Fix hooks.

README.md

@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ in principle, but a terminal grid is small.
   and scripts — opened in one go, parameterised by `{{name}}`, authored by
   arranging a tab and saving it. See [Layouts](#layouts)
 - **Pane status in the tab strip**, driven by OSC 9;4, so a tab can say whether
-  it is working, waiting on you, or finished while you were elsewhere. See
+  it is working, waiting on you, or finished and still unanswered. See
   [Agent status](#agent-status)
 - **Renaming a tab**: `Ctrl+Shift+R`, right-click or double-click a tab row.
   A typed name pins the label; clearing it hands the label back to the panes
@@ -345,18 +345,45 @@ So a tab can carry a dot:
 |---|---|
 | purple, pulsing | working |
 | amber | waiting for you — a permission prompt, or a question |
-| green | **finished while you were looking at another tab** |
+| green | **finished, and you haven't answered it** |
 | red | stopped on an error |
 | none | idle |
 
+Each colour is carried at three sizes, so it survives being glanced at rather
+than read: an 11px dot on the row, a bar down the row's leading edge, and a wash
+behind the whole row. Working gets the bar without the wash — it is the resting
+state of a busy afternoon, and tinting half the sidebar all day would only teach
+you to stop looking. Inside a tab, a pane that is asking colours its own frame
+and header the same way, which is what picks it out of a four-way split.
+
 The green one is the point of the feature. A session that has gone back to idle
-looks exactly like one that never ran, so a tab that finishes work while it is
-not the visible one latches green and stays that way until you actually visit
-it. Nothing else tells you a tab is worth going back to.
+looks exactly like one that never ran, so a pane that finishes latches green and
+stays that way until you deal with it. Nothing else tells you a tab is worth
+going back to.
+
+**Opening the tab clears the row.** A pane's own dot clears when you go to that
+pane or type in it. The two answer slightly different questions: the row's is
+"should I go there?", which visiting settles whether or not you then deal with
+everything inside, and a pane's is "have you dealt with me?", which only you can
+answer. In a split that difference is the whole point — you open a flagged tab,
+the row goes quiet, and the panes you haven't been to yet are still marked.
+
+Work that finishes while you are sitting in the tab flags it too, deliberately.
+Having a tab on screen when a session stopped says only that the pixels were in
+front of you; watching it finish and then moving on to something else is the
+case this is most needed for. It goes quiet as soon as you answer that pane, or
+the next time you come back to the tab.
+
+Green also outranks purple. A tab holding three sessions goes green as soon as
+any one of them finishes rather than waiting for the last one to stop, because
+"one of these is ready for you" is the news. The two states that actually want
+something from you — amber and red — outrank it in turn.
 
 Panes report this individually and the tab shows the most urgent of them, so a
-four-pane tab still reduces to one dot. The pane headers carry their own dots to
-say which pane inside it was the one asking.
+four-pane tab still reduces to one dot. The pane headers carry their own dots,
+so once the row has brought you to the tab, they say which pane inside it was
+the one asking; the row stays lit until every finished pane in it has been
+answered.
 
 ### How it gets there
 
@@ -385,13 +412,28 @@ comment, so re-running replaces Playpen's own entries rather than stacking
 duplicates, and the previous file is kept at `settings.json.playpen-backup`.
 Hooks are read at startup, so open a new session to pick them up.
 
-The hook writes to `/dev/tty`, not to a socket or a daemon. A hook runs as a
-child of Claude Code, so its controlling terminal *is* the pty of the pane
-Claude is running in — the bytes land in that pane and no other, with nothing to
-configure and no way for two concurrent sessions to be mistaken for each other.
-It writes there rather than to stdout because Claude Code parses hook stdout as
-the hook's JSON result; an escape sequence written there would corrupt the hook
-protocol instead of reaching the terminal.
+The hook writes to a pty, not to a socket or a daemon: the bytes land in that
+pane and no other, with nothing to configure and no way for two concurrent
+sessions to be mistaken for each other. It writes there rather than to stdout
+because Claude Code parses hook stdout as the hook's JSON result; an escape
+sequence written there would corrupt the hook protocol instead of reaching the
+terminal.
+
+Finding that pty is the one genuinely fiddly part, and `/dev/tty` — the obvious
+answer, and what this used to do — is the wrong one. **Claude Code starts each
+hook in its own session**, so a hook has no controlling terminal at all and
+opening `/dev/tty` fails with `ENXIO`. It fails invisibly, too: `[ -w /dev/tty ]`
+returns true regardless, because it stats a path whose mode is `0666` rather
+than opening it, so guarding on that reports success and then writes into
+nothing. Every state change was being dropped on the floor with no error
+anywhere.
+
+The pty is only one hop away, though — it is on Claude Code's own standard file
+descriptors. So the script tries its controlling terminal by *opening* it, and
+failing that walks up `/proc` for the nearest ancestor holding a pty, with a
+`ps -o tty=` fallback for systems without `/proc`. The nearest ancestor is the
+right answer even with something in between: a Claude running inside tmux inside
+a pane finds tmux's pty, which is where its output actually goes.
 
