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fix: keep full-height frames off the primary buffer during the alt-screen hop #128

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Merged
hbrooks merged 1 commit into from
Aug 21, 2026
Merged

fix: keep full-height frames off the primary buffer during the alt-screen hop #128

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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions src/ui/SessionsApp.tsx
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -734,10 +734,19 @@ export function SessionsApp(props: SessionsAppProps): React.ReactElement {
</Box>
)

// Every full-height frame below may only paint once the terminal is ON the
// alternate buffer, and the hop is an effect: a frame committed before it
// settles lands on the PRIMARY buffer instead, shoving the shell's history
// (and any earlier transcript) a screenful up into scrollback — exactly the
// rows the chat's scrollback view promises to leave in place. So the frames
// in the hop gap render nothing, same as the chat's own gap below.
const fullFrameHopGap = !altScreenOn

@ellipsis-dev ellipsis-dev Bot Aug 21, 2026

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The hop gap is missing on the other primary→alt transition: ctrl+r's transcript browser still paints a full-height frame on the primary buffer. ConnectApp calls useAltScreen(windowed) at src/ui/ConnectApp.tsx:315 and throws the settled flag away, so the frame where windowed flips true commits with minHeight={rows - bottomSlack} (src/ui/ConnectApp.tsx:1526) and the <Static> transcript withheld — before the 1049h write.

In a chat whose transcript reaches the bottom of the terminal, pressing ctrl+r paints a screenful-tall frame at the cursor, scrolling the flushed transcript rows up; 1049h then saves the already-damaged primary buffer, so esc restores the shifted history. Same failure this PR fixes for the picker, reached by a different key.


// The picker, open, IS the screen: it took over the alternate buffer, so it
// renders alone (header + list) and the chat is left untouched on the primary
// buffer, waiting behind it.
if (navOpen) {
if (fullFrameHopGap) return <Box />
return (
<Box flexDirection="column" height={height} padding={APP_INSET}>
{header}
Expand All @@ -756,6 +765,7 @@ export function SessionsApp(props: SessionsAppProps): React.ReactElement {

// The remaining screens (the new-session composer, a chat still loading) do
// own their frame, so they keep the inset and the header.
if (fullFrameHopGap) return <Box />
return (
<Box flexDirection="column" minHeight={height} padding={APP_INSET}>
{header}
Expand Down