feat(desktop): show background desktop chats and keep the chat view display-only for them by waleedlatif1 · Pull Request #8670 · simstudioai/sim

waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-06T06:37:39Z

Summary

Phase 2b of the desktop background executor: the web app's side. All of it applies only to turns a desktop's background executor runs, which only happens behind mothership-desktop-background-executor. With the flag off, or on an old desktop build, nothing changes.

Based on staging, now that #8650 is squashed; the desktop side is #8668. It builds on the unopened background-activity commit (its first commit), reviewed and corrected against the final binding contract.

Display only, decided by Sim, not by a cache.

Sim marks a turn that its desktop's executor runs on the stream that serves it:
- an x-mothership-desktop-executor: device header on the send response and on every reconnect;
- desktopToolsOnDevice on the replay batch that a reloaded view attaches with.
For such a turn, the chat view shows its desktop calls (browser, terminal, local files) and their results, but never starts or reports them. It therefore never calls authorize or confirm for them, and it has no tool lifetime to cancel on unmount or stream recovery. Workflow tools are unaffected.
The first commit decided this from the cached activity list, which a new turn's first desktop call could beat. That would have sent the view down the authorize-409 path this PR exists to avoid.

Status per chat (sidebar).

The chat row's tooltip adds one of:
- "Running on <device>";
- "Needs input";
- "Waiting for <device> to come back online".
The existing unread dot stays as Ready.
Needs input now comes from the durable record:
- a call Sim asked the user about that they have not answered (permission_requested_at set, no decision);
- or a running terminal handoff or browser_request_takeover.
An auto-allowed command no longer shows as needing input.
Presence that Sim cannot read is shown as running, not offline.
The activity list refreshes as soon as a turn starts or ends, not only on its timer. Its reads have a rate-limit bucket of their own, apart from the device's lease renewals.
Only a workspace chat's turn binds to a desktop. An organization chat stays with its chat view.

Notifications.

With the flag on, a chat this user's own desktop was running that finishes its turn while the user is looking elsewhere is announced, and clicking the notification opens it. Workspace chat events carry every member's chats, so a teammate's chat is never announced. The chat on screen still announces itself as before, so nothing is announced twice.
Such a background completion is shown even while Sim is focused on another page. Every other notification keeps the existing rule exactly: with "Notify only when Sim isn't focused", which is unchanged, a focused window holds it back wherever the user is.
Approval notifications come from the desktop executor (feat(desktop): run a chat's desktop tools in the background executor #8668) and open the chat at its approval card. There is never an approve button in the notification.

Test plan

Integration against real Postgres and Redis (bun run test:integration):
- app/api/copilot/chat/stream/desktop-executor.integration.ts: the live tail and the replay batch of a turn bound to a desktop are marked, and an unbound turn's are not.
- lib/desktop/application/activity.integration.ts:
  - running, needs input and blocked;
  - an allowed pending command that is not needing input;
  - handoff and takeover counted as needing input;
  - a declined call that no longer waits;
  - no other user's or workspace's chats.
Unit tests:
- the stream handler only shows browser, terminal and local-file calls when the turn runs on the device, and still starts workflow tools;
- background completion notifications: announced elsewhere, quiet for the chat on screen and outside the desktop, activity refreshed on start and end;
- the desktop notification focus rule.
type-check, check:audits, and the affected Vitest suites (251 files).

vercel · 2026-10-06T06:37:46Z

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waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-06T06:37:47Z

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greptile-apps · 2026-10-06T06:45:10Z

Confidence Score: 5/5

[Medium risk] Adds background chat execution tracking to desktop and web views.

The PR appears safe to merge; no new actionable finding or outstanding previous finding remains.

Summary

The PR makes desktop-executed workspace turns display-only in the chat view, adds per-chat desktop activity and background-completion notifications, and updates send-recovery and CI teardown behavior.

Stream headers and replay data identify turns whose desktop tools run on the device.
The sidebar reads the user’s desktop activity; notification handling distinguishes background chat completions from ordinary notices.
Follow-up changes pace busy-send retries and guard queued messages across chat deletion, restoration, and navigation.

Diagram

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart LR
  A[Admitted workspace turn] --> B{Desktop bound?}
  B -->|Yes| C[Stream marks device executor]
  C --> D[Chat view displays desktop calls]
  C --> E[Desktop executes and reports calls]
  E --> F[Activity and completion events]
  F --> G[Sidebar status and background notice]
  B -->|No| H[Chat view runs eligible client tools]

_{Reviews (11) · Last reviewed commit: "style(desktop): color the background act..." · Reviewed by Greptile}

waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-06T15:44:09Z

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waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-06T15:46:23Z

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greptile-apps · 2026-10-06T15:52:12Z

Comments Outside Diff

These findings could not be posted inline.

