feat(chat): view context — tell the assistant what you're looking at

An eye next to the paperclip shares what the user has open with their next
message: the page, the folder being browsed, the file open in the viewer and
any highlighted passage (line numbers where a source view exists), plus which
entity a detail page is about. The bag is client-authored {label, value} pairs
in English — the backend only clamps (chars, never bytes), neutralizes the
harness tag and renders one <system-extra> block per message, deduped
consecutively so it appears exactly when the view changed. On by default,
per-device toggle, hover/tap to preview, a chip on every sent message;
docs/view-context.md for users, an updated harness.md clause for the model.

crates/agent-loop/src/context.rs

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ use crate::activation::ActivationSource;
 use crate::ids::{ConversationId, FrameId};
 use crate::model::ModelInfo;
 use crate::projection::{
-    MediaSource, Projection, ProjectionHooks, ResultLimit, ToolResultDigest,
+    MediaSource, MessageExtras, Projection, ProjectionHooks, ResultLimit, ToolResultDigest,
 };
 use crate::store::HistoryStore;
 
@@ -157,6 +157,13 @@ impl LinearAssembler {
         self
     }
 
+    /// Text appended to each user/agent message (skipped media paths, the view
+    /// the message was sent from…). One hook, one block — see [`MessageExtras`].
+    pub fn with_extras(mut self, src: Arc<dyn MessageExtras>) -> Self {
+        self.hooks.extras = Some(src);
+        self
+    }
+
     /// How an over-long tool result is condensed.
     pub fn with_digest(mut self, digest: Arc<dyn ToolResultDigest>) -> Self {
         self.hooks.digest = Some(digest);

crates/agent-loop/src/projection/mod.rs

@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@
 //!
 //! What the host owns: the **content** — the system prompt layers
 //! ([`crate::context::SystemContextSource`]), which media a message may inline
-//! ([`MediaSource`]) and how an over-long tool result is condensed
+//! ([`MediaSource`]), what extra text rides along with a message
+//! ([`MessageExtras`]) and how an over-long tool result is condensed
 //! ([`ToolResultDigest`]). Everything is optional: with no hooks at all the
 //! projection is a complete, correct OpenAI-shaped conversation.
 //!
@@ -134,15 +135,36 @@ pub trait MediaSource: Send + Sync {
     async fn call_media(&self, _calls: &[StoredCall]) -> Vec<Arc<dyn MediaBlob>> {
         Vec::new()
     }
-    /// Text appended to the message for the media that did NOT make it (a path
-    /// list, so the agent can still reach them with a tool).
+}
+
+/// Text appended to a user/agent message — the harness-generated tail a host
+/// wants the model to read alongside what the person typed (skipped attachment
+/// paths, the view the message was sent from, …).
+///
+/// **Its own hook, not a `MediaSource` method**, because it must run for every
+/// message, media or none: as a media method it was only ever reachable from
+/// inside the "this message has blobs" branch, so a message carrying nothing but
+/// non-media extras rendered nothing at all.
+///
+/// The crate does not wrap or frame what comes back — it appends the string
+/// verbatim, leading newlines included. Whatever block structure the host wants
+/// (`<system-extra>`…) is the host's, which is also why there is exactly **one**
+/// call per message: two hooks would mean two blocks.
+#[async_trait]
+pub trait MessageExtras: Send + Sync {
+    /// `msg` is the message being projected; `prev` is the previous `User`/`Agent`
+    /// message of the projected history (`None` for the first one, and after a
+    /// compaction or a window cut), which lets a host suppress a repeat.
     ///
-    /// `skipped` are **positions in the vector `message_media` just returned**
-    /// for this message, so the host can map them back to whatever it built
-    /// them from.
-    fn skipped_text(&self, _msg: &StoredMessage, _skipped: &[usize]) -> Option<String> {
-        None
-    }
+    /// `skipped` are **positions in the vector [`MediaSource::message_media`]
+    /// returned** for this message — empty when the message has no media at all,
+    /// so a host must not read it as "nothing was left out of a media message".
+    async fn appended_text(
+        &self,
+        msg:     &StoredMessage,
+        prev:    Option<&StoredMessage>,
+        skipped: &[usize],
+    ) -> Option<String>;
 }
 
