feat(workflows): show model + thinking level on graph node cards

[sina85]

What this does

Shows the effective model + thinking level (and Codex fast tier) for each workflow stage on the /workflow connect graph node cards, and persists that identity across /workflow resume. The main-session footer has always shown <model> <thinking>, but background/orchestrated runs were opaque about which model (and reasoning level) each stage used. This closes that gap in the place you inspect a running workflow — the graph overlay.

Scope note: an earlier revision of this PR also added the same display to the above-editor BACKGROUND widget. Per review that has been removed — the widget summarizes each run on a single line, so a parallel fan-out on several models has no clean way to show them. Model/thinking/fast identity lives only on the graph node cards, which have one card per stage and room to show each. This PR now has zero net diff to widget.ts.

1. Graph node cards (/workflow connect)

Node cards showed title / duration / status / deps but deliberately hid the model. They now carry a dedicated compact model row beneath the status line:

╭───── specialist ─────╮  ╭─────── scout ────────╮  ╭───── codex-fix ──────╮
│         12s          │  │          8s          │  │          8s          │
│      ● running       │  │      ● running       │  │      ● running       │
│claude-opus-4.8 · high│  │        gpt-5         │  │  gpt-5.1-codex fast  │
│         root         │  │         root         │  │         root         │
╰──────────────────────╯  ╰──────────────────────╯  ╰──────────────────────╯

• Provider prefix dropped and thinking omitted when off to fit the ~22-cell card; — shows when no model is resolved yet.
• Codex fast tier is appended on the model row, mirroring the footer's formatCodexFastModeModelLabel (<model> <thinking> fast). When the card would overflow, the thinking level is dropped so the fast marker is never truncated away.
• Live model fallbacks are reflected: when a stage falls back to another model the row updates to the model actually running (it renders from the live StageSnapshot.model, which applyModelFallbackMeta rewrites on each fallback).
• Cards grow from 5 → 6 rows (NODE_H); graph layout and edge routing derive from NODE_H and adapt automatically.

2. Persistence across /workflow resume

thinkingLevel now rides alongside model at every serialize/restore site of the mandatory DBOS durable path — the DurableStageCheckpoint type, stage/task checkpoint metadata, the DBOS envelope encode/validate/decode, the completed-run catalog merge, checkpoint→snapshot hydration, and the replay __modelFallbackMeta (plus WorkflowTaskResult). A resumed run therefore restores the same model + thinking identity, not just the model.

Plumbing (shared live-snapshot path)

• StageModelFallbackMeta gains thinkingLevel, populated by StageSessionController.currentModelFallbackMeta() from the live session (or a pending level set before the session exists).
• executor-stage-factory's applyModelFallbackMeta writes it to StageSnapshot.thinkingLevel, next to the existing model field.
• The node card renders the compact <short-model> · <thinking> [fast] row via a small local codex-fast-label.ts — a mirror of the footer helper, kept local because importing the @bastani/atomic barrel into the TUI module graph breaks the pi-tui-mocked overlay test subprocesses.

Contract change

The node cards previously hid the model by design; this reverses that. The three tests pinning the old behavior are updated to assert the model row is shown, and the dependency-row assertions move down one row.

Tests

• node-card.test.ts: compact model row; thinking append/omit; fast marker on the model row (not the deps row); width-guard (drop the level to preserve fast); — when absent; mid-run fallback swap; geometry (NODE_H = 6).
• durable-dbos-topology.test.ts: model + thinking-level round-trip through the DBOS envelope (encode → decode).
• durable-stage-frontier-fixes.test.ts: cached-replay hydration restores thinkingLevel (checkpoint → snapshot).
• stage-runner-reasoning-suffix.test.ts: a 429 fallback surfaces the fallback model and thinking level on meta.
• bun run typecheck / lint / check:file-length clean; the overlay-graph-* and durable-* suites pass.

Notes

• Rebased onto the latest main.
• The only test:unit failures on this branch (MCP lazy-startup ×3 and the Pi v0.81.1 declarations and publish artifacts sync check) reproduce identically with these changes stashed on a clean tree — pre-existing and unrelated.

