Compact tool call output, expandable on demand
@jbeda is already working on this.
Since Sep 11, 2026.
- Dominant language
- Go
- Stars
- 152
- Forks
- 16
- Avg merge
- 14h 48m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 536
Description
Problem
Tool call output dominates mecatui's conversation view. Usually you don't need to see what a tool call did in that much detail, and the big blocks make the actual conversation hard to follow — reported as the single biggest reason mecatl's output feels harder to follow than other tools; what the agent is doing gets lost.
Scale makes it worse: runs regularly hit tens or 100+ tool calls depending on the model. Shrinking individual cards won't fix that — consecutive tool calls need to compact into a single line.
But they shouldn't disappear either. Early visibility is how users build trust in the agent: when switching models or trying a new process, you want to watch for it going off the rails. Once comfortable, the same output is noise. The UI has to scale across both ends.
Ideas discussed
- Compact consecutive tool calls into a single line (the core fix).
- Clickable tool cards — expand one at a time.
- Click through to a tool-call summary/detail view for real exploration.
- Not all tool calls are equal: file edits might always show the diff. Per-tool display rules, not one policy.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Assessment
This issue has not been assessed yet.