#239 Homepage hero: faint agent-chat backdrop, rare halftone field

Summary

The homepage hero sits over a faint, living log of agents talking to each other.

• Agent chat (web/components/homepage/HeroGhostChat.tsx): a full-height field of faint monospace messages in columns. Each message opens with its sender's 11px monochrome mark, mostly the Claude Code mascot and the OpenAI mark, with Gemini, Copilot, OpenCode, Cursor, Grok, Hermes and Muse now and then. Messages are backspaced and retyped all over the field, a few at a time. Some span 2–4 rows, and about half the replies are familiar assistant-isms ("you're absolutely right", "let me delve into this", …). Text near the cursor brightens.
• Halftone field (web/components/homepage/HeroHalftone.tsx): on about 1 in 10 page loads, a breathing dot grid replaces the chat. Message pulses route along rows and turn down columns, and the dots spring out of the way around the cursor.
• HeroBackdrop picks between them after mount, so the server render and hydration agree.
• Homepage wash: a flat vertical fade with no radial highlight, so nothing competes with the backdrop.
• Shared marks: AGENT_TOOL_MARKS (AgentToolLogos.tsx) and BRAND_MARK_PATHS (brand-icons.tsx) export the marks' path data, and the SVG logos render from it. The canvas draws the same marks the rest of the site shows.
• Byte stream removed: the byte-stream backdrop (HeroStream) is gone.
• Behaviour common to both backdrops: they're masked at the edges and behind the copy, and pause when off screen or in a hidden tab. prefers-reduced-motion gives a still frame and is followed live. They have no glow, blur or shadow.

Verification

• tsc --noEmit clean; vitest run: 631 passed.
• The homepage renders the backdrop canvas with no console or hydration errors.
• Both backdrops were reviewed in the browser during exploration.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Summary by cubic

Replaces the homepage hero's falling byte stream with a faint, full-height log of agents messaging each other, and on about one in ten page loads a breathing halftone dot field where message pulses travel along rows and columns and dots part around the cursor.

The two backdrops

• HeroGhostChat types, backspaces, and retypes single- and multi-line messages in columns, each headed by its sender's mark, with text near the cursor brightening.
• HeroHalftone shows a breathing dot grid where bits of traffic bump along and drain into their destination, and dots spring away from the cursor and ease back.
• HeroBackdrop picks between them after mount and renders nothing until then, so only the chosen backdrop mounts and the server render agrees with hydration.
• Agent and brand marks now export their path data (AGENT_TOOL_MARKS, BRAND_MARK_PATHS) so the canvas draws the same logos the rest of the site renders.
• The hero wash is now a flat vertical fade with no radial highlight.
• Both backdrop canvases are masked at edges and behind the copy, pause off screen or in a hidden tab, follow prefers-reduced-motion live, and use no glow, blur, or shadow.

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Agent Relay sessions

• claude session 3a52b123 · opened via gh pr create · last active 2026-10-23