 A tab's title follows your prompt for as long as Claude holds the foreground.
 Once it exits, the shell's own prompt sets the title back, which is the right
@@ -403,7 +445,7 @@ Claude in a microVM (`smolvm`, `krunvm`, anything libkrun-based) still works,
 because the guest console passes these bytes through to the host pty unchanged:
 
 ```
-$ # written to /dev/tty inside the guest, observed on the host pty:
+$ # written to the guest's console, observed on the host pty:
 b'\x1b]9;4;3\x07'  b'\x1b]0;hello-from-guest\x07'  b'\x1b]9;4;0\x07'
 ```
 

hooks/playpen-status.sh

@@ -8,16 +8,15 @@
 #   playpen-status.sh idle    # finished
 #   playpen-status.sh error   # stopped on an error
 #
-# The state is written as OSC 9;4 — the ConEmu progress protocol — straight to
-# /dev/tty, and on `busy` the prompt is written as an OSC 0 title alongside it.
+# The state is written as OSC 9;4 — the ConEmu progress protocol — to the pty
+# Claude Code is running on, and on `busy` the prompt is written as an OSC 0
+# title alongside it.
 #
-# Why /dev/tty and not a socket. A hook runs as a child of Claude Code, so its
-# controlling terminal is the pty of the pane Claude is running in. Writing
-# there means the bytes arrive in that pane and no other, with nothing to
-# configure and no way for two concurrent sessions to be confused for each
-# other. It survives a VM boundary too: run Claude inside a microVM and the
-# guest's console passes these through to the host pty unchanged, which a unix
-# socket on the host could not do.
+# Why a pty and not a socket. The bytes then arrive in that pane and no other,
+# with nothing to configure and no way for two concurrent sessions to be
+# confused for each other. It survives a VM boundary too: run Claude inside a
+# microVM and the guest's console passes these through to the host pty
+# unchanged, which a unix socket on the host could not do.
 #
 # Nothing here is Playpen-specific. OSC 9;4 is what Windows Terminal, ConEmu
 # and Ghostty already use for taskbar progress, so these hooks light up those
@@ -27,10 +26,78 @@ set -u
 
 state=${1:-idle}
 
-# No controlling terminal — running headless, in CI, or under a harness that
-# detached us. Nothing to report to, and a hook must never be the thing that
-# breaks a session, so leave quietly.
-[ -w /dev/tty ] || exit 0
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Find the pty to write to.
+#
+# Not /dev/tty, which is the obvious answer and the wrong one: Claude Code
+# starts each hook in its own session, so a hook has no controlling terminal
+# and opening /dev/tty fails with ENXIO. Worse, `[ -w /dev/tty ]` still says
+# yes — it stats the path, whose mode is 0666, rather than opening it — so
+# guarding on that reports success and then writes into nothing.
+#
+# The pty is still one hop away: it is on Claude Code's own standard fds. So
+# test our controlling terminal by actually opening it, and otherwise walk up
+# the process tree for the nearest ancestor holding a pty open. That nearest
+# ancestor is the right answer even when something else is in between: a
+# Claude running inside tmux inside a pane finds tmux's pty, which is where
+# its output is really going.
+tty_target=""
+
+if (: > /dev/tty) 2>/dev/null; then
+  tty_target=/dev/tty
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$tty_target" ] && [ -d /proc ]; then
+  pid=$PPID
+  hops=0
+  while [ "$hops" -lt 16 ] && [ -n "$pid" ] && [ "$pid" != 0 ] && [ "$pid" != 1 ]; do
+    for fd in 0 1 2; do
+      link=$(readlink "/proc/$pid/fd/$fd" 2>/dev/null) || continue
+      case "$link" in
+        # Guarded to terminal devices before opening it for write, so this
+        # can never truncate a regular file an fd happened to point at.
+        /dev/pts/[0-9]* | /dev/tty[0-9]*)
+          if (: > "$link") 2>/dev/null; then
+            tty_target=$link
+            break
+          fi
+          ;;
+      esac
+    done
+    [ -n "$tty_target" ] && break
+
+    # Walk to the parent. The comm field of /proc/pid/stat is parenthesised
+    # and may itself contain spaces, so cut through it rather than counting
+    # fields from the start: after the trim, $2 is the ppid.
+    stat=$(cat "/proc/$pid/stat" 2>/dev/null) || break
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2086
+    set -- ${stat#*") "}
+    pid=${2:-}
+    hops=$((hops + 1))
+  done
+fi
+
+# No /proc to walk: ask ps for the parent's terminal instead. Linux spells it
+# "pts/4" and macOS "s004", so try it both as given and with the tty prefix.
+if [ -z "$tty_target" ]; then
+  name=$(ps -o tty= -p "$PPID" 2>/dev/null | tr -d ' \n')
+  case "$name" in
+    "" | "?" | "??") ;;
+    *)
+      for cand in "/dev/$name" "/dev/tty$name"; do
+        if (: > "$cand") 2>/dev/null; then
+          tty_target=$cand
+          break
+        fi
+      done
+      ;;
+  esac
+fi
+
+# Nothing anywhere to report to — headless, in CI, or a harness that detached
+# us from every terminal. A hook must never be the thing that breaks a
+# session, so leave quietly.
+[ -n "$tty_target" ] || exit 0
 
