af send: Enter (\r) doesn't submit multi-line formatted messages

[waleedkadous]

Bug (Updated Diagnosis)

af send messages never get their Enter keystroke processed by Claude Code. The user always has to press Enter manually after the message appears.

Root Cause

The formatted message is a multi-line block:

### [ARCHITECT INSTRUCTION | 2026-...] ###
PR approved. Please merge.
###############################

This gets written to the PTY as a single session.write(formattedMessage + '\r'). The PTY/terminal processes the embedded \n characters as line breaks. By the time the trailing \r arrives, the cursor is on an empty line after the ### footer. The \r submits that empty line, not the message content.

This is fundamentally different from how the terminal handles human input — Claude Code sees a multi-line paste event and displays it, but the trailing \r just adds a blank Enter after the display.

Why Cron Messages Work

Cron messages (af-cron) also use the same format and \r, but they appear to work because the Claude Code process treats the pasted block as input regardless — the message content itself triggers the AI to respond. The \r was never actually submitting the message; it was always just adding a blank line.

History

• Originally the Enter was sent as a separate session.write('\r') — intermittently lost between shellper DATA frames
• Bugfix af send sometimes doesn't send Enter after typing message #481 combined into a single write — but this didn't fix the real issue, just eliminated the frame-splitting symptom
• Bugfix af send: Enter (\r) doesn't submit multi-line formatted messages #492 removed the composing check that was causing 60s delays — unrelated to the Enter issue

Fix Options

1. Send \r before the message: Write '\r' + formattedMessage + '\r' so the first Enter clears any partial input, then the message is pasted, then the final Enter submits
2. Send \r\n at the end: Some terminals need \r\n rather than just \r
3. Investigate how Claude Code handles pasted input: Maybe there's a bracket-paste mode issue where the message needs to be wrapped in paste markers

[waleedkadous]

On it! Working on a fix now.