PR #30534 - manaflow-ai/cmux

Leo, 2026-11-01: "i also want them animated like how chatgpt animates their dots".

A Chief's own avatar in Home's list and pinned grid now moves: a slow loop at idle, and a quicker, deeper one while the Chief works (its turn is running, InboxRow.isTyping). Conversations without their own avatar, people and the CH monogram rows only move when they are a Chief's.

Versions (gallery)

ChiefAvatarMotionGalleryTests draws each style at idle and while working, one period in eight frames, to Packages/Shared/CmuxMessagesLab/.build/chief-avatar-motion-gallery.png (motion exaggerated 4x so a point reads on the sheet):

Style	Idle	Working
Float (default)	bobs ±1 pt, 3.2 s	±1.6 pt, 0.9 s
Breathe	grows up to 3.5%, 3.6 s	a double beat of 7%, 1.1 s (closest to ChatGPT's dot)
Sway	tilts ±2.5°, 4.0 s	±5°, 1.0 s
Still	none	none

I picked Float. It reads as "alive" at row size without changing the avatar's outline, and in a dense list it is the least distracting. Switch styles in Debug Settings > Home > Chief avatar motion (home.avatarMotion). Each avatar starts at its own phase (from its conversation id), so a list of Chiefs never moves in lockstep.

Stop conditions

Each one removes the loop and leaves the avatar at rest:

Reduce Motion (system, or the cmux pin) and calm mode: Home's existing reduceMotionDidChange path.
ui.animationSpeed off, or Home's motion switch off: the host's gate is Motion.home.animatesLoops, re-read on .speed changes.
App inactive, or the window not key, minimized, hidden or covered. The vendored list already tracks its window's key state (setWindowActive), and that tracking re-applies every avatar. Applying also reads isVisible, isMiniaturized and occlusionState. No new notification observers were added.
Off screen: a row or tile going back to the pool (scrolled away, or the conversation removed) stops its loop in recycle.
Style Still.

Performance

0 main-thread work per frame. Each avatar's motion is one CAKeyframeAnimation (48 steps, repeatCount = .infinity) added to its layer and run by the render server. There is no timer, display link or redraw.
A reload that keeps the same mode and style keeps the running loop (asserted by test), so a list update adds no animation work.
Per configure, the cost is one animation(forKey:) lookup and an equality check, O(1) per visible row.
No same-harness before/after frame numbers yet. That is a follow-up on the Home perf harness.

Design

No module statics or KVC: the host's gate and style live on the list's controller (CmuxSidebarView.avatarLoopGate and avatarMotionStyle are instance properties that forward to it), and each SidebarRowLayer records what its avatar shows.
The vendored edits are marked // cmux:. Patches/ was regenerated by reverse-applying the base patch to recover the pin, then diffing again (no MessagesLab checkout on this host); sync-messageslab.sh --check was not run.

Tests

ChiefAvatarMotionTests (MessagesLab package) covers:

idle vs working loops on rows and tiles;
no motion without an avatar of its own, or with no motion asked;
the same animation object kept across a reload;
Reduce Motion, and the host's gate stopping and restarting loops;
resigning key stopping them, and the real off-screen check;
a pooled row stopping, and Still never starting;
every loop closing (first frame equals last frame) and seeds differing in phase.

Observed / Not run

Fleet: MessagesLab ChiefAvatarMotionTests, ChiefAvatarMotionGalleryTests, and CmuxNext ChiefHeaderMonogramTests, HomeChatHeaderDefaultTests, PerChiefPetTests at the head (results in a comment below).
Not run: a DEV build watching the list live; the fresh-home launch (Chief area) follows in a comment.

No capture: the motion is in the gallery sheet; Leo tries the build.

Changelog

Added: Chiefs' avatars in Home's list move gently, and a little more while the Chief is working.

Agent session: agent session

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Summary by cubic

Chiefs' avatars in Home's list and pinned grid now move — a slow loop at idle and a livelier one while the Chief works (its turn is running). Each avatar's motion is one CAKeyframeAnimation run by the render server, so there's no main-thread work per frame.

Motion styles

Float (default) bobs the avatar ±1 pt at 3.2 s; working is ±1.6 pt at 0.9 s.
Breathe grows it up to 3.5%; working is a double beat of 7% (closest to ChatGPT's dot).
Sway tilts ±2.5°; working is ±5°.
Switch styles in Debug Settings > Home > Chief avatar motion; a style change restyles every avatar at once. Each avatar starts at its own phase (from its conversation id), so a list of Chiefs doesn't move in lockstep.

Stop conditions

Reduce Motion, calm mode, ui.animationSpeed off, and Home's motion switch stop the loops.
Loops also stop when the app is inactive, the window is not key, minimized, hidden, or off screen, and when a row returns to the pool.
A reload that keeps the same avatar keeps its running loop, so list updates add no animation work.
Style Still never starts a loop.