[Feature]: [UX] Terminal style history for chat input text field.

[PratyushChauhan]

restore attempt 1

[PratyushChauhan]

Simple enough change, made a minimal pr.

[PratyushChauhan]

The files that need to be edited for this feature are a high action space, as a result merge conflicts keep getting introduced. Will make a pr on this once the repo is open for contributions, else I'll just have to keep closing my PRs.

[brzzdev]

Would like this too. One detail worth pinning down in the spec, since it is the difference between this being useful and being annoying:

Up should only recall history when the composer is empty. If there is already text in the box, Up should move the caret within that text as it does today — otherwise the key becomes unusable for editing a multi-line prompt, which is most of them.

That matches the terminal behaviour the title refers to (readline/zsh only pull from history when the line is empty, or when the caret is on the first line), and it keeps the change additive rather than taking an existing key away.

The rest, in roughly the order I would want it:

• Up on an empty composer fills it with your previous message; Up again steps further back.
• Down steps forward, and past the newest entry returns the composer to empty.
• Editing a recalled message and then navigating away should not clobber the stored history entry.

Smallest useful version is just the first bullet.

[ryanbliss]

Note that Codex desktop does support this feature and I love it, have been missing it a lot since switching!

[juliusmarminge]

#7951 specifies the same ArrowUp/ArrowDown prompt history for web and desktop. Please retain its interaction guards: preserve autocomplete and multiline caret keys; skip IME composition, modifiers and pending approval/input; recall only visible user text, including the just-sent optimistic prompt; keep history entries immutable; and restore unsent drafts without clobbering them when switching threads. The feature remains pending.

[juliusmarminge]

Closing as resolved by #9173