[chat-ux] Mic button pulses while recording; normalize composer icon optics

[lalalune]

Problem

Every sibling surface pulses when the mic is hot (grabber bar, collapsed pill, kiosk composer, HomePill) — but the overlay's own mic button, the one users press on the primary surface, only turns accent-colored and never pulses. Color and motion disagree. There is also a minor optical inconsistency: lucide icons render at 26px while hand-drawn glyphs render at 30px, so the '+' glyph looks larger than the mic/send icons.

Current state (file refs)

• SoftButton (packages/ui/src/components/shell/ContinuousChatOverlay.tsx:309-369): borderless 44×44 hit target (WCAG 2.5.5), lucide icons at h-[26px] w-[26px] (:363), hand-drawn glyphs at h-[30px] w-[30px] (:365). active renders text-accent only — no pulse (:358).
• Overlay mic button call site: ContinuousChatOverlay.tsx:4400-4427 — active={recording || handsFree || transcriptionMode} (:4420), static accent, NO pulse.
• Sibling surfaces that DO pulse: grabber bar animate-pulse bg-accent (:509-513, glow :3703); collapsed pill same pulse via glow={listening || responding} (:582-586, :4445); kiosk ChatSurface mic active && "animate-pulse" (glass-composer.tsx:108); HomePill animate-pulse bg-warn/70 on listening (HomePill.tsx:66-68).
• Reduced-motion pattern already in the file: motion-reduce:animate-none at :512.

Proposed change

1. Pulse the overlay mic button on the SAME predicate that already sets active — recording || handsFree || transcriptionMode (:4420) — so color and motion never disagree. Reuse the existing animate-pulse + motion-reduce:animate-none pattern (:512); orange accent only, no background/border change, no blue.
2. Normalize composer icon optics: bring the lucide 26px and glyph 30px sizing to a single optically-balanced size so the '+', mic, and send read at the same visual weight. Keep the 44×44 hit target intact (do NOT shrink the hit area, only the visible glyph metrics).

Acceptance criteria

• The overlay mic button visibly pulses (accent) whenever recording || handsFree || transcriptionMode is true, and stops when it clears — matching the grabber/pill.
• motion-reduce:animate-none is respected: with reduced motion the button stays statically accent, no pulse.
• The '+', mic, and send icons read at the same optical weight; the 44×44 hit target is unchanged (WCAG 2.5.5 preserved).
• The already-done pill-pulse-when-collapsed behavior is unregressed AND now has a regression test (it currently has none).
• A ContinuousChatOverlay.test.tsx (or e2e) case asserts the mic button carries the pulse class exactly when the recording predicate is true and drops it otherwise.

Evidence required (post INLINE in the PR)

• MP4 walkthrough: start listening → mic button pulses; stop → pulse stops; with OS reduced-motion on → no pulse. Desktop AND mobile.
• JPG before (mic static while recording — the wrong behavior) + after (mic pulsing) screenshots, plus a side-by-side of the '+'/mic/send optical sizing before/after.
• The new regression-test output (pass).
• Frontend console logs from the voice session showing the recording state transitions.

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Workstream: Chat window UX · design doc · MVP board

[lalalune]

implementing on feat/14331-mic-pulse-recording (session 4a06843a MVP-WS5)

[lalalune]

PR #14466 opens against develop.

Fix: SoftButton gets a scoped pulse prop (animate-pulse motion-reduce:animate-none, accent only) set on the mic only with the same recording || handsFree || transcriptionMode predicate that drives active — so motion and color agree, matching the grabber/pill/kiosk/HomePill. Composer icon optics normalized: hand-drawn glyphs 30px → 24px so +, mic, and send read at equal weight vs the padded 26px lucide marks (44×44 hit target unchanged).

Proof (deterministic, 157/157 file tests): new mic + pill pulse while capture is hot (#14331) block asserts the mic carries animate-pulse + motion-reduce:animate-none + text-accent exactly when the capture predicate is true and drops it otherwise; the collapsed pill bar pulses only while phase === "listening" (that behavior had no test before). Composer strips captured + hand-reviewed at idle / recording / recording-reduced-motion / draft-send. Full rationale + acceptance checklist in the PR.