[Hermes][Fork UI Recovery][hermes-fork-ui-features-port-v0182][1/n] Restore live context, bulk actions, and fluid drag

[OmarB97]

Why

The v0.18.2 fork rebase dropped or disconnected several established Hermes Desktop behaviors: live per-session context usage, bulk session operations, reliable /compress, and natural cross-lane session reordering. Follow-up installed builds restored most of the surface, but bulk archive still crashed because two Python methods shared the same name, while drag previews applied both dnd-kit and Motion transforms to the same rows. That left the installed app with a nonfunctional archive action and a sluggish, visually imprecise drag response.

What changed

• Restored the live color-coded context meter between turns, during token streaming, across focused-session switches, and hid it for an uncommitted New session draft.
• Restored shared Pinned ↔ Sessions drag previews, pointer-release settlement, persisted order, packaged-Electron sensor activation, and anchor-relative insertion.
• Removed double-applied drag transforms: the lifted row now follows the pointer directly while displaced siblings use one critically damped layout spring.
• Restored Finder-style multi-row selection plus bulk prompt, steer, stop, pin, archive, and delete operations.
• Restored /compress auto-interrupt and bounded busy retry behavior.
• Split ID-based archive batching from filter-based archival, made archive batches atomic and compression-lineage aware, and resolved selected/pinned lineage aliases in the desktop store.

How to review

1. Start with apps/desktop/src/lib/token-usage.ts, apps/desktop/src/app/session/hooks/use-session-state-cache.tsx, and the status-bar hook for the focused-session context contract.
2. Review apps/desktop/src/app/chat/sidebar/shared-session-dnd.ts, reorderable-list.tsx, and session-row.tsx together; dnd-kit owns only the active row's pointer transform and Motion owns sibling slot transitions.
3. Review apps/desktop/src/store/sidebar-selection.ts, selection-action-bar.tsx, and the session bulk action modules as one multi-row workflow.
4. Review hermes_state.py::archive_session_ids and its lineage resolver beside the endpoint and transaction regression tests.
5. Finish with the prompt-action slash handling and gateway protocol changes for /compress.

Evidence

• Packaged Electron drag matrix: 16/16 exact placements across Pinned reorder, Sessions reorder, Sessions → first Pinned slot, and Pinned → interior Sessions slot; 0 active rows carried both transform systems.
• Disposable packaged-app Archive all: confirmation checked 18 visible sessions, toast reported Archived 18 sessions, SQLite reported archived=1 | count=18, and all rows remained absent after reload.
• Disposable packaged-app multi-select: two checked rows produced Archived 2 sessions; SQLite showed those two archived and the third still unarchived.
• Installed /Applications/Hermes.app: idle context switched from 131.3k/200k [66%] to 16k/131.1k [12%], then New session removed the meter on the first rendered frame.
• Installed renderer audit: correct file:///Applications/Hermes.app/... page, no blocking dialog, original meshboard-operator profile restored, and zero console/log entries at the final audit.
• The installed app passed codesign --verify --deep --strict; the replaced build is retained as a timestamped rollback bundle.

Verification

• PASS — scripts/run_tests.sh tests/test_hermes_state.py -q: 357/357 tests.
• PASS — scripts/run_tests.sh tests/hermes_cli/test_web_server.py -q -k 'archive or bulk': 17/17 selected tests.
• PASS — targeted desktop Vitest suite for bulk archive, shared drag, sortable bindings, and session rows: 30/30 tests.
• PASS — npm run typecheck --workspace apps/desktop.
• PASS — npm run lint --workspace apps/desktop -- --quiet.
• PASS — python -m py_compile hermes_state.py.
• PASS — signed production package built from clean commit 10ba19459ebaaba260ee4ae8087b44cbca93dd73 and installed successfully.

Risks / gaps

• The app delegates backend behavior to ~/.hermes/hermes-agent; the installed runtime therefore received the exact tested hermes_state.py patch as well as the signed Desktop bundle. Existing unrelated local edits in hermes_cli/inventory.py and tui_gateway/server.py were preserved.
• Packaging is development-signed but not notarized because the Apple notarization API credentials are not configured in this environment.
• The broad unscoped Desktop Vitest command is intentionally not used because it discovers packaged release/ native dependency suites; the changed interaction paths have focused source tests plus packaged-app end-to-end proof.
• The operator-disabled Hermes auto-update job remains disabled; re-enabling it is outside this recovery PR.

Collaborators

Participants:

• @OmarB97 — operator on ko-mac
• Codex (GPT-5) — implementation, packaged-app diagnostics, and verification on ko-mac

Process:

• Time to finish: approximately 1 hour across iterative installed-app reports
• Iteration: installed-app reproduce → source regression tests → signed disposable validation → controlled live install
• Lead reviewer: @OmarB97

Task context:

• Task: hermes-fork-ui-features-port-v0182
• Feature: hermes-desktop-fork-feature-recovery-20260616
• Size: L · Risk: medium · Priority: High

Related work:

• Commits: a1d7990e20 through 10ba19459e
• Rollback app: Hermes-05d11c0e5f-20260714-203000.app