[teamleaderleo]

Reduce Motion now stops every repeating animation in cmux NEXT, native and web. A new setting, Status indicators: Animated / Static, swaps pulsing and blinking status lights for steady shapes (cx-sya4n). Austin gets headaches from the pulsing lights.

What changed

• Setting: appearance.statusIndicator.animation takes animated (the default, unchanged look) or static. It is under Settings > Appearance > Loading Indicator > Status Indicators. Reduce Motion forces Static.

  • Which default NEXT should ship is a needs-a-call: Status lights: Reduce Motion and a Static mode, NEXT default and classic plan #20403 proposes Static.

• Static, native: each state has a steady shape, so states differ without color:

  • working: solid dot
  • busy: arc
  • paused: outlined circle
  • waiting: !
  • permission: hand
  • question: question bubble
  • sign-in: key
  • error: circled ✕
  • done: ✓

  Short labels are tooltip and VoiceOver text only; sidebar rows get no new visible text. The attention ring uses the steady style, which matches Leo's call to make steady the attention default.

• Static, web (agent pane): these stop: the mic, model-picker and harness spinners, the floating breathe, the Thinking sweep (its text stays muted), the reply caret, the jump-to-latest dots and the writing marker. Color-only marks get their own shapes (triangle, ✓, ✕, dot, ring) and accessible labels in every mode.

• Reduce Motion also stills Home's caret and typing dots, the update and import spinners, and the diff base-picker spinner.

• Blink cap in every mode: nothing flashes faster than about 2 Hz (MotionLoop.minimumPeriod). The flash is 1.0 s and the pulse 0.5 s.

• Motion kit for late content (asked for by cx-next-handoff):

  • Web: webviews/src/ui/motion.ts + motion.css provide spring tokens (linear()), reveal (a fade plus a 3 px rise), crossfade, and stagger (25 ms steps, at most 4 items).
  • Native: Motion.stagger(index:) and Motion.reveal(_:).
  • Under Reduce Motion both are a plain fade with no stagger. The "Late content" section of plans/cmux-next/motion.md documents them.

• Classic is unchanged. Its audit and a needs-a-call note for Austin are in Status lights: Reduce Motion and a Static mode, NEXT default and classic plan #20403.

Testing

Red, then green: the failing tests were committed first.

• Web:
  • webviews/test/static-status-loops.test.ts asserts that under Static or Reduce Motion, document.getAnimations() finds no running infinite animation.
  • motion-kit.test.ts covers the kit.
  • Red: run 38524527894 (1fb2d2d), with 4 static-status-loops failures and 3 motion-kit failures. Green: run 38528233410 (395e046).
• Swift:
  • ReduceMotionLoopTests covers no running CAAnimation loops under Reduce Motion. StaticStatusIndicatorTests covers distinct shapes per state. BlinkRateCapTests covers the 2 Hz cap.
  • Red: fleet step 0432026f, a compile failure (the new API is missing). Green: step 0c4def9a.
• On the final head c98fa57:
  • Fleet Swift suites: 293 passed, 0 failed.
  • Release compile: fleet step 22fd4288, BUILD SUCCEEDED.
  • Settings exports were regenerated on the merged head. gen-strings --check is clean. Catalogs and exports only add lines; none were deleted.
  • Locally: check-motion, crash_ratchet, system-blue, type-scale and text-focus pass. God files: none of these files grew.
• Captures: real cmux NEXT DEV builds on a fleet capture slot, base on the left and head on the right. Host names are blurred. I watched them.
  • Chat after a turn in Animated, Static and Reduce Motion. In Static and Reduce Motion, nothing on the head side loops except the system text caret in the composer (see Left over).
  • The sidebar and attention ring in Animated vs Static.

Captures

In each clip, base is on the left and head on the right. In order: chat in Static, chat under Reduce Motion, the attention ring in Static, then a still of the Static shapes.

plan gif 20511/chat-static.gif (from chat-static.mp4)
plan video 20511/chat-static.mp4
plan gif 20511/chat-reduce.gif (from chat-reduce.mp4)
plan video 20511/chat-reduce.mp4
plan gif 20511/clip-attention-static.gif (from clip-attention-static.mp4)
plan video 20511/clip-attention-static.mp4
plan image 20511/still-static.png
uploaded 20511/chat-static.gif
uploaded 20511/chat-static.mp4
uploaded 20511/chat-reduce.gif
uploaded 20511/chat-reduce.mp4
uploaded 20511/clip-attention-static.gif
uploaded 20511/clip-attention-static.mp4
uploaded 20511/still-static.png

Full quality: chat-static.mp4

Full quality: chat-reduce.mp4

Full quality: clip-attention-static.mp4

Left over

• The composer's text-input caret still blinks, at about 1 Hz. That is the system caret.
• The floating, summary and jump dots don't appear in the live captures. The browser test covers them.
• Base reds this PR does not touch: react-apps-check check:layers on summary.css (from d77476f), main-thread concurrency in ControlWorkspaceInfoCache.swift, and PaneAnimationsSetting in the package conventions lint.