 case "$state" in
   busy)  code=3 ;;  # indeterminate
@@ -39,10 +106,10 @@ case "$state" in
   *)     code=0 ;;  # removed
 esac
 
-# Every write goes to /dev/tty explicitly. stdout belongs to Claude Code, which
+# Every write goes to the pty explicitly. stdout belongs to Claude Code, which
 # parses it as the hook's JSON result; an escape sequence written there would
 # corrupt the hook protocol rather than reach the terminal.
-printf '\033]9;4;%s\007' "$code" > /dev/tty 2>/dev/null || true
+printf '\033]9;4;%s\007' "$code" > "$tty_target" 2>/dev/null || true
 
 # Only a starting turn carries a task worth naming. The other states leave the
 # title alone so the shell's own title comes back when the session ends.
@@ -72,6 +139,6 @@ fi
 # and leave the rest to be printed as garbage in the pane.
 title=$(printf '%s' "$title" | head -n 1 | tr -d '[:cntrl:]' | cut -c1-72)
 
-[ -n "$title" ] && printf '\033]0;%s\007' "$title" > /dev/tty 2>/dev/null
+[ -n "$title" ] && printf '\033]0;%s\007' "$title" > "$tty_target" 2>/dev/null
 
 exit 0

src/Pane.zig

@@ -78,13 +78,14 @@ pub const Status = Terminal.Status;
 /// What a content kind reports back to its pane. Shared by both kinds so the
 /// pane can wire either one up with the same handlers.
 ///
-/// A web pane simply never calls `on_status`; it has no equivalent of a
-/// long-running job to report.
+/// A web pane simply never calls `on_status` or `on_input`; it has no
+/// equivalent of a long-running job to report.
 pub const Callbacks = struct {
     on_title: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque, title: []const u8) void,
     on_exit: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
     on_focus: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
     on_status: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque, status: Status) void,
+    on_input: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
     ctx: ?*anyopaque,
 };
 
@@ -158,14 +159,106 @@ pub fn setDot(dot: *gtk.Image, class: ?[:0]const u8) void {
     }
 }
 