Greptile Summary

This PR shows workflow stage model identity on graph node cards and preserves it across resume. The main changes are:

• Adds a compact model row with thinking level and Codex fast tier to graph node cards.
• Threads thinkingLevel through live fallback metadata, task results, replay, and DBOS checkpoint encode/decode.
• Updates node-card layout height and tests for rendering, replay hydration, and fallback metadata.

Confidence Score: 5/5

This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk.

The changes consistently extend existing model metadata paths with thinkingLevel and include tests for DBOS round-trip, cached replay, executor replay, fallback metadata, and node-card rendering. No verified functional or security issues were found.

Files Needing Attention: No files require special attention.

T-Rex Logs

What T-Rex did

• Ran the focused Vitest test suite for the node-card workflow and confirmed 2 test files and 49 tests passed with exit code 0.
• Generated and wired a render harness that imports and executes the repository's TUI renderer modules.
• Rendered the node-card across all requested model/thinking/fast/fallback/em-dash/geometry cases and verified exit code 0.

_{Ran code and verified through T-Rex}

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
packages/workflows/src/tui/node-card.ts	Renders a compact model/thinking/fast row while keeping dependency metadata separate.
packages/workflows/src/runs/foreground/stage-runner-controller.ts	Adds current fallback metadata support for pending or live session thinking level.
packages/workflows/src/runs/foreground/executor-stage-factory.ts	Copies replay model identity into snapshots and applies live fallback thinkingLevel updates.
packages/workflows/src/durable/dbos-envelope.ts	Adds DBOS envelope encode/decode validation for thinkingLevel.
packages/workflows/src/durable/stage-primitive.ts	Propagates task and cached replay thinkingLevel metadata through checkpoint hydration.
test/unit/node-card.test.ts	Updates and expands node card rendering tests for model rows, thinking levels, fast marker preservation, and geometry.
test/unit/executor-replay-model-identity.test.ts	Adds tests for replayed stages retaining or omitting model identity as persisted.

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
  participant Stage as StageSessionController
  participant Factory as executor-stage-factory
  participant Store as StageSnapshot / Store
  participant DBOS as DBOS checkpoint envelope
  participant TUI as Graph node card

  Stage->>Stage: Resolve selected model + thinkingLevel + fastMode
  Stage-->>Factory: __modelFallbackMeta()
  Factory->>Store: Apply model, thinkingLevel, fastMode to StageSnapshot
  Store->>DBOS: encodeCheckpoint() persists metadata
  DBOS-->>Store: decode/hydrate on resume or replay
  Store-->>TUI: StageSnapshot model identity
  TUI->>TUI: Render compact model row under status

Loading

_{Reviews (13): Last reviewed commit: "fix(workflows): reserve the thinking lev..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[lavaman131]

Hey @sina85, thanks for the contribution. This looks like a very cool idea! For the background widget change can you make sure that parallel workflow stages with different models are intuitive to see? I think the graph node cards are cleaner since they can each show the model, but the background widget gets messy. Also, can you make sure you properly handle model fallbacks and change the model in the node card when that happens? Another edge case is to make sure you display (fast) for the model if using the fast tier for OpenAI providers. Finally, you need to make sure that when you run /workflow resume that this data is saved. If you give evidence for each of these will review again and we can look into getting this checked in for the next release.

[sina85]

Hi @lavaman131, thanks for the feedback, I will double check the edge cases and get back to you.

[sina85]

@lavaman131 thanks for the detailed review.

Update (edited): after the first pass I reconsidered your parallel point and removed the model/thinking display from the BACKGROUND widget entirely — you were right that a single per-run line gets messy for a parallel fan-out, and the widget isn't the place for it. That identity now lives only on the /workflow connect graph node cards (one card per stage, so each shows its own model). The PR now has zero net diff to widget.ts. Evidence for the node-card work + persistence below; all four of your points are addressed (point 1 by removal).