Changelog

Added: a Status indicators setting (Animated / Static); Reduce Motion now stops every looping animation, and nothing blinks faster than 2 Hz.

Light and dark, base vs head (real cmux NEXT DEV builds of the merge-base and this head, on a capture mini; host name blurred). Each sheet has three columns: base (animated), Status indicators = Static, and Reduce Motion. The rows are the sidebar status rows at 2x, the tab strip and the attention-ring corner. The clips put the sidebar and tabs side by side: on base the spinners turn, and on head with Static or Reduce Motion they are a still dot. In the attention clip a notification arrives: base flashes the ring and head shows a steady one. Pixel diffs of the head recordings show nothing moving except the composer's system caret. The "Release notes" row's subtitle differs only because of when the tabs were seeded. The set has no running agent turn; the chat clips above cover the web Thinking sweep and the reply caret.

Showcase

Open the live gallery

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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[github-actions]

red: web / Web status; do not merge until green; see lane-rules
red: web / react-apps-check; do not merge until green; see lane-rules

[github-actions]

Unclear: web / react-apps-check failed: no known signature; failed step: Check webviews (Oxlint, Oxfmt, type check).

CI failed on c6d04a7804 (run 38537675544 attempt 1): 1 unknown.
macOS jobs did not run: compile and app tests were skipped: Fast static checks skipped.

Job	Verdict	Why
web / react-apps-check	unknown	no known signature; failed step: Check webviews (Oxlint, Oxfmt, type check)

Not re-run automatically: web / react-apps-check is not a machine failure.

Written by scripts/ci/classify_failures.py (ci-failure-attribution.yml); signatures are its SIGNATURES table. A machine verdict is the runner's fault, not this PR's; yours means the failing file is one this PR changes, also red on main that main's latest full suite fails the same way, seen on other PRs that it failed on another pull request's run lately.

[github-actions]

CI fast guards failed on c6d04a7804 (https://github.com/manaflow-ai/cmux/actions/runs/38537675544). It does not block the merge; a red guard merged into main breaks it for every open PR.
The log named no failed step; see the run.

Agents: python3 scripts/ci/guard_attribution.py fix applies the mechanical fixes locally. This comment is updated in place on each push.

[blacksmith-sh]

Found 1 test failure on Blacksmith runners:

Failure

Test	View Logs
convention violations found (ERROR lines above)./ convention violations found (ERROR lines above).	View Logs

^{Need help on this PR? Tag @codesmith-bot with what you need.}

[github-actions]

cmux-next tour of c6d04a7804fadafe777ba1d8e95fa2a2e536c6fe (run)

The tour job failed before the tour ran (build or setup); the run log has the output.

The tour produced no media.

_{Tours are data in scripts/cmux-next/media/tours: add a step or a tour file to show your feature.}

[teamleaderleo]

Split plan

Compared with origin/feat-cmux-next at c15ae68 (merge base 4d45234, 3,258 commits behind). Nothing in this PR has landed as-is. Two things on feat-cmux-next overlap it:

• CmuxNext: Codex-like status icons by default, plus static status glyphs #20410 added StaticStatusGlyph and a StatusIconSet.still set: one still shape per state, which the Debug status-icons switch can pick. Its commit names StaticStatusGlyph(state)?.plan as "the hook for the Static setting". This PR's StatusIndicatorPlan.stillPlan (dot, arc, hand, key and so on) is a second, competing still set. Decided (Leo): Static draws CmuxNext: Codex-like status icons by default, plus static status glyphs #20410's StaticStatusGlyph set (StatusIconSet.still) by default. This PR's stillPlan shapes stay available behind a Debug tunable, following the existing status.* tunable pattern.
• The motion rewrite (4b5cf67) changed the springs: appear went from 0.18/0.9 to 0.135/1, and move and settle changed too. The web kit's linear() easings and its 167 ms reveal were sampled from the old springs, so they need re-sampling before that slice lands.

What's in the diff

• Generated or churn, about 1,915 lines in 10 files:

  • the two Localizable.xcstrings (1,716)
  • settings/generated/strings.json (84)
  • settings-schema.json (71)
  • the mdm docs (28)
  • localization-allowed-omissions.json (12)
  • schemas/defaults and ci-target-graph.json. The defaults diff also carries a stale chromeStyle line.