-/// The class a pane-level status shows as, or null for idle.
-pub fn statusClass(status: Status) ?[:0]const u8 {
-    return switch (status) {
-        .idle => null,
-        .busy => "playpen-status-busy",
-        .needs_input => "playpen-status-input",
-        .failed => "playpen-status-failed",
-    };
+/// What a dot is signalling: the four states content can report, plus one it
+/// cannot know about on its own.
+///
+/// `done` is the whole reason this is a separate type from `Status`. Content
+/// that has gone back to idle is indistinguishable from content that never
+/// ran, and "it finished" is exactly the thing worth knowing when you are
+/// deciding what to go back to. So work that lands while you are looking
+/// somewhere else latches here and stays until you answer it.
+///
+/// The same five states drive both dots. A pane's dot is spent by going to
+/// that pane; a row's by visiting that tab. Two scopes of the same question —
+/// which tab wants me, and which pane inside it — so they share the mapping
+/// rather than each having their own.
+pub const Attention = enum {
+    none,
+    busy,
+    done,
+    needs_input,
+    failed,
+
+    /// What a status and an unanswered latch add up to.
+    ///
+    /// `done` outranks `busy` deliberately: when one pane has finished and is
+    /// still waiting on you while another is working, the finished one is the
+    /// news. The two states that actually want you outrank it in turn.
+    pub fn of(status: Status, done_unanswered: bool) Attention {
+        return switch (status) {
+            .needs_input => .needs_input,
+            .failed => .failed,
+            .busy => if (done_unanswered) .done else .busy,
+            .idle => if (done_unanswered) .done else .none,
+        };
+    }
+
+    /// The classes a state paints with: one on the dot, one on the surface
+    /// carrying it — a sidebar row, or a pane's frame.
+    ///
+    /// Returned as a pair so the two can never drift into disagreeing about
+    /// what colour a state is. Null means idle, which paints nothing at all.
+    pub fn classes(self: Attention) ?struct {
+        dot: [:0]const u8,
+        surface: [:0]const u8,
+    } {
+        return switch (self) {
+            .none => null,
+            .busy => .{ .dot = "playpen-status-busy", .surface = "playpen-attn-busy" },
+            .done => .{ .dot = "playpen-status-done", .surface = "playpen-attn-done" },
+            .needs_input => .{ .dot = "playpen-status-input", .surface = "playpen-attn-input" },
+            .failed => .{ .dot = "playpen-status-failed", .surface = "playpen-attn-failed" },
+        };
+    }
+
+    /// The dot's CSS class, or null when nothing should be shown at all.
+    pub fn class(self: Attention) ?[:0]const u8 {
+        return if (self.classes()) |c| c.dot else null;
+    }
+
+    /// The class for the row or pane the dot sits on, or null when idle.
+    pub fn surfaceClass(self: Attention) ?[:0]const u8 {
+        return if (self.classes()) |c| c.surface else null;
+    }
+
+    pub fn tooltip(self: Attention) [:0]const u8 {
+        return switch (self) {
+            .none => "",
+            .busy => "Working",
+            .done => "Finished while you were away",
+            .needs_input => "Waiting for you",
+            .failed => "Stopped on an error",
+        };
+    }
+};
+
+/// Every class a surface can carry, for the same reason as `status_classes`.
+pub const attention_classes = [_][:0]const u8{
+    "playpen-attn-busy",
+    "playpen-attn-done",
+    "playpen-attn-input",
+    "playpen-attn-failed",
+};
+
+/// Bring a dot in line with what it should be signalling. The tooltip comes
+/// along with the colour, since a colour on its own doesn't say what it means.
+pub fn applyDot(dot: *gtk.Image, state: Attention) void {
+    setDot(dot, state.class());
+    dot.as(gtk.Widget).setTooltipText(state.tooltip());
+}
+
+/// Paint a state onto a dot and the surface around it at once.
+///
+/// A dot alone is a few pixels, which is fine once you know where to look and
+/// no use at all for the thing this is for: sweeping a sidebar and picking out
+/// the row that wants you. The surface class is what lets the row and the pane
+/// frame carry the same colour at a size you can catch out of the corner of
+/// your eye.
+pub fn applyAttention(surface: *gtk.Widget, dot: *gtk.Image, state: Attention) void {
+    applyDot(dot, state);
+
+    for (attention_classes) |c| surface.removeCssClass(c);
+    if (state.surfaceClass()) |c| surface.addCssClass(c);
 }
 
 /// How close to the view's outer border a drop must be, in pixels, to place
@@ -203,6 +296,14 @@ title: [128:0]u8 = @splat(0),
 /// Latest status reported by the content.
 status: Status = .idle,
 
+/// Set when this pane's content finished and you haven't answered it yet.
+///
+/// Latched here because this is the only place that sees the transition: by
+/// the time you glance at the pane, work that finished and work that never
+/// started look identical. It is spent by typing into the pane — see
+/// `onContentInput` for why that and not merely looking.
+done_unanswered: bool = false,
+
 pub fn create(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, view: *View, spec: Spec) !*Pane {
     const self = try alloc.create(Pane);
     errdefer alloc.destroy(self);
@@ -229,6 +330,7 @@ pub fn create(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, view: *View, spec: Spec) !*Pane {
         .on_exit = &onContentExit,
         .on_focus = &onContentFocus,
         .on_status = &onContentStatus,
+        .on_input = &onContentInput,
         .ctx = self,
     };
     self.content = switch (spec) {
@@ -291,6 +393,23 @@ pub fn titleSlice(self: *const Pane) [:0]const u8 {
     return std.mem.sliceTo(&self.title, 0);
 }
 