1. Parallel stages → handled by the graph node cards, not the widget

Per your observation, the widget was the wrong surface. Each stage gets its own node card, so parallel stages on different models are each shown cleanly, no cramming:

╭───── specialist ─────╮  ╭─────── scout ────────╮  ╭───── codex-fix ──────╮
│         12s          │  │          8s          │  │          8s          │
│      ● running       │  │      ● running       │  │      ● running       │
│claude-opus-4.8 · high│  │        gpt-5         │  │  gpt-5.1-codex fast  │
│         root         │  │         root         │  │         root         │
╰──────────────────────╯  ╰──────────────────────╯  ╰──────────────────────╯

2. Model fallbacks update the node card

The card renders from the live StageSnapshot.model, which applyModelFallbackMeta rewrites on every fallback, so the displayed model swaps to the model actually running. Proven on both halves of the chain:

• controller → meta: stage-runner-reasoning-suffix.test.ts now asserts that after a 429 fallback meta.model === "openai/fallback" (the fallback, not the failed primary).
• render: node-card.test.ts → "model row reflects a fallback swapping the stage's model mid-run" renders the same snapshot before/after the swap.

3. Fast tier shown with the model

Mirrors the footer's formatCodexFastModeModelLabel (<model> <thinking> fast). On the node card the fast marker sits on the model row (off the deps row); when the ~22‑cell card would overflow, the thinking level is dropped so the marker is never truncated:

fast tier on model row            width-guard (·high dropped, fast kept)
╭───── specialist ─────╮          ╭───── specialist ─────╮
│         12s          │          │         12s          │
│      ● running       │          │      ● running       │
│  gpt-5.1-codex fast  │          │  gpt-5.1-codex fast  │
│         root         │          │         root         │
╰──────────────────────╯          ╰──────────────────────╯

Tests: node‑card "shows the fast tier on the model row, not the deps row", "…keeps both the thinking level and the fast marker when they fit", "…drops the thinking level to preserve the fast marker when the card would overflow".

4. /workflow resume persists the data

Promoted the deferred follow‑up into this PR. thinkingLevel now rides alongside model at every serialize/restore site of the mandatory DBOS durable path — the DurableStageCheckpoint type, stage/task checkpoint metadata, the DBOS envelope encode/validate/decode, the completed‑run catalog merge, the checkpoint→snapshot hydration, and the replay __modelFallbackMeta (plus WorkflowTaskResult). Tests:

• durable-dbos-topology.test.ts → "round-trips stage model + thinking-level metadata through the DBOS envelope" (encode → decode).
• durable-stage-frontier-fixes.test.ts → the cached‑replay hydration test now asserts stage.thinkingLevel survives checkpoint → snapshot.

Verification

• bun run typecheck / bun run lint clean; bun run check:file-length passes. widget.ts and its test are reverted to upstream (zero widget diff); the shared codex-fast-label.ts stays for the node card, mirroring formatCodexFastModeModelLabel locally so the @bastani/atomic barrel never enters the TUI module graph (importing it breaks the pi-tui‑mocked overlay test subprocesses).
• Full test:unit is green apart from 4 pre‑existing failures (MCP lazy‑startup ×3 and the Pi v0.81.1 declarations and publish artifacts sync check), which reproduce identically with these changes stashed on a clean tree — unrelated to this PR.
• Rebased onto the latest main.

[greptile-apps]

Widget path missing
StageSnapshot.thinkingLevel is documented for background-run surfaces here, but packages/workflows/src/tui/widget.ts still builds its meta line only from mode, progress, and elapsed time (metaLine/themedRunLines), so the BACKGROUND widget never displays the model or thinking level promised by this PR. This leaves direct background runs opaque even when stageSnapshot.model and thinkingLevel are populated.

Context Used: AGENTS.md (source)

Artifacts

Repro: Bun TypeScript harness that renders the real BACKGROUND widget with populated stage model and thinkingLevel

• Contains supporting evidence from the run (text/typescript; charset=utf-8).

