feat: allow dismissing pending user-input questions

[mrinc]

Closes #479, Closes #856

Summary

• Add dismiss/close functionality to the pending user-input question UI so users are no longer forced to answer
• When dismissed, empty answers {} are sent through the existing command pipeline -- both adapters detect this and inform the model with explicit dismissal text
• Fixes stuck questions after app restart (Bug: pending plan questions become stuck after app restart #856) since users can now dismiss stale requests, which triggers the existing stale-request cleanup path

Motivation

Currently there is no way to close or dismiss a pending question from the AI agent without answering it. This blocks users who want to skip a question and prompt the agent directly instead. Additionally, when the app restarts while a question is pending, the thread becomes unusable because the question UI persists but submission no longer works (#856).

Approach

Empty answers {} are treated as a dismissal. The frontend sends the existing thread.user-input.respond command with answers: {} -- no new fields, no contract changes, no pipeline changes. Each adapter detects empty answers and fills in "[User dismissed this question without answering]" in its native format so the model receives clear text and can act on it.

Changes (5 files)

Web frontend

• apps/web/src/components/ChatView.tsx

  • Added onDismissUserInput callback: dispatches thread.user-input.respond with answers: {}, then clears draft state for the request
  • Added useEffect for Escape key: dismisses the active pending user input on keypress
  • Passes onDismiss to ComposerPendingUserInputPanel and onDismissPendingUserInput to ComposerPrimaryActions

• apps/web/src/components/chat/ComposerPendingUserInputPanel.tsx

  • Added onDismiss prop to panel and inner card components
  • Added X close button (XIcon from lucide-react) with cursor-pointer in the question header row, pushed to the right edge with flex-1 on the label container
  • Button shows tooltip "Dismiss (Esc)" and is disabled while responding

• apps/web/src/components/chat/ComposerPrimaryActions.tsx

  • Added onDismissPendingUserInput prop
  • Added "Dismiss" ghost button before the Previous/Submit buttons in the pending action row

Server adapters

• apps/server/src/provider/Layers/ClaudeAdapter.ts

  • In handleAskUserQuestion: after the Deferred resolves, checks if answers are empty (Object.keys(answers).length === 0). If so, builds answers with "[User dismissed this question without answering]" keyed by question text and returns behavior: "allow" with the dismissal answers as updatedInput

• apps/server/src/codexAppServerManager.ts

  • Added questionIds to PendingUserInputRequest interface
  • Stores question IDs from request.params.questions when item/tool/requestUserInput arrives
  • In respondToUserInput: detects empty answers and builds dismissal answers in native Codex format ({ answers: ["[User dismissed...]"] }) keyed by question ID

No changes needed

• Contracts -- No schema changes. The existing ProviderUserInputAnswers (Record<string, unknown>) already accepts {}
• Orchestration pipeline -- decider, ProviderCommandReactor, ProviderService all pass through unchanged
• apps/web/src/session-logic.ts -- derivePendingUserInputs() already clears pending questions on "user-input.resolved" events and stale-request failures

How users can dismiss

Method	Behavior
X button in question panel header	Dismisses the active question
"Dismiss" button in composer footer	Dismisses the active question
Escape key	Dismisses the active question

All three methods send the same thread.user-input.respond command with answers: {}.

Test plan

• bun typecheck passes (7/7 packages, 0 errors)
• bun lint passes (0 warnings, 0 errors)
• bun fmt passes
• bun run test passes (existing server git test failures are pre-existing environment issues unrelated to this change)
• Start a session, trigger an AskUserQuestion from the agent, click X button -- question disappears, agent receives deny and can continue
• Press Escape while question is shown -- same dismiss behavior
• Click "Dismiss" button in composer footer -- same dismiss behavior
• Restart the app while a question is pending -- dismiss button allows recovery from the stuck state
• Answer a question normally (select option, submit) -- existing flow is unaffected
• Verify the X button and Dismiss button are disabled while a response is in flight

Pictures

Before

After

Note

Add dismiss support for pending user-input questions via Escape key or dismiss button

• Adds a dismiss button (X icon) to each pending user-input card in ComposerPendingUserInputPanel and wires a global Escape key handler in ChatView to dismiss the active prompt.
• Dismissal dispatches a thread.user-input.respond command with an empty answers object, which the server interprets as a dismissal and maps each question ID to a placeholder answer string.
• The Claude adapter in ClaudeAdapter.ts also handles empty answers by constructing placeholder dismissed answers keyed by question text and returning allow with the updated input.

^{Macroscope summarized 5d4fcab.}

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[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Needs human review

This PR introduces a new user-facing feature allowing users to dismiss pending input questions via UI button or Escape key. The change modifies runtime behavior across both server orchestration and client UI, sending placeholder text to the AI when questions are dismissed. New features with behavioral changes warrant human review.

^{You can customize Macroscope's approvability policy. Learn more.}

[juliusmarminge]

how does it look when you're not on the last question?

[mrinc]

@juliusmarminge

Q1:

Q2:

Q3:

[juliusmarminge]

what about the x button?

i can just imagine that 3rd button will cause overflows when you chagne the viewport?

[mrinc]

The X is perfect.
I agree with the dismiss button - takes up a lot of space for no reason - lets remove it and just keep the X

What do you think?

[mrinc]

Updated - removed the dismiss button