+/// What this pane's dot is signalling right now.
+pub fn attention(self: *const Pane) Attention {
+    return .of(self.status, self.done_unanswered);
+}
+
+/// Bring the header dot and the pane's own frame in line with its state.
+fn refreshDot(self: *Pane) void {
+    applyAttention(self.widget(), self.dot, self.attention());
+}
+
+/// You have answered whatever this pane finished, so it stops asking.
+pub fn markAnswered(self: *Pane) void {
+    if (!self.done_unanswered) return;
+    self.done_unanswered = false;
+    self.refreshDot();
+}
+
 /// Mark this pane as the focused one in its view.
 pub fn setActive(self: *Pane, active: bool) void {
     if (active) {
@@ -315,7 +434,7 @@ fn buildHeader(self: *Pane) void {
     // Sits between the kind icon and the title so a busy pane reads as
     // "terminal, working, <title>" left to right.
     self.dot.as(gtk.Widget).addCssClass("playpen-status-dot");
-    setDot(self.dot, statusClass(self.status));
+    self.refreshDot();
     header.append(self.dot.as(gtk.Widget));
 
     self.label.setXalign(0);
@@ -529,12 +648,37 @@ fn onContentStatus(ctx: ?*anyopaque, status: Status) void {
     const self: *Pane = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ctx.?));
     if (self.status == status) return;
 
+    // Work going quiet is the transition worth remembering, and it is worth
+    // remembering whether or not anyone was watching: a session you saw finish
+    // and then left alone is still a session waiting on you.
+    const finished = status == .idle and self.status != .idle;
+    if (finished) self.done_unanswered = true;
+
     self.status = status;
-    setDot(self.dot, statusClass(status));
+    self.refreshDot();
+
+    // The tab needs to hear about a finish as an event, not just see the
+    // state afterwards, so that opening the tab can clear it.
+    if (finished) self.view.paneFinished(self);
     self.view.paneStatusChanged(self);
 }
 
 /// The shell exited, or a page called window.close().
+/// The user typed into this pane.
+///
+/// This, rather than focus or visibility, is what clears the dot. Having the
+/// tab on screen when a session finished says only that the pixels were in
+/// front of you; typing into it is the first moment anything says you dealt
+/// with what it had to say. The pane going busy again is a natural consequence
+/// of the same keystrokes, so the two never disagree.
+fn onContentInput(ctx: ?*anyopaque) void {
+    const self: *Pane = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ctx.?));
+    if (!self.done_unanswered) return;
+
+    self.markAnswered();
+    self.view.paneStatusChanged(self);
+}
+
 fn onContentExit(ctx: ?*anyopaque) void {
     const self: *Pane = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ctx.?));
     self.view.closePane(self);

src/Terminal.zig

@@ -56,6 +56,11 @@ on_focus: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
 /// it in the tab strip.
 on_status: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque, status: Status) void,
 
+/// Called when the user types into this terminal. Focus isn't enough for
+/// this: the owner uses it as the sign that whatever the session had to say
+/// has been dealt with, and that is answering, not looking.
+on_input: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
+
 ctx: ?*anyopaque = null,
 
 /// What a layout can specify for a terminal pane.
@@ -84,6 +89,7 @@ pub fn create(
         .on_exit = cbs.on_exit,
         .on_focus = cbs.on_focus,
         .on_status = cbs.on_status,
+        .on_input = cbs.on_input,
         .ctx = cbs.ctx,
     };
 
@@ -311,6 +317,7 @@ fn onKeyPressed(
     // Typing should always snap the view back to the prompt.
     self.session.term.screens.active.pages.scroll(.active);
     self.session.write(encoded);
+    self.on_input(self.ctx);
     self.area.as(gtk.Widget).queueDraw();
     return 1;
 }

src/View.zig

@@ -81,12 +81,20 @@ closing: bool = false,
 on_empty: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
 on_title: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
 on_status: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
+
+/// A pane in here just finished work. Separate from `on_status` because the
+/// tab needs the *edge*, not the state: "something finished since you were
+/// last here" cannot be recovered by looking at the panes afterwards, since
+/// one that finished before your last visit looks identical to one that
+/// finished after it.
+on_finished: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
 ctx: ?*anyopaque = null,
 
 pub const Callbacks = struct {
     on_empty: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
     on_title: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
     on_status: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
+    on_finished: *const fn (ctx: ?*anyopaque) void,
     ctx: ?*anyopaque,
 };
 