Held messages become stranded apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/hooks/use-chat.ts:5021 ▶

When “Send now” interrupts the first turn on a new-chat page and Stop fails, the message is put back under that page’s temporary queue key without a heldSurface marker. If the page remounts or resets, it gets a new key, and the replacement page cannot adopt the message. The user’s message remains in the old queue instead of appearing in the composer. The direct-send path at lines 4395–4399 also omits the marker for held messages.

waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-06T17:36:51Z

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waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-06T18:14:41Z

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waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-07T00:00:29Z

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Behind mothership-desktop-background-executor (resolved server-side and passed through the workspace feature flags): - GET /api/desktop/activity lists the caller's chats in a workspace whose turn runs on one of their desktops, as running, needs input (a call waits for approval) or blocked (that desktop is offline), with the device name. - The sidebar marks those chats with a status dot whose tooltip reads "Running on <device>", "Needs input" or "Blocked: <device> is offline"; unread replies keep the existing Ready dot. - A chat view showing a turn a desktop runs in the background only displays its desktop calls and never executes them.

…ckground chats Builds on the background activity commit, against the final binding contract. - Display only, deterministically. Sim marks a turn its desktop's executor runs on the stream that serves it: a response header on the send and on every reconnect, and a flag on the replay batch a reload attaches with. The chat view only shows that turn's desktop calls and never starts or reports them. This replaces reading the cached activity list, which a new turn's first call could beat. - Needs input comes from the durable record: a call Sim asked the user about and they have not answered, or a running terminal handoff or browser takeover. An auto-allowed command no longer reads as needing input. Presence Sim cannot read is not reported as offline. - Turn-complete notifications for chats in the background: a chat that finishes while the user is elsewhere is announced and opens on click; the chat on screen announces itself as before. "Notify only for chats in the background" (the existing default) now means exactly that, so a background chat is announced even while Sim is focused. - The activity list refreshes when a turn starts or ends.

…kspace chats - Turn-complete notifications for chats in the background follow the background executor flag, so a flag-off user sees exactly what they saw before. - Only a workspace chat's turn binds to a desktop. Its sidebar shows the status and an approval notification links back to it; an organization chat stays with its chat view. - A desktop's status reads as running when Sim cannot track presence at all, not as blocked. - "Running on <device>" shows in the chat row's tooltip. The status dot sits in the row's indicator slot, which takes no pointer and gives way to the row's actions on hover, so a tooltip on the dot itself could never open.

…d of asserting mock calls The background-chat tests now record the calls a view starts and the notifications it asks the desktop app to show, and read whether the desktop activity query went stale from a real query client, instead of asserting that mocks were called.

…nnounce only the user's own chats - Every existing notification is held back whenever the window is focused, as before. Only a background chat's completion, now marked as such, is shown when the focused window is somewhere else. With the flag off, a flag-off user watching the workflow panel is no longer told about the chat they are looking at. The settings label is back to its original wording. - Workspace chat events carry every member's chats. A completion is now announced only for a chat this user's own desktop was running, so a teammate's finished chat raises nothing. - The sidebar's activity reads get their own rate-limit bucket, so polling tabs can never spend the tokens a device needs to renew its leases. - An offline desktop's chat now says it is waiting for the device to come back, not that it is blocked. - The rule for which turns bind to a desktop is a named function, tested on its outcome.

… the desktop ran Desktop activity now names each bound turn's stream, and a completion is announced only when that turn was seen running on the user's own desktop. An earlier desktop turn no longer makes a later chat-view turn in the same chat look eligible.

waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-07T00:26:57Z

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waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-07T01:19:54Z

This is about send-recovery code already on staging, not this PR's diff. A follow-up queued on the chatless surface could be stranded on remount; that is fixed in #8707 (with a regression test).

waleedlatif1 · 2026-10-07T01:19:56Z

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waleedlatif1 changed the title ~~fix(desktop): show background desktop chats and keep the chat view display-only for them~~ feat(desktop): show background desktop chats and keep the chat view display-only for them Oct 6, 2026

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Comment thread apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/w/components/sidebar/sidebar.tsx

Comment thread apps/sim/app/o/[organizationId]/layout.tsx

Comment thread apps/sim/lib/desktop/executor/inbox.ts

waleedlatif1 force-pushed the feat/desktop-executor-web branch from 0c63239 to 401be2d Compare October 6, 2026 15:41

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Comment thread apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/hooks/stream/handle-tool-event.test.ts Outdated

waleedlatif1 force-pushed the feat/desktop-executor-binding branch from 48920e2 to 0a5f255 Compare October 6, 2026 15:52

waleedlatif1 requested a review from a team as a code owner October 6, 2026 15:52

waleedlatif1 force-pushed the feat/desktop-executor-web branch from 401be2d to ac8cdc3 Compare October 6, 2026 17:27

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waleedlatif1 changed the base branch from feat/desktop-executor-binding to staging October 6, 2026 18:14

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waleedlatif1 force-pushed the feat/desktop-executor-web branch from 473c5c1 to 1aa2322 Compare October 7, 2026 00:00

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Comment thread apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/w/components/sidebar/sidebar.tsx Outdated

waleedlatif1 added 7 commits October 6, 2026 17:25

style(desktop): color the background activity dot with Tailwind classes

684261b

waleedlatif1 force-pushed the feat/desktop-executor-web branch from 1aa2322 to 684261b Compare October 7, 2026 00:26

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waleedlatif1 merged commit 0d74834 into staging Oct 7, 2026
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This was referenced Oct 7, 2026

feat(desktop): keep the machine awake for background chats and yield the page to the user #8671

Merged

feat(desktop): import local files from the background executor #8672

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waleedlatif1 deleted the feat/desktop-executor-web branch October 7, 2026 02:05

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