[Bug]: CLI terminal window jumps periodically during idle after agent turn completes

[xyushi0809]

Bug Description

After the agent finishes a turn and returns to the idle prompt, the terminal window continues to scroll/jump at short intervals (roughly every 0.15–0.16 s). The jitter persists indefinitely and does not stop until the Hermes CLI process is restarted.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start Hermes CLI.
2. Send any message (e.g., a simple chat query).
3. Wait for the agent turn to fully complete — prompt returns, no active spinner.
4. Leave the terminal idle without typing.
5. Observe periodic window scroll/jump at ~0.16 s intervals.

Expected Behavior

Idle terminal is stable — no periodic repaints, no window scrolling.

Actual Behavior

1. Agent turn completes; prompt returns to idle state.
2. No user input — terminal is left idle.
3. Window begins periodic scrolling/jumping every ~0.16 s.
4. Status bar shows transient animation frames or an incrementing timer.
5. /redraw temporarily clears the state; jitter resumes after the next completed turn.
6. display.cli_refresh_interval: 0 does not eliminate the behavior.

Affected Component

CLI (interactive chat)

Messaging Platform (if gateway-related)

N/A (CLI only)

Debug Report

Report       https://paste.rs/T1MMU
agent.log    https://paste.rs/sp3Vk
gateway.log  https://paste.rs/XqSow

Operating System

Windows 11

Python Version

3.11.4

Hermes Version

0.18.2

Additional Logs / Traceback (optional)

Root Cause Analysis (optional)

No response

Proposed Fix (optional)

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR for this?

• I'd like to fix this myself and submit a PR

[GottZ]

This was generated by AI during triage.

Summary

One PR, #65025, addresses issue #64776. Its CLI change directly gates the pet animation loop’s unconditional 0.16-second invalidation during idle, matching the reported repaint cadence, while its background-review permission changes are unrelated to the terminal-jitter cause.

Related pull requests

• fix(cli): prevent periodic terminal jitter during idle by gating pet animation invalidate on activity #65025 best fix — (+37/-12) — fixes, but needs a focused salvage pass: fix(cli): prevent periodic terminal jitter during idle by gating pet animation invalidate on activity #65025 is the best existing fix because its cli.py diff suppresses pet-triggered invalidation when neither an agent nor a command is running, directly addressing the reported idle jitter. The non-contributor review approved it, but the contributor keep_open review identifies two concrete deficiencies: the unrelated background-review change lacks memory-only whitelist coverage, and the idle-no-invalidate behavior itself has no deterministic animation-loop regression test.

Suggested consolidation

Author action: split out the part that can merge from #65025. Preserve the focused cli.py activity guard as the best existing fix for #64776, add a deterministic _pet_anim_loop test covering idle versus active invalidation, and separate the unrelated background-review permission changes with their missing memory-only whitelist test; this follows, rather than overrides, the contributor’s keep_open review.

Complex graph

flowchart LR
    classDef open fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,color:#1e3a8a
    classDef merged fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#15803d,color:#14532d
    classDef closed fill:#e5e7eb,stroke:#6b7280,color:#1f2937
    classDef unverified fill:#f3f4f6,stroke:#9ca3af,color:#374151
    classDef best stroke-width:3px,stroke:#b45309
    classDef target stroke-width:3px,stroke:#4338ca
    I64776(["issue #64776 (open)"])
    P65025["PR #65025 (open)"]
    P65025 -->|best fix| I64776
    class I64776 open
    class I64776 target
    class P65025 open
    class P65025 best
    click I64776 "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/issues/64776"
    click P65025 "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/65025"

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Graph: solid arrow = fixes / best fix, dashed arrow = partial or unverified (see edge label); boxed group = PRs duplicating each other; amber border = best fix; indigo border = target; gray node = closed (state tag in the node label).

Cross-PR triage: Reviewed 1 pull request and 1 issue in this complex. Each diff was read against this issue; Assessment working set: 5 kB of PR diffs, 5 kB of issue/PR text, 2 kB of discussion (3 comments), 2 verify verdicts. verdicts reflect diff content, not PR titles. Part of an automated triage batch.