Agent Note: Tool-call file open in OS

Status: implemented

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Problem

Chat tool rows treated the whole summary line as a click target that opened the right-hand details panel, with a hover background on the row. For filesystem tools the useful action is opening the mentioned file in the operating system's default application, not inspecting the raw tool payload in a sidebar.

Decision

File-tool path summaries (read / write / edit args carrying path or file_path) render as links underlined at rest with a pointer cursor. Clicking the path calls session/openWorkspacePath through the chat view's openFile injection; the chat view resolves relative paths against the addressed Session's cwd when it is known. File-link rows disable args expand (leading icon is inert); whole-row click, row hover fill, and the click-to-open-details gesture are removed from tool rows (including bash and todo registrations). The details panel and its inject surface remain for programmatic selection; rows no longer drive them.

session/openWorkspacePath uses the authenticated Remote carrier, while the product UI offers the gesture only on a loopback page whose session/canOpenWorkspacePath result is true. Platform adapters open without a shell: open on macOS, PowerShell Invoke-Item on Windows, and xdg-open on desktop Linux; browser-renderable documents prefer the named default browser on macOS and desktop Linux. WSL is a separate host shape despite Node reporting linux: the adapter recognizes its environment or Microsoft kernel release, translates the Linux path with wslpath -w, and passes the resulting Windows/UNC path to the same PowerShell handoff. The opener's platform facts and command runner are injectable for tests. URL-only read args (web_fetch) are not file links.

Alternatives considered

Keep row-click details and add a separate file affordance — rejected; the product ask replaces the row gesture with the file link.
Open files inside an in-app preview — rejected; the ask is the OS default application.
Treat WSL as desktop Linux — rejected; a WSL process reports linux, but a Linux desktop association is optional while its ordinary operator desktop and browser live on Windows.
Reuse host.pickDirectory's timeout exemption — unnecessary; path open hand-off completes quickly under the normal unary deadline.

Consequences

Clicking a file path in a tool row opens that path on the host. Non-file tool rows are inert summaries (expand toggles remain where the row already supported them). The Client withholds the file-open gesture on non-loopback pages; every exposed Host invocation still requires the browser session. A Host or OS refusal is owned by the chat view: it shows the thrown reason and retries the same path (file-open failure).

Risks

Desktop Linux hosts without xdg-open, and WSL hosts without working Windows interop (wslpath plus powershell.exe), fail the RPC; the chat view shows that Host error and offers retry.
Relative paths without a session cwd are forwarded verbatim and may fail on the host.

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