Repro: execution output showing the widget meta line omits model and thinking level

• Keeps the command output available without making the summary code-heavy.

_{Ran code and verified through T-Rex}

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: packages/workflows/src/shared/store-types.ts
Line: 215-219

Comment:
**Widget path missing**
`StageSnapshot.thinkingLevel` is documented for background-run surfaces here, but `packages/workflows/src/tui/widget.ts` still builds its meta line only from `mode`, progress, and elapsed time (`metaLine`/`themedRunLines`), so the `BACKGROUND` widget never displays the model or thinking level promised by this PR. This leaves direct background runs opaque even when `stageSnapshot.model` and `thinkingLevel` are populated.

**Context Used:** AGENTS.md ([source](https://app.greptile.com/bastani-inc/github/bastani-inc/atomic/-/custom-context?memory=6b6bc6e3-dafb-4fa7-9d98-538aac70844a))

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

[lavaman131]

Hey @sina85, can you address the review bot (Greptile) feedback and rebase with the latest origin/main. Otherwise, once you do that, looks great and we can check it in pending CI is green.

[flora131]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I just had a chance to check this after the latest commits. I really appreciate the contribution.

I verified the exact PR head (23eb0c23eb5881c102b78585387c20979d702d62) using the local Atomic CLI in tmux and found three blockers:

1. The new replay test suite does not load under the repository’s test runner.

   test/unit/executor-replay-model-identity.test.ts:14 imports describe from bun:test, but root unit tests run under Node/Vitest.

   Repro:

   npx vitest --run --project unit \
     test/unit/node-card.test.ts \
     test/unit/executor-replay-model-identity.test.ts \
     test/unit/durable-dbos-topology.test.ts \
     test/unit/durable-stage-frontier-fixes.test.ts \
     test/unit/stage-runner-reasoning-suffix.test.ts \
     test/unit/overlay-graph-perf.test.ts

   Result:

   Cannot find package 'bun:test'
   

   Please use the repository’s Vitest imports so the two new replay tests execute.

2. A long configured Codex model name truncates the required fast marker.

   Rendering openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex-spark in fast mode produces:

   │gpt-5.3-codex-spark f…│
   

   The model comes from the configured catalog. The card should reserve enough room for the full fast marker, truncating the model name first if needed. Please add a regression test for this long-name case.

3. The changed files fail the repository’s Biome gate.

   npm run check reports five formatting/import errors in the new or modified files, including indentation, import order, and comment spacing. Please format the branch and rerun the check.

The core behavior otherwise worked in manual testing: model and thinking rows appeared in /workflow connect, off was omitted, unresolved identity showed —, the six-row layout remained readable, and same-process /workflow resume retained the model and thinking level.

Please rerun the focused tests and npm run check after addressing these items.

[flora131]

By the way, you can also ask Atomic to verify your PR directly. For example:

Can you run a workflow to verify this PR? Check out the exact PR head in an isolated worktree, run that checkout’s local Atomic CLI inside a tmux session, and manually test the behavior covered by the PR. Please run the relevant automated checks as well. If you find any bugs, document each one with reproduction steps, expected and actual behavior, and return the findings inline when the workflow completes.

PR: #1859

You can ask to attach evidence to this PR or even change the prompt to automatically apply the fixes.

[sina85]

By the way, you can also ask Atomic to verify your PR directly. For example:

Can you run a workflow to verify this PR? Check out the exact PR head in an isolated worktree, run that checkout’s local Atomic CLI inside a tmux session, and manually test the behavior covered by the PR. Please run the relevant automated checks as well. If you find any bugs, document each one with reproduction steps, expected and actual behavior, and return the findings inline when the workflow completes.
PR: #1859

Thanks for replying, I will run those changes and update the PR.

[sina85]

@flora131 thank you — all three were spot on, and the bun:test one in particular was a real gap. Fixed in 15ac7c14.

1. Replay test now loads under Vitest

test/unit/executor-replay-model-identity.test.ts:14 imported describe from bun:test; switched it to vitest. It runs and passes under the repo runner now.

