Transcript Auto-scroll Stability Requirements

Overview

Users expect an enabled transcript to follow the newest message, including when they activate a long-running session tab that was mounted outside the visible Dockview layout or return to a task whose environment rebuilds that layout. When cached history is already available, task entry must not expose the browser's default top position while a latest-window refresh is pending. Users who turn off transcript auto-scroll expect the visible conversation to stay fixed while new content arrives and to reopen at that session's own saved position. Chrome can still adjust the view through its native overflow anchoring when the toggle is disabled from the bottom. Separately, the clarification-recovery regression test must reliably observe the asynchronous hand-off it is designed to protect.

Requirements

REQ-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001: Transcript Auto-scroll Stability

Intent: Users who turn off transcript auto-scroll expect the visible conversation to stay fixed while new content arrives. Chrome can still adjust the view through its native overflow anchoring when the toggle is disabled from the bottom. Separately, the clarification-recovery regression test must reliably observe the asynchronous hand-off it is designed to protect.

Acceptance criteria

AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.1: A disabled native transcript auto-scroll preference prevents browser scroll anchoring from moving the transcript when appended content arrives, including when the user disabled it while already at the bottom.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.2: Re-enabling auto-scroll retains the existing catch-up behavior.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.3: The clarification-recovery concurrency regression waits for its asynchronous completion signal within a bounded interval instead of treating scheduler timing as a product failure.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.4: GIVEN an overflowing native transcript at its bottom with auto-scroll disabled, WHEN a new message is appended, THEN the transcript's scrollTop remains at the pre-append position.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.5: GIVEN an overflowing native transcript with auto-scroll enabled, WHEN new content arrives, THEN the transcript follows the bottom. With chat motion enabled, bounded settling follows chat motion; otherwise pinning is immediate.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.6: GIVEN clarification recovery has accepted its retry prompt, WHEN its asynchronous dispatch is scheduled, THEN the recovery call completes before the intentionally blocked prompt is released.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.7: GIVEN an enabled transcript that is pinned to the bottom, WHEN streamed content commits, THEN the transcript retains bottom-follow intent without a synchronous content-size read in the message-commit path. Enabled chat motion uses the bounded settling contract in chat motion.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.8: GIVEN an enabled, overflowing transcript that was mounted while its desktop session tab was inactive, WHEN the user activates that tab after initial load or page refresh, THEN the visible transcript settles at its newest message.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.9: GIVEN an enabled transcript that was following the newest message before its desktop session tab became inactive, WHEN content arrives while the tab is inactive and the user activates it again, THEN the transcript catches up to the newest message.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.10: GIVEN a transcript whose auto-scroll preference is disabled or whose reader moved away from the newest message, WHEN its desktop session tab becomes inactive and visible again, THEN the transcript preserves the reader-owned position instead of forcing the newest message into view.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.11: GIVEN an enabled transcript for a task in a different environment, WHEN the user switches to that task and its message history finishes loading, THEN the transcript settles at its newest message.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.12: GIVEN a disabled transcript for a task in a different environment with a saved reader position, WHEN the user switches to that task, THEN the transcript restores that session's saved position and does not apply the outgoing session's position.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.13: GIVEN a task switch that rebuilds the Dockview layout, WHEN the incoming transcript is placed and pagination becomes eligible, THEN automatic older-history pagination does not start from transient or stale pre-placement geometry.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.14: GIVEN an incoming transcript with cached messages and no active unread-divider target, WHEN a task switch starts a latest-window refresh, THEN an enabled transcript shows its newest cached message and a disabled transcript shows its saved reader position as soon as the panel is measurable, without first exposing the browser's default top position.
AC-UI-TRANSCRIPT-AUTO-SCROLL-001.15: GIVEN a desktop transcript is the selected tab in its Dockview group while another visible group owns global focus, WHEN a task switch restores that layout, THEN the transcript is treated as visible and completes its enabled or disabled initial placement.

Migrated source detail

Why

Users who turn off transcript auto-scroll expect the visible conversation to stay fixed while new content arrives. Chrome can still adjust the view through its native overflow anchoring when the toggle is disabled from the bottom. Separately, the clarification-recovery regression test must reliably observe the asynchronous hand-off it is designed to protect.

What

A disabled native transcript auto-scroll preference prevents browser scroll anchoring from moving the transcript when appended content arrives, including when the user disabled it while already at the bottom.
Re-enabling auto-scroll retains the existing catch-up behavior.
Activating an enabled desktop session transcript after initial load, refresh, or hidden message delivery places a bottom-following reader at the newest message after the panel becomes measurable.
Activating a reader-owned transcript position preserves that position.
Returning to a task in another environment repeats initial placement after its cached history becomes measurable and reconciles placement after the latest-window refresh without replaying the outgoing transcript's absolute offset.
Automatic older-history pagination waits until environment-switch placement has completed and validates current sentinel geometry before retrying.
The clarification-recovery concurrency regression waits for its asynchronous completion signal within a bounded interval instead of treating scheduler timing as a product failure.

Scenarios

GIVEN an overflowing native transcript at its bottom with auto-scroll disabled, WHEN a new message is appended, THEN the transcript's scrollTop remains at the pre-append position.
GIVEN an overflowing native transcript with auto-scroll enabled, WHEN new content arrives, THEN the transcript remains pinned to the bottom.
GIVEN clarification recovery has accepted its retry prompt, WHEN its asynchronous dispatch is scheduled, THEN the recovery call completes before the intentionally blocked prompt is released.
GIVEN a task with two overflowing session transcripts, WHEN the page refreshes with one session inactive and the user activates that session, THEN the session opens at the newest message when auto-scroll is enabled.
GIVEN a bottom-following session receives content while its desktop tab is inactive, WHEN the user activates the session, THEN its transcript catches up to the newest message.
GIVEN the reader disabled auto-scroll or scrolled away from the newest message before switching desktop session tabs, WHEN the reader returns, THEN the prior reading position remains visible.
GIVEN two tasks in different environments with overflowing transcripts, WHEN the user switches between them and returns, THEN the incoming enabled transcript shows the newest cached message immediately and remains at the newest message after its history refresh.
GIVEN the Changes panel owns Dockview focus while Chat remains the selected center tab, WHEN the user returns to that task, THEN Chat completes initial transcript placement without requiring an agent update.
GIVEN the incoming transcript has auto-scroll disabled, WHEN that environment-switch placement runs, THEN it restores the incoming session's saved position rather than the outgoing transcript's position.
GIVEN incoming history and layout are still settling, WHEN the older-history sentinel was temporarily at the viewport top, THEN the sentinel does not start an automatic pagination cascade unless its current geometry remains inside the preload region.

Out of scope

Changing the transcript toggle's location, labels, or persisted preference.
Changing clarification recovery production behavior or ownership rules.

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