fix(tui): preserve optimistic user messages during active runs

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Web UI/markdown: stop bare auto-links from swallowing adjacent CJK text while preserving valid mixed-script path and query characters in rendered links. (#48410) Thanks @jnuyao.
 - Memory/FTS: add configurable trigram tokenization plus short-CJK substring fallback so memory search can find Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text without breaking mixed long-and-short queries. Thanks @carrotRakko.
 - Hooks/config: accept runtime channel plugin ids in `hooks.mappings[].channel` (for example `feishu`) instead of rejecting non-core channels during config validation. (#56226) Thanks @AiKrai001.
+- TUI/chat: keep optimistic outbound user messages visible during active runs by deferring local-run binding until the first gateway chat event reveals the real run id, preventing premature history reloads from wiping pending local sends. (#54722) Thanks @seanturner001.
 
 ## 2026.3.28
 

src/tui/tui-command-handlers.test.ts

@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ function createHarness(params?: {
   const state = {
     currentSessionKey: "agent:main:main",
     activeChatRunId: params?.activeChatRunId ?? null,
+    pendingOptimisticUserMessage: false,
     isConnected: params?.isConnected ?? true,
     sessionInfo: {},
   };
@@ -126,6 +127,16 @@ describe("tui command handlers", () => {
     expect(requestRender).toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
+  it("defers local run binding until gateway events provide a real run id", async () => {
+    const { handleCommand, noteLocalRunId, state } = createHarness();
+
+    await handleCommand("/context");
+
+    expect(noteLocalRunId).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(state.activeChatRunId).toBeNull();
+    expect(state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("sends /btw without hijacking the active main run", async () => {
     const setActivityStatus = vi.fn();
     const { handleCommand, sendChat, addUser, noteLocalRunId, noteLocalBtwRunId, state } =
@@ -173,7 +184,7 @@ describe("tui command handlers", () => {
 
   it("reports send failures and marks activity status as error", async () => {
     const setActivityStatus = vi.fn();
-    const { handleCommand, addSystem } = createHarness({
+    const { handleCommand, addSystem, state } = createHarness({
       sendChat: vi.fn().mockRejectedValue(new Error("gateway down")),
       setActivityStatus,
     });
@@ -182,6 +193,7 @@ describe("tui command handlers", () => {
 
     expect(addSystem).toHaveBeenCalledWith("send failed: Error: gateway down");
     expect(setActivityStatus).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith("error");
+    expect(state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage).toBe(false);
   });
 
   it("sanitizes control sequences in /new and /reset failures", async () => {

src/tui/tui-command-handlers.ts

@@ -72,7 +72,6 @@ export function createCommandHandlers(context: CommandHandlerContext) {
     setActivityStatus,
     formatSessionKey,
     applySessionInfoFromPatch,
-    noteLocalRunId,
     noteLocalBtwRunId,
     forgetLocalRunId,
     forgetLocalBtwRunId,
@@ -520,8 +519,7 @@ export function createCommandHandlers(context: CommandHandlerContext) {
     try {
       if (!isBtw) {
         chatLog.addUser(text);
-        noteLocalRunId(runId);
-        state.activeChatRunId = runId;
+        state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage = true;
         setActivityStatus("sending");
       } else {
         noteLocalBtwRunId?.(runId);
@@ -547,6 +545,7 @@ export function createCommandHandlers(context: CommandHandlerContext) {
         forgetLocalRunId?.(state.activeChatRunId);
       }
       if (!isBtw) {
+        state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage = false;
         state.activeChatRunId = null;
       }
       chatLog.addSystem(`${isBtw ? "btw failed" : "send failed"}: ${String(err)}`);

src/tui/tui-event-handlers.test.ts

@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ describe("tui-event-handlers: handleAgentEvent", () => {
     currentSessionKey: "agent:main:main",
     currentSessionId: "session-1",
     activeChatRunId: "run-1",
+    pendingOptimisticUserMessage: false,
     historyLoaded: true,
     sessionInfo: { verboseLevel: "on" },
     initialSessionApplied: true,
@@ -126,6 +127,7 @@ describe("tui-event-handlers: handleAgentEvent", () => {
       state,
       setActivityStatus: context.setActivityStatus,
       loadHistory: context.loadHistory,
+      noteLocalRunId: context.noteLocalRunId,
       isLocalRunId: context.isLocalRunId,
       forgetLocalRunId: context.forgetLocalRunId,
       isLocalBtwRunId: context.isLocalBtwRunId,
@@ -466,6 +468,24 @@ describe("tui-event-handlers: handleAgentEvent", () => {
     expect(loadHistory).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
   });
 