  All of this is regenerated inside the slice that adds the setting.

• Real change, about 1,240 lines in 56 files, of which about 630 are tests.

Slices, in landing order. Each one is cut from feat-cmux-next and stands on its own.

1. 2 Hz blink cap: cmux-next: nothing flashes faster than twice a second (cx-sya4n) #21633.
   • Files: MotionLoop.minimumPeriod and shortestFlashCycle, the flash default of 1.0 s, the flash verb's keyframes, BlinkRateCapTests (in CmuxNextDesignTests), and the motion.md and design-tokens rows.
   • 7 files.
2. Late-content motion kit, native and web:
   • Files: Motion+Reveal.swift (reveal and stagger; drop the cmux NEXT: live resize content follows the window edge every frame #20467 TODO, since animatesMovement already covers live resize), webviews/src/ui/motion.ts and motion.css with re-sampled easings, the ui.css import, the README section, the kit half of motion-kit.test.ts, a Design test for reveal and stagger, and motion.md "Late content".
   • About 9 files.
   • Deferred: nothing uses the kit yet, and its easings are stale. Carve it later, once a surface needs it.
3. Reduce Motion stills Home and the spinners (native):
   • Files: the MessagesLab reducesMotion pins and their three vendored edits plus patches and README, HomeReduceMotion with its two install sites, UpdateSheetView, the ImportProfileRow comment, Package.swift and ci-target-graph test deps, and the Home half of ReduceMotionLoopTests.
   • About 15 files.
4. Web loop stops:
   • Files: theme.ts and types.ts (the statusIndicators theme key becomes data-status-indicators), the CSS rules in conversation, harnesses, acpmux styles, summary, home-channels and styles.css (the diff base-picker stops under Reduce Motion), the SubagentStack tooltip, static-status-loops.test.ts, and the theme half of motion-kit.test.ts.
   • About 11 files.
   • The attribute does nothing natively until slice 6.
5. Status indicators setting (Animated / Static):
   • Files: StatusIndicatorAnimation, StatusIndicatorSettings.animation, the parser and the schema descriptor, StatusIndicatorConfig.isStatic, and StatusIndicatorPlan.make(isStatic:). Static draws StatusIconSet.still (CmuxNext: Codex-like status icons by default, plus static status glyphs #20410's glyphs) by default; a Debug tunable switches it to this PR's stillPlan shapes.
   • Also all the regenerated files from the list above: schema, defaults, mdm docs, xcstrings, strings.json and omissions.
   • About 14 files. The localization audit runs here.
6. Static everywhere:
   • Files: shortLabel with its tooltip and VoiceOver label (StatusIndicatorState+Label, StatusIndicatorView+Label), the tab badge, indicator and accessibility wiring, the steady attention ring in Motion+Attention, AgentPaneTheme and AgentPaneView sending statusIndicators, StaticStatusIndicatorTests, the indicator half of ReduceMotionLoopTests, and status-indicators.md.
   • About 12 files.

Once slices 3 to 6 are open, close this PR. Its captures and test receipts are on the old base.

Opened, each cut from feat-cmux-next:

Slice	PR	What it ships
1	#21633	the 2 Hz blink cap
3	#21654	Reduce Motion stills Home's caret and typing dots, and the update spinner
4	#21657	the web loop stops; WebTheme and the agent pane theme send data-status-indicators
5a	#21659 (merged)	the static look in CmuxNextDesign: on under Reduce Motion, drawing the Static set's glyphs, with status.static.shapes as the Debug toggle
5b	#21662	the Settings row (Animated / Static) and its strings; stacked on #21659
6	#21664	Static everywhere: tabs, the attention ring, the agent pane theme, and the tooltip and VoiceOver labels; stacked on #21659

Slice 2 (the motion kit) is deferred.

Follow-up slice, not started (found in review of #21664): StatusIndicatorView is an accessibility element only for spinner(). So the label that nameState() sets (StatusIndicatorView+Label.swift) probably isn't read in sidebar rows. VoiceOver needs the row (or the view) to expose it. That needs a small slice of its own with a VoiceOver check. #21664 keeps its reviewed head.

Follow-up nit, not started (found in review of #21654): remove the Reduce Motion notification observers in deinit, following AgentPaneView.swift:321. They're the motionObservers in MessagesLabHomeView.swift:32 and CmuxSidebarView.swift:146. Today they capture self weakly, so a closed view's turn does nothing, but the tokens stay registered.

Once these land, these two follow-ups are the only things left from this PR.

[teamleaderleo]

Already landed in pieces: #21662 (Status Indicators setting), #21657 (web loops stop under Reduce Motion), #21659, #21664 and #21654 (cx-sya4n). Closing.