Readable Agent Activity

Formatted, highlighted tool-call JSON. Twenty-line previews. Recognizable tool icons.

Version 0.1.0-beta.11 · Release notes · Paseo 0.8 or later, checked through SDK 0.11.4. Tool cards need Full detail; a Command Center action switches to native tool rows for Summary.

What it does

• One Input / Output view for ordinary tools and codex-conversion.
• Format and syntax-highlight JSON. Non-JSON text stays readable; source-only JavaScript inputs render in place.
• Preview at most 20 displayed lines per section, including automatic wrapping. One Show all / Show less control expands or collapses both sections. No Raw/Copy toolbar or extra explanations.
• Keep tool-specific icons and the host's running/failed/canceled status.
• Show the call's own main argument after the tool name on the collapsed header, such as the shell command or file path: one literal value, first line only, in muted monospace. It gives way before the tool name on narrow layouts.
• Keep expansion manual through streaming and theme updates. Text is selectable with real newline characters for normal device copying.

Thinking uses a minimal matching foldable header to keep alternating tool/Thinking rows compact. Its body is selectable original text, with twenty-line preview and Show all, without Markdown interpretation. Messages, approvals and the composer stay native. The plugin does not generate summaries, infer nested calls, rebuild diffs or add settings screens.

Before and after

Each pair uses the same synthetic input and output: original Paseo 0.8.0 reference on the left, this plugin on the right. These are real renderer components in a browser preview, not app/device captures. Screenshot provenance and limits.

Formatted, highlighted JSON

A serialized JSON result becomes an indented, colored structure.

Source code without the JSON wrapper

A source-only exec input displays as code; a pure text result displays its JSON content. Extra metadata and attachment fields are preserved when present.

Twenty-line preview for long output

Non-JSON output stays plain text. Activity shows the first twenty lines and offers one Show all for the complete result; wrapped long lines are bounded too.

Data and limits

JSON strings are formatted by changing whitespace only: number spellings, duplicate keys, key order and escapes remain intact. Structured objects are already decoded data.

Only a source-only code input and a pure single-text content envelope are unwrapped. Extra input parameters, metadata, traces, unknown blocks and attachment data remain visible in the formatted JSON. Arbitrary nested strings are not recursively decoded. Native typed details receive a thin Input/Output adaptation; supplied edit fields are retained, not replaced with a reconstructed diff.

Show all displays the complete received representation, not an inferred summary. It cannot restore data already omitted upstream. The preview first takes twenty source lines, then clips wrapping to twenty line-heights. It is not independently scrollable; Show all removes both limits. There is no additional 4,000-character preview cap.

Formatting work is capped at 1,000,000 input/output characters, with bounded indentation; larger or malformed text remains intact as literal text. Highlighting is capped at 100,000 characters. Source serialization, long-line layout and Show all can still be expensive for large payloads, particularly a single very long line. This is not a zero-lag guarantee. Virtual-list remounts reset local disclosure state.

Conversion compatibility · Verification

Compatibility

Paseo 0.8.0 or later · tool cards need Full detail · experimental beta. Beta.9 passes its checks with SDK 0.9.2, 0.10.1 and 0.11.2 and pinned 0.8.0/0.9.2 host fixtures. No live 0.11 daemon was tested. Beta.8 rendered live on a 0.10.0-beta.1 daemon in the hosted web client with Full detail. The manifest sets only a minimum, >=0.8.0, as Paseo recommends; later releases are not tested.

Paseo 0.8 groups Summary calls before running plugin transformers. Its public API exposes neither the display mode nor group members. An enabled replacement can hide the native group's entry point; this plugin cannot automatically fall back.

Paseo 0.9 and 0.10.0-beta.1 transform each original call before Summary grouping. All calls now remain visible, but plugin cards bypass grouping. Native plan/approval tools pass through, preserving host suppression and expandable plan cards. No display-mode API is available in any tested version, so the plugin cannot switch by itself.

Switching between cards and native rows

Open the Command Center on the client you are using and choose:

• Activity: use native tool rows (for Summary) before selecting Summary. Tool calls return to native rows, so Summary groups them again; Thinking keeps its compact row.
• Activity: use tool cards (Full detail) to restore the cards.

The choice applies only to that client and is not saved: tool cards return whenever the plugin loads again, for example after an app reload. Switch each client separately. The plugin does not detect or change the host display preference and does not inspect private app state. With cards active, Summary shows every call ungrouped on 0.9+ and can hide the group entry on 0.8. Do not enable two plugins replacing the same tool-call timeline items.

Pinned 0.9.2 host-pipeline tests show that native rows regroup existing history and that cards come back ungrouped. On a live 0.10.1 daemon in the hosted web client, the commands regrouped an existing conversation in Summary and restored the cards. 0.8 re-rendering after a switch is untested; reload the conversation if rows do not change. Hermes engine tests and compact browser previews are not on-device mobile UI tests. Compatibility evidence.

Install and local development

Plugins are trusted, unsandboxed code. This plugin is client-only and uses public SDK modules, React Native primitives and host theme colors. It has no runtime network, filesystem, process or daemon-side behavior. Contributions unregister on cleanup.

On Paseo 0.11 or later, install the reviewed registry entry on the intended daemon. Its registry ID is geoqiao/agent-activity; the installed plugin ID stays readable-agent-activity:

paseo plugin add geoqiao/agent-activity --host <your-host>

To install the published npm package directly:

paseo plugin add npm:paseo-readable-agent-activity@0.1.0-beta.11 --host <your-host>

Paseo installs the package's two runtime dependencies, prism-react-renderer and @getpaseo/protocol, from its npm-shrinkwrap.json; both are compiled into the client bundle. The package's manifest has no build steps. The paseo-plugin.json in the Git source keeps them: they install the development dependencies and run the checks.

To install the pinned prerelease directly from Git instead:

paseo plugin add git:geoqiao/paseo-stuff:plugins/agent-activity --ref readable-agent-activity-v0.1.0-beta.11 --host <your-host>

Paseo 0.11 reads a bare owner/name source as a registry ID, so the git: prefix is required there. Paseo CLIs before 0.11 take the same Git source without the prefix.

Installation enables the plugin with tool cards active. Review its source/trust requirements, then use Full detail or switch to native tool rows first. Do not create a duplicate installation. Existing installations may use a runtime alias such as colorful-agent-activity; manage that existing ID. Repository migration notes.

For local development, run from the plugin directory (Node.js 22+):

npm ci --ignore-scripts --legacy-peer-deps --no-audit --no-fund
npm run check
# Only if the existing installation is enabled:
paseo plugin reload <existing-runtime-id> --host <your-host>
paseo plugin ls --host <your-host>

Preserve disabled installations; do not auto-enable them. No daemon restart is needed. Tests cover formatter fidelity, malformed/large data, complete output, text selection, manual disclosure, streaming, icons, theme colors, the Hermes bundle and pinned host projection. Native iOS/Android UI and the complete reconnect matrix remain unverified.

Credits

An MIT fork of Matt Cowger's Colorful Agent Activity. Original copyright retained: LICENSE, provenance. Vendored Paseo test fixtures retain their separate Apache-2.0 license.

The three comparison images show beta.6. Earlier screenshots remain in historical release tags. Published on npm as paseo-readable-agent-activity from 0.1.0-beta.11. paseo.cafe submission and migration status.