+  it("binds optimistic pending messages to the first gateway run id and skips history reload", () => {
+    const { state, loadHistory, isLocalRunId, handleChatEvent } = createHandlersHarness({
+      state: { activeChatRunId: null, pendingOptimisticUserMessage: true },
+    });
+
+    handleChatEvent({
+      runId: "run-gateway",
+      sessionKey: state.currentSessionKey,
+      state: "final",
+      message: { content: [{ type: "text", text: "done" }] },
+    });
+
+    expect(state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage).toBe(false);
+    expect(state.activeChatRunId).toBeNull();
+    expect(isLocalRunId("run-gateway")).toBe(false);
+    expect(loadHistory).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
   function createConcurrentRunHarness(localContent = "partial") {
     const { state, chatLog, setActivityStatus, loadHistory, handleChatEvent } =
       createHandlersHarness({

src/tui/tui-event-handlers.ts

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ type EventHandlerContext = {
   setActivityStatus: (text: string) => void;
   refreshSessionInfo?: () => Promise<void>;
   loadHistory?: () => Promise<void>;
+  noteLocalRunId?: (runId: string) => void;
   isLocalRunId?: (runId: string) => boolean;
   forgetLocalRunId?: (runId: string) => void;
   clearLocalRunIds?: () => void;
@@ -50,6 +51,7 @@ export function createEventHandlers(context: EventHandlerContext) {
     setActivityStatus,
     refreshSessionInfo,
     loadHistory,
+    noteLocalRunId,
     isLocalRunId,
     forgetLocalRunId,
     clearLocalRunIds,
@@ -95,6 +97,7 @@ export function createEventHandlers(context: EventHandlerContext) {
     sessionRuns.clear();
     streamAssembler = new TuiStreamAssembler();
     pendingHistoryRefresh = false;
+    state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage = false;
     clearLocalRunIds?.();
     clearLocalBtwRunIds?.();
     btw.clear();
@@ -231,6 +234,10 @@ export function createEventHandlers(context: EventHandlerContext) {
     noteSessionRun(evt.runId);
     if (!state.activeChatRunId && !isLocalBtwRunId?.(evt.runId)) {
       state.activeChatRunId = evt.runId;
+      if (state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage) {
+        noteLocalRunId?.(evt.runId);
+        state.pendingOptimisticUserMessage = false;
+      }
     }
     if (evt.state === "delta") {
       const displayText = streamAssembler.ingestDelta(evt.runId, evt.message, state.showThinking);

src/tui/tui-types.ts

@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ export type TuiStateAccess = {
   currentSessionKey: string;
   currentSessionId: string | null;
   activeChatRunId: string | null;
+  pendingOptimisticUserMessage?: boolean;
   historyLoaded: boolean;
   sessionInfo: SessionInfo;
   initialSessionApplied: boolean;

src/tui/tui.ts

@@ -203,6 +203,7 @@ export async function runTui(opts: TuiOptions) {
   let initialSessionApplied = false;
   let currentSessionId: string | null = null;
   let activeChatRunId: string | null = null;
+  let pendingOptimisticUserMessage = false;
   let historyLoaded = false;
   let isConnected = false;
   let wasDisconnected = false;
@@ -274,6 +275,12 @@ export async function runTui(opts: TuiOptions) {
     set activeChatRunId(value) {
       activeChatRunId = value;
     },
+    get pendingOptimisticUserMessage() {
+      return pendingOptimisticUserMessage;
+    },
+    set pendingOptimisticUserMessage(value) {
+      pendingOptimisticUserMessage = value;
+    },
     get historyLoaded() {
       return historyLoaded;
     },
@@ -712,6 +719,7 @@ export async function runTui(opts: TuiOptions) {
     setActivityStatus,
     refreshSessionInfo,
     loadHistory,
+    noteLocalRunId,
     isLocalRunId,
     forgetLocalRunId,
     clearLocalRunIds,