Summary
After context compaction occurs in Hermes WebUI, the chat view can show the generated “Context compaction — reference only” block where the user expected to see the latest assistant response. The user had previously seen the assistant response, but after compaction the visible conversation appeared to contain the compaction summary instead, making it look as if the last useful assistant output had disappeared.
Environment
- Interface: Hermes WebUI
- Session type: browser-based chat
- Workflow: long development session with tool use and large context
- Model/provider in use: GPT-5.5 via openai-codex provider
- Host: Linux VM
Observed behavior
- User and assistant had a long development conversation.
- Hermes performed context compaction.
- The WebUI displayed a “Context compaction — reference only” block.
- The user could no longer see the previous assistant message that had been visible before.
- User reported: “i cant see the output of the last message you sent, i did see it previously, however now see 'context compaction'”.
Expected behavior
After context compaction, the WebUI should preserve clear access to the latest user-visible assistant response.
Possible acceptable behaviors:
- Keep the latest assistant response visible below/after the compaction card.
- Collapse the compaction block by default.
- Visually label compaction as internal/reference metadata and avoid making it look like the assistant’s answer.
- Provide a “show previous assistant response” / “jump to latest answer” affordance.
- Ensure scroll position remains on the latest user-facing message, not the compaction artifact.
Impact
This is confusing during long-running development workflows where Hermes is coordinating background Codex work. The user needs to see the last actionable result/summary, and the compaction card can make it appear that the result was lost.
Notes
The underlying task data was not lost: the repo branch, commit, and evidence bundle still existed locally. The issue appears to be WebUI/history display or scroll/visibility behavior after compaction, rather than loss of filesystem work.
Summary
After context compaction occurs in Hermes WebUI, the chat view can show the generated “Context compaction — reference only” block where the user expected to see the latest assistant response. The user had previously seen the assistant response, but after compaction the visible conversation appeared to contain the compaction summary instead, making it look as if the last useful assistant output had disappeared.
Environment
Observed behavior
Expected behavior
After context compaction, the WebUI should preserve clear access to the latest user-visible assistant response.
Possible acceptable behaviors:
Impact
This is confusing during long-running development workflows where Hermes is coordinating background Codex work. The user needs to see the last actionable result/summary, and the compaction card can make it appear that the result was lost.
Notes
The underlying task data was not lost: the repo branch, commit, and evidence bundle still existed locally. The issue appears to be WebUI/history display or scroll/visibility behavior after compaction, rather than loss of filesystem work.