fix(web): pending questions no longer squash the composer on narrow windows

[MatthewFeroz]

Problem

Below the 640px breakpoint, an unfocused composer collapses even when an agent question is pending. Since #8734 moved the question card into the banner dock, this leaves an empty 17px input pill that overlaps the controls. The answer input should remain usable.

Reproduce by opening a thread with a pending question, narrowing the window below 640px or zooming until it reaches that width, and clicking outside the composer.

Change

Keep the composer expanded while a question is pending, using the existing answer layout with Next/Submit. Remove the now-unreachable collapsed question branch.

When the final pending question disappears, recheck focus using the existing collapse logic. Dismissing the question removes its focused control without a blur event. Without this recheck, the empty composer remains expanded at 140px on phones. It now returns to the normal 48px collapsed input when focus is outside the composer.

Scope and approval

No prior issue. This is a focused fix for an obvious layout defect, limited to apps/web/src/components/chat/ChatComposer.tsx. It reuses existing expanded and collapsed states. The pending answer area stays expanded on phone-sized web layouts; normal collapsing resumes after dismissal. The desktop app uses this web component. Native iOS/Android use separate composer and question components. No contracts, server, provider adapters, shared client code, or connection behavior change.

Verification

• Reproduced the original 17px empty pill before the fix and a usable 92px answer surface afterward in T3's Browser panel.
• Checked free text, two-question single-select, multi-select, and two-question choice-only fixtures at ten exact CSS viewports each: 375×667, 390×844, 412×915, 430×932, 667×375, 375×360, 580×720, 639×600, 640×600, and 1440×900. All 40 checks passed: expanded answer surface, no document horizontal overflow, and Next/Submit within the viewport. Long option lists scroll on small and landscape viewports. The 375×360 case checks reduced height, not a real software keyboard.
• Exercised custom typing, single-select Next/Previous with selection retained, choice-only auto-advance with editing disabled, multi-select with three selections and Submit enabled, and scrolling to the final option. Final answer submission/provider resumption was not exercised with these visual fixtures.
• Reproduced the dismissal regression against the original PR commit: a focused dismiss control disappears and leaves the empty composer expanded at 140px. With the follow-up, dismissal through the app command returns it to 48px without an extra click.
• Used an isolated home prepared with vp run migrate-dev-db --base-dir <scratch dir>, then added inert question projections. No provider sessions, scheduled tasks, queued effects, or non-completed runs were present. The fixtures demonstrate client layout; they are not backend/provider integration tests.
• Web: seven focused test files, 70 tests passed. vp run typecheck, targeted vp lint, and vp run build in apps/web passed. Lint retains the existing 36 warnings; the build retains its chunk-size warning.
• Native mobile: the existing pendingUserInputLayout.test.ts passes all three tests using the root test config. Source inspection confirms native clients do not import the changed web component. Device testing could not run because T3 reports Agent device access is turned off for this environment.
• Not exercised: physical phone browsers, native iOS/Android UI, Electron's own zoom controls, or remote/relay/tunnel connections. Desktop zoom is represented by the resulting CSS viewport widths, not a separate Electron launch.
• Macroscope approved and its correctness check passed on the earlier commit 6eba64e; UI Consistency was skipped. Those results do not cover the new dismissal follow-up. Checks/review must run on the updated head.

Original squash fix:

Before	After

Dismissal at 375×667:

Before focus recheck	After focus recheck

Phone interaction recording: multi-select, scroll to the final option, dismiss, and collapse

Made with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6.1-Sol in T3 Code, using Claude Code and Codex.

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved at c411abb

Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — This is a contained web UI bug fix that keeps the existing pending-question controls usable on narrow windows and restores normal collapse behavior after dismissal. It changes no APIs, data contracts, production configuration, or sensitive functionality.

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Dismissing prior approval to re-evaluate 6eba64e

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 6eba64e and c411abb.

📒 Files selected for processing: 1

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

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📝 Walkthrough

The mobile chat composer now stays expanded while user-input questions are pending. Pending questions use the shared panel. The collapsed prompt row displays the prompt or a placeholder and expands the composer when clicked.

Changes: Mobile composer behavior

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Pending-question and collapsed prompt behavior apps/web/src/components/chat/ChatComposer.tsx	Pending user input prevents mobile collapse. Pending questions use the shared panel instead of a separate collapsed-mobile panel. When the active request ends, the composer schedules a collapse check. The collapsed prompt row displays the prompt or a placeholder and always expands the composer when clicked.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Suggested reviewers: t3dotgg

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to c411a

Pending mobile questions retain their answer and completion controls in the expanded composer. No actionable merge-blocking risk remains in the reviewed change.

Pre-merge checks: 4

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Title check		The title clearly and concisely describes the main fix: preventing pending questions from collapsing the composer on narrow windows.
Description check		The description covers the problem, reproduction steps, implementation, scope and approval rationale, verification results, screenshots, recording, limitations, and agent attribution. It is complete a…

Full details: Description check

Explanation

The description covers the problem, reproduction steps, implementation, scope and approval rationale, verification results, screenshots, recording, limitations, and agent attribution. It is complete and aligned with the template.

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Dismissing prior approval to re-evaluate c411abb