Make Run now trustworthy and the sidebar shimmer unmissable

Run now: the toast only proved the click happened — the send's failure
was swallowed, the prompt was fully invisible, and a stopped default
agent silently ate it. Automation prompts now surface send errors,
auto-start a stopped default agent (the backlog replay delivers the
prompt once it connects), and leave a collapsed marker row at the spot
the instruction fired — "Asked Fizz to fix the CI failures" —
expandable to the full text, so the magic has an anchor.

Shimmer: glyph recoloring alone is too subtle at sidebar sizes. The
accent shimmer adds a translucent primary highlight wash sweeping
behind the text on the same keyframes — a highlighter pass the text
stays readable through.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

desktop/src/features/chats/lib/chatWorkAutomation.ts

@@ -18,6 +18,25 @@ export const CHAT_AUTOMATION_TAG: [string, string] = [
   "work-panel",
 ];
 
+/** Tag for one automation prompt, carrying its kind for the marker row. */
+export function chatAutomationTag(kind: "ci" | "comments"): string[] {
+  return [...CHAT_AUTOMATION_TAG, kind];
+}
+
+/** Marker-row label for an automation message's tag. */
+export function chatAutomationLabel(
+  tag: readonly string[] | undefined,
+  agentName: string,
+) {
+  if (tag?.[2] === "ci") {
+    return `Asked ${agentName} to fix the CI failures`;
+  }
+  if (tag?.[2] === "comments") {
+    return `Asked ${agentName} to address the review comments`;
+  }
+  return `Sent ${agentName} automation instructions`;
+}
+
 export type ChatWorkAutomation = {
   autoFixCi: boolean;
   addressComments: boolean;

desktop/src/features/chats/ui/ChatConversationRows.tsx

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import * as React from "react";
-import { Bot, FolderGit2, MessageCircle, Power } from "lucide-react";
+import { Bot, FolderGit2, MessageCircle, Power, Wand2 } from "lucide-react";
 
+import { chatAutomationLabel } from "@/features/chats/lib/chatWorkAutomation";
 import { cleanAssistantMessageText } from "@/features/chats/ui/chatActivityText";
 import type { UserProfileLookup } from "@/features/profile/lib/identity";
 import type { RelayEvent } from "@/shared/api/types";
@@ -168,6 +169,42 @@ export function ChatScrollAnchor({
   return null;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Marker row for an invisible automation prompt (auto-fix CI / address
+ * comments): the instruction itself stays out of the timeline, but the spot
+ * where it fired needs an anchor — total invisibility made "Run now" feel
+ * like it did nothing. Expandable to the full instruction text.
+ */
+export function ChatAutomationRow({
+  agentName,
+  event,
+}: {
+  agentName: string;
+  event: RelayEvent;
+}) {
+  const tag = event.tags.find((candidate) => candidate[0] === "automation");
+  return (
+    <Message side="center">
+      <MessageContent className="w-full max-w-full">
+        <details
+          className="group/automation-row"
+          data-testid="chat-automation-row"
+        >
+          <summary className="flex cursor-pointer list-none items-center gap-2 text-sm text-muted-foreground/70 [&::-webkit-details-marker]:hidden">
+            <Wand2 className="h-3.5 w-3.5 shrink-0" />
+            <span className="min-w-0 truncate">
+              {chatAutomationLabel(tag, agentName)}
+            </span>
+          </summary>
+          <div className="mt-2 pl-6 text-sm text-muted-foreground">
+            {event.content}
+          </div>
+        </details>
+      </MessageContent>
+    </Message>
+  );
+}
+
 export function ChatContextRow({ event }: { event: RelayEvent }) {
   const isProjectSetup = event.content.startsWith("Project setup");
   const projectSetupContent = event.content

