Refined Chat v0.5.0

[0.5.0] - 2026-11-01

Added

• "Code font": choose the font for code, diffs, terminal output and paths. Iosevka stays the default; "Paseo" follows the Code font set in Paseo's Appearance settings, live; "Custom" takes the name of an installed font and falls back to Paseo's Code font if it is missing. "Code glyphs" (ligatures or literal) applies to Iosevka only. Paseo's Code size is not followed: the "Code and terminal" text size still sets the size. Web and desktop follow Paseo's font; iOS and Android use the platform monospace for "Paseo".
• File and folder paths in inline code in replies (src/app.ts, C:\work\app.ts:55, src/, ~/app) are links: pressing a file shows it in the file manager, as a file name on a tool card does, and pressing a folder opens it. A link has a file or folder icon and a hover bubble saying what it does. The link only reveals and never opens or runs a file. A path that does not exist does nothing. A folder needs a trailing separator or a drive or ~ root, so and/or and /api/users stay text. A path from a root with no extension and no trailing separator (~/.gitconfig, C:\work\Makefile) looks like a folder, so pressing it asks the daemon (file.kind, which only runs stat) and a file goes to the side panel.
• A "File preview" side panel: pressing a file path in a reply shows the file read-only, with syntax colours and line numbers; a Markdown file opens rendered, with a button for its source. A path with a line (app.ts:55, app.ts:55-85) marks that line and scrolls to it, a third of the way down the panel (in a rendered Markdown file, the block that holds the line is tinted). In a rendered Markdown file, a link to another file beside it (docs/TESTING.md, ../README.md#L12) shows that file in the panel, with a Back button, and a link to a heading (#usage, docs/X.md#usage) scrolls to it and tints it; links to the web and to folders behave as before. A picture file opens drawn, with a Full screen button; one over 3 MB says so and points to the file manager. The daemon reads it only if it is inside the agent's working directory (symbolic links resolved), at most 1 MB and text; anything else, and every folder, goes to the file manager. The setting "File paths in replies" switches between the side panel (default) and the file manager. The Advanced setting "Preview files outside the project (at your own risk)", off by default, lets the panel read a text file outside the working directory too; network paths, the size limit and the text check still apply.

Changed

• The path above the code or diff on a read, write or edit card is shown relative to the agent's working directory when the file lies inside it (CHANGELOG.md, not C:\Users\you\project\CHANGELOG.md). A file outside it keeps its full path, and pressing the path still opens the full one.

Fixed

• A file name or path on a tool card (edit, read, write, and the path above a diff) now follows "File paths in replies" like a path in a reply: a file opens in the side panel, a folder in the file manager. It always went to the file manager before. A read marks the line it began at, and an edit the line it changed.
• The daemon refuses to reveal, read or look up a network path (\\host\share, //host/share): on Windows, looking one up contacts that host. This covers pictures and the line numbers of edit cards as well, which 0.4.0 did not guard.
• The Copy button on code blocks uses the host clipboard instead of the browser one, which native apps lack, and shows "Copied" only after the copy succeeded.
• The selection bar (Copy, Add to chat) and the find bar now use the interface font chosen in the settings. The selection bar passed the setting to CSS as a React Native name, which the browser ignored for System, and the find bar took the host font.

Refined Chat v0.4.0

Added

• "Reply line spacing": a percentage (80% to 200%, default 100%) that sets the height of each line in assistant replies, apart from the text size. Body text, lists, tables and headings follow it; the gaps between blocks, tool cards and code do not.
• "Let Paseo fold tool calls and turns" (off by default). Paseo's Chat display can fold tool calls into one row, or a whole turn into its reply, but only for rows it draws itself, and this plugin replaces them with its own. With the setting on and Chat display set to Collapse tool calls, tool calls and reasoning are left to Paseo; with Collapse turns, prompts and replies are too. Rows are drawn once when they load, so after changing either setting reload the plugin or restart the app.
• Links in replies show where they go and look like links in Codex: an icon before the text (GitHub, mail or web), a dashed underline on hover, and the full address in a bubble above the link on hover. When the text reads as an address that differs from the real target, the icon turns into an amber warning and the bubble names both. File paths and links on tool cards get the same hover underline. Web and desktop only; a touch screen keeps its permanent underline.
• A command card (shell, git) says what the command did on the right of its header, folded or open: what git changed (+53 −0), how many lines the command printed (8 lines), or no output. A failed call keeps its exit code and a call that wrote to stderr shows none.
• Long prompts fold in the prompt bubble: past "Long prompts" lines (default 15, 0 never folds) a prompt shows its first rows behind a "Show full prompt" control. A long paragraph with no line breaks counts by about 70 characters a line. Copy still copies the whole prompt, and the find bar opens a folded prompt that holds the search.
• Code blocks in replies fold under the existing "Long code and diffs" limit, with the same "Show N more lines" control as tool cards.
• Choose which cards fold and when. "Cards to collapse when finished" picks the kinds (Shell and Git, Writes, Edits, Reads, Other tools, Thinking) that fold back up once they finish; a thinking stream stays open while it streams, then folds. "Cards that start collapsed" picks the kinds drawn folded from the start, even while running and when the call fails. "Collapse length" keeps a tool card open while its output, code and diff total fewer lines than the limit. An ask card never folds, and a card you opened or closed yourself keeps its state.
• Custom colours. The accent setting is a switch (off follows the Paseo theme) and ends in a Custom chip with a hue strip and a hex field, and a new Bold colour setting tints bold text in replies (off by default, then a palette colour or a custom hex). Accent, bold text and marks share one palette (soft pastels: Rose, Orange, Yellow, Green, Sky, Violet, a step deeper on light themes), so a name is the same colour everywhere, and each remembers its own custom hex when you switch to a preset and back. Saved Jade, Amber and Blue map to Green, Yellow and Sky. Adapted from the open upstream PR #7.
• Highlight marks: ==text== in a reply draws as a highlighter mark. Off by default, since it is not standard markdown and the assistant writes it only when asked. The colour comes from the shared palette or a custom hex. Adapted from the open upstream PR #6.