@@ -101,6 +109,7 @@ pub fn create(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, cbs: Callbacks) !*View {
         .on_empty = cbs.on_empty,
         .on_title = cbs.on_title,
         .on_status = cbs.on_status,
+        .on_finished = cbs.on_finished,
         .ctx = cbs.ctx,
     };
 
@@ -313,6 +322,19 @@ pub fn setFocused(self: *View, pane: *Pane) void {
     self.focused = pane;
     pane.setActive(true);
     self.on_title(self.ctx);
+
+    // Deliberately moving into a pane answers it, the same as typing would.
+    // The identity check above is what keeps this honest: work finishing in
+    // the pane you are already sitting in leaves the focus unchanged, so it
+    // stays flagged — which is the case the whole indicator exists for.
+    pane.markAnswered();
+    self.on_status(self.ctx);
+}
+
+pub fn paneFinished(self: *View, pane: *Pane) void {
+    _ = pane;
+    if (self.closing) return;
+    self.on_finished(self.ctx);
 }
 
 pub fn paneTitleChanged(self: *View, pane: *Pane) void {
@@ -347,6 +369,26 @@ pub fn status(self: *View) Status {
     return worst;
 }
 
+/// Whether any pane here has finished work that hasn't been answered.
+///
+/// Any one pane is enough, and deliberately so: the view's own status can't
+/// answer this, because a tab holding three agents never goes idle as a whole
+/// until the last of them stops, and "one of them is ready for you" is worth
+/// hearing before then.
+pub fn anyDoneUnanswered(self: *View) bool {
+    for (self.panes.items) |pane| if (pane.done_unanswered) return true;
+    return false;
+}
+
+/// Answer the pane the user has landed in, without touching its siblings.
+///
+/// Called when a tab is opened: the pane you arrive in is the one you are
+/// looking at, while the others in a split are still holding news you have not
+/// gone to yet, and their dots are the only thing that says which.
+pub fn answerFocused(self: *View) void {
+    if (self.focusedPane()) |pane| pane.markAnswered();
+}
+
 // -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // Layouts
 

src/Window.zig

@@ -58,43 +58,9 @@ layout_popover: *gtk.Popover,
 /// they belong to are on screen.
 layout_rows: std.ArrayListUnmanaged(*LayoutRow) = .empty,
 
-/// What a tab's sidebar row is signalling. The four pane-level states, plus
-/// one the panes can't know about on their own.
-///
-/// `done` is the whole reason this is a separate enum rather than just
-/// `View.Status`. A pane that has gone back to idle is indistinguishable from
-/// one that never ran, and "it finished" is exactly the thing worth knowing
-/// when you're deciding which tab to go back to. So a tab that finishes work
-/// while you are looking somewhere else latches into `done` and stays there
-/// until you actually visit it.
-const Attention = enum {
-    none,
-    busy,
-    done,
-    needs_input,
-    failed,
-
-    /// The dot's CSS class, or null when the row should show no dot at all.
-    fn class(self: Attention) ?[:0]const u8 {
-        return switch (self) {
-            .none => null,
-            .busy => "playpen-status-busy",
-            .done => "playpen-status-done",
-            .needs_input => "playpen-status-input",
-            .failed => "playpen-status-failed",
-        };
-    }
-
-    fn tooltip(self: Attention) [:0]const u8 {
-        return switch (self) {
-            .none => "",
-            .busy => "Working",
-            .done => "Finished while you were away",
-            .needs_input => "Waiting for you",
-            .failed => "Stopped on an error",
-        };
-    }
-};
+/// What a sidebar row is signalling. Defined with the dots themselves, since
+/// a row and a pane header show the same five states for the same reasons.
+const Attention = Pane.Attention;
 
 /// A single tab: a view of one or more panes, plus the sidebar row that
 /// selects it.
@@ -119,13 +85,14 @@ const Tab = struct {
     rename_popover: *gtk.Popover,
     rename_entry: *gtk.Entry,
 