desktop/src/features/chats/ui/ChatDetail.tsx

@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@ import {
   NO_PROJECT_SELECTION_ID,
 } from "@/features/chats/lib/chatSetup";
 import { ChatActivityTranscript } from "@/features/chats/ui/ChatActivityTranscript";
-import { CHAT_AUTOMATION_TAG } from "@/features/chats/lib/chatWorkAutomation";
+import {
+  CHAT_AUTOMATION_TAG,
+  chatAutomationTag,
+} from "@/features/chats/lib/chatWorkAutomation";
 import {
   deriveBranchFromAgentMessages,
   deriveChatWorkBranch,
@@ -38,6 +41,7 @@ import { isHumanFacingAssistantText } from "@/features/chats/ui/chatActivityText
 import { entranceClassForCreatedAt } from "@/features/chats/ui/messageEntrance";
 import {
   AgentActivationCard,
+  ChatAutomationRow,
   ChatContextRow,
   ChatMessageRow,
   ChatScrollAnchor,
@@ -501,6 +505,24 @@ export function ChatDetail({
     setIsActivationPending(true);
     onActivateAgent();
   }, [onActivateAgent]);
+
+  // Automation prompts must not fail silently: surface send errors, and if
+  // the default agent is stopped, start it too — the backlog replay delivers
+  // the prompt once it connects.
+  const handleAutomationPrompt = React.useCallback(
+    (content: string, kind: "ci" | "comments") => {
+      onSend(content, [], [chatAutomationTag(kind)]).catch((error: unknown) => {
+        console.error("Failed to send automation prompt", error);
+        toast.error("Could not send the automation instructions");
+      });
+      if (defaultAgent != null && !isManagedAgentActive(defaultAgent)) {
+        setIsActivationPending(true);
+        onActivateAgent();
+      }
+    },
+    [defaultAgent, onActivateAgent, onSend],
+  );
+
   React.useEffect(() => {
     if (!isActivationPending) {
       return;
@@ -637,7 +659,12 @@ export function ChatDetail({
                               )}
                               messageId={message.id}
                             >
-                              {isAutomationMessage ? null : isContextMessage ? (
+                              {isAutomationMessage ? (
+                                <ChatAutomationRow
+                                  agentName={defaultAgent?.name ?? "Fizz"}
+                                  event={message}
+                                />
+                              ) : isContextMessage ? (
                                 <ChatContextRow event={message} />
                               ) : (
                                 <ChatMessageRow
@@ -738,9 +765,7 @@ export function ChatDetail({
           branch={workBranch}
           chatId={chat.id}
           isTurnActive={isChatTurnActive}
-          onAutomationPrompt={(content) =>
-            void onSend(content, [], [CHAT_AUTOMATION_TAG])
-          }
+          onAutomationPrompt={handleAutomationPrompt}
           open={showWorkPanel}
           prHref={workPanelHref}
           projectPath={metadata?.projectPath ?? selectedProject?.path ?? null}

desktop/src/features/chats/ui/ChatWorkPanel.tsx

@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ export function ChatWorkPanel({
   chatId: string;
   /** Whether an agent turn is currently running in this chat. */
   isTurnActive?: boolean;
-  onAutomationPrompt?: (content: string) => void;
+  onAutomationPrompt?: (content: string, kind: "ci" | "comments") => void;
   open?: boolean;
   prHref?: string | null;
   /** Project directory — enables PR discovery by branch via the git remote. */
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@ export function ChatWorkPanel({
     });
     onAutomationPrompt(
       `CI is failing on ${effectiveHref} (${checks.failed} of ${checks.total} checks). Investigate the failures and push fixes until the checks pass.`,
+      "ci",
     );
     // The prompt itself is invisible in the timeline — acknowledge it.
     toast.success(`Asked ${agentName} to fix the CI failures`);
@@ -160,6 +161,7 @@ export function ChatWorkPanel({
     });
     onAutomationPrompt(
       `There are unanswered review comments on ${effectiveHref}. Address each comment and its replies, push any needed changes, reply to the threads, and resolve every conversation that has been addressed.`,
+      "comments",
     );
     toast.success(`Asked ${agentName} to address the review comments`);
   }, [agentName, chatId, effectiveHref, onAutomationPrompt, openThreads]);

desktop/src/shared/styles/globals/animations.css

@@ -246,6 +246,36 @@
   --buzz-shimmer-highlight: color-mix(in oklch, hsl(var(--primary)) 60%, black);
 }
 
+/* Glyph recoloring alone is too subtle at sidebar sizes — sweep a
+   translucent highlight WASH behind the text as well (same keyframes, so
+   band and wash move together). The wash is a soft primary tint the text
+   stays readable through, like a highlighter pass. */
+.buzz-shimmer-accent::after {
+  animation: buzz-shimmer var(--buzz-shimmer-duration) linear infinite;
+  background-image: linear-gradient(
+    90deg,
+    transparent 0%,
+    transparent 40%,
+    hsl(var(--primary) / 0.28) 50%,
+    transparent 60%,
+    transparent 100%
+  );
+  background-repeat: no-repeat;
+  background-size: var(--buzz-shimmer-band) 100%;
+  border-radius: 0.25rem;
+  content: "";
+  inset: -0.125rem -0.25rem;
+  pointer-events: none;
+  position: absolute;
+}
+
+@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
+  .buzz-shimmer-accent::after {
+    animation: none;
+    content: none;
+  }
+}
+
 @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
   .buzz-shimmer,
   .shimmer {

desktop/tests/e2e/chats-first-message.spec.ts

@@ -214,9 +214,15 @@ test("first message in a new chat is sent and rendered", async ({ page }) => {
       ),
     )
     .toBe(true);
+  // The instruction renders as a collapsed marker row, not a bubble.
+  const automationRow = page.getByTestId("chat-automation-row");
+  await expect(automationRow).toBeVisible({ timeout: 10_000 });
+  await expect(automationRow).toContainText(
+    "Asked Fizz to address the review comments",
+  );
   await expect(
     page.getByLabel("Chat messages").getByText("unanswered review comments"),
-  ).toHaveCount(0);
+  ).not.toBeVisible();
 
   // Manual overrides: open comments expose "Run now"; green CI does not.
   await expect(page.getByTestId("automation-run-comments-now")).toBeVisible();