 /// How an over-long tool result is condensed. The crate decides *when*
@@ -159,6 +181,7 @@ pub trait ToolResultDigest: Send + Sync {
 pub struct ProjectionHooks {
     pub activation: Option<Arc<dyn ActivationSource>>,
     pub media:      Option<Arc<dyn MediaSource>>,
+    pub extras:     Option<Arc<dyn MessageExtras>>,
     pub digest:     Option<Arc<dyn ToolResultDigest>>,
 }
 
@@ -213,10 +236,18 @@ pub async fn project(
         window(&mut history, max);
     }
 
-    // 4. The conversation.
+    // 4. The conversation. `prev` trails one message behind so `MessageExtras`
+    //    can compare a message with the last thing the person said — carried as a
+    //    running reference rather than an `rposition` per message (same answer,
+    //    linear) and deliberately not put on `HistoryCtx`, which would drag a
+    //    `&[StoredMessage]` lifetime through the whole type for nothing.
     let ctx = HistoryCtx::new(&history, cfg, hooks, input).await?;
+    let mut prev: Option<&StoredMessage> = None;
     for (idx, entry) in history.iter().enumerate() {
-        ctx.project_message(&mut out, idx, entry).await;
+        ctx.project_message(&mut out, idx, entry, prev).await;
+        if matches!(entry.role, Role::User | Role::Agent) {
+            prev = Some(entry);
+        }
     }
 
     // 5. Dynamic tail — the fresh layers, as ONE trailing system message so a
@@ -313,37 +344,57 @@ impl<'a> HistoryCtx<'a> {
         })
     }
 
-    async fn project_message(&self, out: &mut Vec<Value>, idx: usize, entry: &StoredMessage) {
+    async fn project_message(
+        &self,
+        out:   &mut Vec<Value>,
+        idx:   usize,
+        entry: &StoredMessage,
+        prev:  Option<&StoredMessage>,
+    ) {
         match entry.role {
             // System messages are BUILT (layers 1-2), never replayed from the
             // store; a host that stores them gets them back verbatim.
             Role::System => out.push(json!({ "role": "system", "content": entry.content })),
-            Role::User | Role::Agent => self.push_user(out, idx, entry).await,
+            Role::User | Role::Agent => self.push_user(out, idx, entry, prev).await,
             Role::Assistant => self.push_assistant(out, idx, entry).await,
         }
     }
 
-    /// A user/agent message: text plus, for the current turn, inlined media.
-    async fn push_user(&self, out: &mut Vec<Value>, idx: usize, entry: &StoredMessage) {
+    /// A user/agent message: text, the host's appended extras, and — for the
+    /// current turn — inlined media.
+    async fn push_user(
+        &self,
+        out:   &mut Vec<Value>,
+        idx:   usize,
+        entry: &StoredMessage,
+        prev:  Option<&StoredMessage>,
+    ) {
         let mut text = entry.content.clone();
         let mut parts: Vec<Value> = Vec::new();
+        let mut skipped: Vec<usize> = Vec::new();
 
         if let Some(src) = &self.hooks.media {
             let blobs = src.message_media(entry).await;
             if !blobs.is_empty() {
                 // Older turns keep the textual path: everything is "skipped".
-                let (inlined, skipped) = if idx >= self.media_turn_start {
+                let (inlined, left_out) = if idx >= self.media_turn_start {
                     media::partition(&blobs, &self.model.capabilities, &self.cfg.media).await
                 } else {
                     (Vec::new(), (0..blobs.len()).collect())
                 };
-                if let Some(extra) = src.skipped_text(entry, &skipped) {
-                    text.push_str(&extra);
-                }
+                skipped = left_out;
                 parts = inlined;
             }
         }
 
+        // Outside the media branch on purpose: extras are not a media feature,
+        // and a message with none must still get its block.
+        if let Some(x) = &self.hooks.extras
+            && let Some(extra) = x.appended_text(entry, prev, &skipped).await
+        {
+            text.push_str(&extra);
+        }
+
         push_user_chunk(out, text, parts);
     }