From 2467a103b243dac687273edfb7cb56970e187633 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shadow <shadow@clawd.bot>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2026 21:29:15 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] TUI: keep streamed text when final output is empty

Closes #747
---
 CHANGELOG.md                   |  1 +
 src/tui/components/chat-log.ts |  8 ++++++++
 src/tui/tui.test.ts            | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 src/tui/tui.ts                 | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 4 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 src/tui/tui.test.ts

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9bc9dce26..d19531364 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - Memory: allow custom OpenAI-compatible embedding endpoints for memory search (remote baseUrl/apiKey/headers). (#819 — thanks @mukhtharcm)
 
 ### Fixes
+- TUI: keep the last streamed response instead of replacing it with “(no output)”. (#747 — thanks @thewilloftheshadow)
 - Slack: accept slash commands with or without leading `/` for custom command configs. (#798 — thanks @thewilloftheshadow)
 - Onboarding/Configure: refuse to proceed with invalid configs; run `clawdbot doctor` first to avoid wiping custom fields. (#764 — thanks @mukhtharcm)
 - Anthropic: merge consecutive user turns (preserve newest metadata) before validation to avoid “Incorrect role information” errors. (#804 — thanks @ThomsenDrake)
diff --git a/src/tui/components/chat-log.ts b/src/tui/components/chat-log.ts
index dae49be4e..e3ce93102 100644
--- a/src/tui/components/chat-log.ts
+++ b/src/tui/components/chat-log.ts
@@ -49,6 +49,14 @@ export class ChatLog extends Container {
     this.streamingAssistant.setText(text);
   }
 
+  getStreamingText(runId?: string) {
+    if (!this.streamingAssistant) return null;
+    if (runId && this.streamingRunId && runId !== this.streamingRunId) {
+      return null;
+    }
+    return this.streamingText;
+  }
+
   finalizeAssistant(text: string, runId?: string) {
     if (
       this.streamingAssistant &&
diff --git a/src/tui/tui.test.ts b/src/tui/tui.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..696e43c3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tui/tui.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+
+import { resolveFinalAssistantText } from "./tui.js";
+
+describe("resolveFinalAssistantText", () => {
+  it("falls back to streamed text when final text is empty", () => {
+    expect(
+      resolveFinalAssistantText({ finalText: "", streamedText: "Hello" }),
+    ).toBe("Hello");
+  });
+
+  it("prefers the final text when present", () => {
+    expect(
+      resolveFinalAssistantText({
+        finalText: "All done",
+        streamedText: "partial",
+      }),
+    ).toBe("All done");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/tui/tui.ts b/src/tui/tui.ts
index b2ba32e82..2b26547b5 100644
--- a/src/tui/tui.ts
+++ b/src/tui/tui.ts
@@ -39,6 +39,17 @@ export type TuiOptions = {
   message?: string;
 };
 
+export function resolveFinalAssistantText(params: {
+  finalText?: string | null;
+  streamedText?: string | null;
+}) {
+  const finalText = params.finalText ?? "";
+  if (finalText.trim()) return finalText;
+  const streamedText = params.streamedText ?? "";
+  if (streamedText.trim()) return streamedText;
+  return "(no output)";
+}
+
 type ChatEvent = {
   runId: string;
   sessionKey: string;
@@ -642,7 +653,11 @@ export async function runTui(opts: TuiOptions) {
       const text = extractTextFromMessage(evt.message, {
         includeThinking: showThinking,
       });
-      chatLog.finalizeAssistant(text || "(no output)", evt.runId);
+      const finalText = resolveFinalAssistantText({
+        finalText: text,
+        streamedText: chatLog.getStreamingText(evt.runId),
+      });
+      chatLog.finalizeAssistant(finalText, evt.runId);
       noteFinalizedRun(evt.runId);
       activeChatRunId = null;
       setActivityStatus("idle");