[HELD — independent review pending] Release v0.51.294 — stage-3401 (live-to-final redesign #3401 + 4 deep-review fixes) (#3741)

* Harden interrupted recovery control filtering

* Redesign live-to-final assistant replies

* Fix live activity anchor test fixture

* Fix CI lint issues for live reply tests

* Strengthen live progress prompt contract

* Recover PR #3401 refresh on origin/master

* Repair live-to-final refresh regressions

* Fix live worklog refresh regressions

* Show live footer timer on initial stream start

* Restore live stream shell after reload

* Preserve per-frame live SSE replay cursors

* Preserve reasoning as Worklog Thinking cards

* Quiet Worklog Thinking card styling

* Align Worklog Thinking card styling

* Scope live Worklog Thinking cards by segment

* Suppress exact duplicate settled Thinking

* Close #3401 merge review test gaps

* fix(#3401): resolve 4 deep-review regressions (inline-think, reconnect-dup, neon skin, busy-gate worklog)

Deep review (Codex diff-vs-master + live-browser drive) of the live-to-final refactor
surfaced 4 regressions vs master that the rewritten suite no longer guarded:

1. Inline <think>…</think>answer reasoning vanished — _assistantReasoningPayloadText
   used $-anchored regexes so a leading think block + visible answer extracted nothing
   and the Thinking card never rendered. Removed the 3 $ anchors to match the
   (non-anchored) display stripper. Live: inline-think thinking-only turn now renders.
2. (CORE) reconnect/reload duplicated the live reply — _rememberRunJournalCursor advanced
   a closure-local seq but never wrote INFLIGHT[activeSid].lastRunJournalSeq, so a reload
   replayed the journal from after_seq=0 over restored lastAssistantText. Now mirrors the
   cursor onto INFLIGHT + schedules a throttled persist.
3. Neon skin silently broke — PR deleted the :root[data-skin="neon"] CSS but left Neon in
   the picker. Restored the neon CSS block from master.
4. Settled tool-worklog rebuild gated purely on !S.busy — dropped every prior settled
   turn's worklog when renderMessages re-ran during an active stream (switch-back to an
   in-progress session). Restored master's !S.busy || (S.toolCalls && S.toolCalls.length).
   Live: busy re-render now preserves tool cards (4→4, was 4→0).

Live-verified all 4 + confirmed #3709/#3592 invariants still hold (1 thinking card, none
below footer; distinct siblings preserved). + tests/test_issue3401_deep_review_fixes.py (7).

* test(#3401): realign 3 stale source-shape assertions to the deep-review fixes

Fix commit changed two source literals that existing stage tests scanned for:
- test_live_activity_timeline.py (x2): split anchor 'if(!S.busy){' → the restored
  'if(!S.busy || (S.toolCalls&&S.toolCalls.length)){' guard (fix 4).
- test_run_journal_frontend_static.py: 'after_seq=0' not in source — fix 2's comment
  contained that literal; rephrased the comment to 'the zero floor (after_seq of 0)'.
Intent of all three assertions unchanged; only the matched string updated. No code
behavior change.

* docs(changelog): v0.51.294 — Release JJ (stage-3401, #3401 live-to-final redesign)

---------

Co-authored-by: Frank Song <franksong2702@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nathan-Hermes <nesquena-hermes@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: nesquena-hermes <[email protected]>

DESIGN.md

@@ -150,6 +150,14 @@ A tool card is a debug event row, not a chat message. Show icon, name, short tar
 
 Same visual family as tool-call metadata. They should be quieter than assistant prose and should not use bright tinted full cards unless the user expands them.
 
+Automatic compression follows a quiet live-only divider treatment rather than a
+tool-card row. Use `Compressing context` for the active barrier and
+`Context auto-compressed` after continuation/completion; render both as centered
+non-interactive text with horizontal rules. Do not give it a caret, click
+target, distinct accent color, special leading dot, or separate card identity.
+Once the final answer is settled, omit the live-only compression row unless it is
+needed to explain a visible recovery or error state.
+
 ### Composer
 
 The composer is the command surface. Keep it legible and focused: modest radius, subtle border, transparent inactive chips, no theatrical hover scaling.