners(session: Session, refs: SessionListenerRe
   session.on('exit', refs.exit);
   session.on('working', refs.working);
   session.on('idle', refs.idle);
+  session.on('watchingChanged', refs.watchingChanged);
   session.on('taskCreated', refs.taskCreated);
   session.on('taskUpdated', refs.taskUpdated);
   session.on('taskCompleted', refs.taskCompleted);
@@ -531,6 +544,7 @@ export function detachSessionListeners(session: Session, refs: SessionListenerRe
   session.off('exit', refs.exit);
   session.off('working', refs.working);
   session.off('idle', refs.idle);
+  session.off('watchingChanged', refs.watchingChanged);
   session.off('taskCreated', refs.taskCreated);
   session.off('taskUpdated', refs.taskUpdated);
   session.off('taskCompleted', refs.taskCompleted);