-    /// What the panes were reporting last time we looked, so a busy → idle
-    /// transition can be told apart from an idle tab that never ran.
-    last_status: View.Status = .idle,
-
-    /// Set when work finished while this tab was not the visible one, and
-    /// cleared when it is next selected.
-    done_unseen: bool = false,
+    /// Set when a pane in this tab finished since the last time you opened it.
+    ///
+    /// The row and the panes answer slightly different questions, which is why
+    /// this exists alongside the panes' own latches. The row's question is
+    /// "should I go there?", and opening the tab settles it whether or not you
+    /// then deal with every pane inside. A pane's question is "have you dealt
+    /// with me?", which only you can answer.
+    finished_since_visit: bool = false,
 
     name: [16]u8,
     name_len: usize,
@@ -136,15 +103,12 @@ const Tab = struct {
 
     /// What the row should be showing right now.
     ///
-    /// The latch outranks `busy` deliberately: if one pane is still working
-    /// but another has already finished unseen, the finished one is the news.
+    /// Both halves have to hold. The flag alone would keep a row lit after you
+    /// answered the last pane in it without leaving the tab; the panes alone
+    /// would keep it lit after you had already come and looked.
     fn attention(self: *const Tab) Attention {
-        return switch (self.view.status()) {
-            .needs_input => .needs_input,
-            .failed => .failed,
-            .busy => if (self.done_unseen) .done else .busy,
-            .idle => if (self.done_unseen) .done else .none,
-        };
+        const news = self.finished_since_visit and self.view.anyDoneUnanswered();
+        return .of(self.view.status(), news);
     }
 };
 
@@ -298,6 +262,7 @@ fn newTabEmpty(self: *Window) !*Tab {
         .on_empty = &onViewEmpty,
         .on_title = &onViewTitle,
         .on_status = &onViewStatus,
+        .on_finished = &onViewFinished,
         .ctx = tab,
     });
     errdefer view.destroy();
@@ -334,7 +299,7 @@ fn newTabEmpty(self: *Window) !*Tab {
     // After the label rather than before it, so the dots down the sidebar
     // line up in a column instead of being pushed around by title length.
     tab.dot.as(gtk.Widget).addCssClass("playpen-status-dot");
-    Pane.setDot(tab.dot, null);
+    Pane.applyAttention(tab.row.as(gtk.Widget), tab.dot, .none);
     row_box.append(tab.dot.as(gtk.Widget));
 
     const close = gtk.Button.newFromIconName("window-close-symbolic");
@@ -710,12 +675,12 @@ fn select(self: *Window, tab: *Tab) void {
     self.list.selectRow(tab.row);
     tab.view.focus();
 
-    // Visiting the tab is what "seeing it" means, so this is where the
-    // finished-while-you-were-away flag is spent.
-    if (tab.done_unseen) {
-        tab.done_unseen = false;
-        self.refreshStatus(tab);
-    }
+    // Opening the tab is the acknowledgement the row was asking for, and the
+    // pane you land in counts as answered along with it. Any other pane in a
+    // split keeps its own dot until you go to it.
+    tab.finished_since_visit = false;
+    tab.view.answerFocused();
+    self.refreshStatus(tab);
 }
 
 fn indexOf(self: *Window, tab: *Tab) ?usize {
@@ -812,10 +777,7 @@ fn refreshLabel(self: *Window, tab: *Tab) void {
 /// pane changing state doesn't change any of the text.
 fn refreshStatus(self: *Window, tab: *Tab) void {
     _ = self;
-
-    const attention = tab.attention();
-    Pane.setDot(tab.dot, attention.class());
-    tab.dot.as(gtk.Widget).setTooltipText(attention.tooltip());
+    Pane.applyAttention(tab.row.as(gtk.Widget), tab.dot, tab.attention());
 }
 
 fn onViewTitle(ctx: ?*anyopaque) void {
@@ -823,27 +785,21 @@ fn onViewTitle(ctx: ?*anyopaque) void {
     tab.window.refreshLabel(tab);
 }
 
-/// A pane in this tab changed state.
-///
-/// The latch is set here rather than anywhere else because this is the only
-/// place that sees the transition: by the time the user looks at the sidebar,
-/// a tab that finished and a tab that never started look identical.
+/// A pane in this tab changed state, or answered one it was carrying.
 fn onViewStatus(ctx: ?*anyopaque) void {
     const tab: *Tab = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ctx.?));
-    const self = tab.window;
+    tab.window.refreshStatus(tab);
+}
 