Changed

• The size of an edit, write or read (+X −Y, N lines, lines A–B) moved from beside the title to the right of the header, with the new command summary, so every card keeps its measurements in one place and a long file path no longer pushes them out.
• "Cards to collapse when finished" replaces the "Auto-collapse tools" switch (no kind selected means no folding), and "Cards that start collapsed" replaces "Collapse thinking" and covers tool cards too. Saved settings carry over: switch on selects every kind, "Collapse thinking" on selects Thinking.
• The settings page is grouped into collapsible sections (Appearance, Text size and spacing, Replies and prompts, Tool card folding, Long content, Advanced), with the open state remembered on the client. Each fold limit is now a switch with a number field that appears when it is on, instead of a number where 0 means off; saved values carry over. "Collapse length" became "Only fold longer cards". A kind chosen in "Cards that start collapsed" is dimmed in "Cards to collapse when finished", and the length limit dims when no kind is left to fold.
• The README is rewritten around the settings page and what the plugin does today, with new screenshots; OVERVIEW.md follows it.

Fixed

• The Bash and Rust file marks, drawn in black or near black, were nearly invisible on a dark card. They now take the text colour, like the Markdown mark.
• A link whose text is a file name (tool-collapse.ts, README.md) no longer shows the amber warning: its extension looked like a domain that differed from the link target.
• A failed edit or write no longer shows a +X -Y count in its header, and a failed edit labels its diff as not applied, since nothing changed on disk.

Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Refined Chat v0.3.0

First tagged Refined Chat release. It also carries everything listed under 0.2.0 in the changelog, which was never tagged.

Highlights

Tool cards

• Edits draw a diff for providers that report only the replaced and replacement text (Claude, Codex, opencode), with old and new line numbers, +X -Y in the header and the changed words highlighted inside a modified line.
• Read cards show how many lines came back, or the real range of a partial read; shell, PowerShell, pwsh and cmd calls are drawn as shell cards with the full command.
• A failed call shows its error message, and a result delivered as text blocks is no longer reported as "completed without output".
• Long output folds behind a "Show more" control once a call has finished: command output keeps its start and end, code and structured data keep their first lines. Two settings (20 and 30 lines by default; 0 turns it off). Copy still copies everything and Ctrl+F opens the folded blocks it needs.
• Tool-card icons animate only while a call is running.

Replies and prompts

• Images in replies are drawn as pictures, in a row, with details on hover and a viewer that zooms (wheel, drag, pinch). Remote images wait for a click; loading them automatically is an opt-in setting, at your own risk.
• Prompt and reply times carry seconds, and the weekday or date when the message is not from today.
• A prompt that is only a pasted image is left to Paseo's own bubble.

Typography (0.2.0)

• Three independent percentage scales for replies, tool cards and code, plus optional auto-collapse of finished tools and collapsed reasoning.

Install

paseo plugin add git:GenoDevelop/refined-chat --ref v0.3.0

Requires Paseo 0.11.0 or later. Disable Beautiful Chat first: both replace the same timeline items.

Known limits

• Paseo does not pass pasted images to plugins, so a prompt with text and an image loses the image in the enhanced bubble; turning off "Enhanced prompt bubble" hands prompts back to the host (getpaseo/paseo discussion 8257).
• The screenshots in the README predate these changes, and the plugin is not yet in the Paseo catalog.

Full list: CHANGELOG.md.

Independent fork of Beautiful Chat; see NOTICE.md for the changes adapted from other contributors.