2. Long model name truncates first, fast marker is preserved

modelText now drops the thinking level first, then truncates the model name, reserving the whole fast marker. Actual render of openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex-spark in fast mode:

before:  │gpt-5.3-codex-spark f…│
after:   │gpt-5.3-codex-sp… fast│

Short names are unchanged (│ gpt-5.1-codex fast │). Added a regression test: "keeps the full fast marker and truncates a long model name instead of the marker."

3. Biome gate is clean

Ran biome check --write (tabs in codex-fast-label.ts, import order in node-card.ts and the test). npm run check now passes.

Verification (the exact commands you gave)

$ npm run check
Checked 2340 files … No fixes applied.     # biome
tsc --noEmit                                # clean
npm-shrinkwrap.json is up to date.          # shrinkwrap
→ exit 0

$ npx vitest --run --project unit \
    test/unit/node-card.test.ts \
    test/unit/executor-replay-model-identity.test.ts \
    test/unit/durable-dbos-topology.test.ts \
    test/unit/durable-stage-frontier-fixes.test.ts \
    test/unit/stage-runner-reasoning-suffix.test.ts \
    test/unit/overlay-graph-perf.test.ts
 Test Files  6 passed (6)
      Tests  68 passed (68)

Also appreciate the tip on driving Atomic to verify a PR in an isolated worktree/tmux — I'll use that flow next time so the runner/gate mismatch doesn't slip through again. Ready for another look when you have a chance.

[flora131]

Recorded a hands-on run of this PR on a local build of the head commit (15ac7c1), driving the Atomic TUI in a tmux session and inspecting the /workflow connect graph node cards. Attaching the screen recording of that session for reference.

pr1859-review.mp4

[flora131]

Thanks for the fix here. While testing this PR's exact head (15ac7c14c3441ad399b9d08f17ba961f2f531edd) in the real Atomic TUI, I found one issue with the new model/thinking-level row:

Thinking levels can be truncated or omitted for normal model IDs.

Repro:

1. Run workflow stages with models such as anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5:high and anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929:medium.
2. Open the workflow graph with F2.
3. Inspect the model row on each stage card.

Expected: the effective model and full thinking level remain identifiable.

Actual:

• claude-haiku-4-5 · high renders as claude-haiku-4-5 · hi….
• The longer Sonnet model renders as claude-sonnet-4-5-202…, with medium omitted entirely.

It looks like the 22-cell card interior applies the model-row width budget only in fast mode; otherwise the generic card truncation can consume the thinking level. The attached test video shows this around 1:24–1:40.

Are you able to reproduce this as well? If so, could the row reserve space for the thinking level before truncating the model name?

[sina85]

@flora131 reproduced it exactly — thanks, and good catch. My earlier fix only reserved space in fast mode, so for ordinary models the generic 22-cell truncation ate the thinking level. Fixed in 6cb25927.

modelText now treats the thinking level and the fast marker as one load-bearing suffix and always truncates the model name first, in every mode (not just fast). Actual renders on the exact head:

before                          after
claude-haiku-4-5 · hi…          claude-haiku-4… · high
claude-sonnet-4-5-202…          claude-sonne… · medium

And the combined + short cases stay correct:

gpt-5.1-c… · high fast     (fast + level overflow: both kept)
gpt-5.3-codex-sp… fast     (fast, long name: marker kept)
claude-opus-4.8 · high     (fits: unchanged)
gpt-5.1-codex fast         (fits: unchanged)

Added two regression tests: the non-fast long-name case (· high / · medium survive) and the combined level+fast overflow.

Verified with the real gates:

$ npm run check      → exit 0  (biome clean · tsc clean · shrinkwrap up to date)
$ npx vitest --run --project unit  <the six focused files>
 Test Files  6 passed (6)
      Tests  70 passed (70)

Ready for another look. (Also — appreciate you recording the TUI run; that's a much better signal than my earlier headless checks, and it caught exactly what I missed.)

[greptile-apps]

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