-    const previous = tab.last_status;
-    const current = tab.view.status();
-    tab.last_status = current;
-
-    // Work that finishes in the tab you are already looking at needs no
-    // flag — you watched it happen.
-    const visible = self.activeTab() == tab;
-    if (!visible and current == .idle and previous != .idle) {
-        tab.done_unseen = true;
-    }
-
-    self.refreshStatus(tab);
+/// A pane in this tab finished work.
+///
+/// Recorded even when the tab is the one on screen: you may well have watched
+/// it stop and then gone somewhere else, and the next time you open this tab is
+/// when that stops being news.
+fn onViewFinished(ctx: ?*anyopaque) void {
+    const tab: *Tab = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ctx.?));
+    tab.finished_since_visit = true;
+    tab.window.refreshStatus(tab);
 }
 
 /// The view lost its last pane, so the tab goes with it.

src/style.css

@@ -38,10 +38,57 @@
   color: #f0ecf8;
 }
 
-.playpen-list > row:selected image {
+/* The kind icon picks up the accent on the current row. The status dot is
+   excluded: it carries a colour that *is* the information, and this rule is
+   specific enough to beat the state classes, which used to leave the selected
+   row's dot accent-coloured whatever it was trying to say. */
+.playpen-list > row:selected image:not(.playpen-status-dot) {
   color: #b29df5;
 }
 
+/* State on the row itself, not just on its dot.
+
+   A bar down the leading edge and a wash behind the whole row, both in the
+   state's colour. The dot says what a row is doing once you are reading it;
+   these are what let you sweep a sidebar of a dozen tabs and land on the one
+   that wants you without reading any of them.
+
+   The bar is an inset shadow rather than a real border because a border takes
+   part in layout: 3px of it would shove every label sideways as a tab changed
+   state, and a sidebar that twitches is worse than one that is hard to read.
+
+   These come after the :selected rules deliberately. Equal specificity means
+   source order decides, and a state outranks "this is the tab you are on". */
+.playpen-list > row.playpen-attn-busy {
+  box-shadow: inset 3px 0 0 #b29df5;
+}
+
+/* No wash for working. It is the most common state by far, and a sidebar where
+   half the rows are tinted all afternoon teaches you to stop looking. */
+.playpen-list > row.playpen-attn-done {
+  box-shadow: inset 3px 0 0 #7ddc9a;
+  background-color: rgba(125, 220, 154, 0.13);
+}
+
+.playpen-list > row.playpen-attn-input {
+  box-shadow: inset 3px 0 0 #f0c069;
+  background-color: rgba(240, 192, 105, 0.13);
+}
+
+.playpen-list > row.playpen-attn-failed {
+  box-shadow: inset 3px 0 0 #f2a0a0;
+  background-color: rgba(242, 160, 160, 0.13);
+}
+
+/* The current row keeps its own background: the wash and the selection would
+   otherwise blend into a colour that reads as neither. The bar survives, which
+   is the part that carries the state. */
+.playpen-list > row:selected.playpen-attn-done,
+.playpen-list > row:selected.playpen-attn-input,
+.playpen-list > row:selected.playpen-attn-failed {
+  background-color: #342c4a;
+}
+
 /* Keep the close button unobtrusive until the row is hovered or current. */
 .playpen-close {
   opacity: 0;
@@ -137,7 +184,7 @@
    are picked to survive that: amber and red carry the two states that actually
    want you, and they are the only warm colours anywhere in the window. */
 .playpen-status-dot {
-  -gtk-icon-size: 8px;
+  -gtk-icon-size: 11px;
   opacity: 0;
 }
 
@@ -230,6 +277,46 @@
   opacity: 0.55;
 }
 
+/* State on a pane's own frame, so a tab full of splits says which pane is
+   asking without being read pane by pane.
+
+   Only the three states that are news get a border. Working deliberately does
+   not: it is the resting state of every pane you have set going, and colouring
+   the frame for it would leave the whole view repainting itself all afternoon
+   while saying nothing you did not already know. Its pulsing dot is enough.
+
+   After `.active` and `.zoomed` in source order, so a state outranks both —
+   they say where you are, which you know, and this says what happened, which
+   you don't. `.dragging` still wins over all of it, further down: while you are
+   moving a pane, feedback about the move is the only thing that matters. */
+.playpen-pane.playpen-attn-done {
+  border-color: #7ddc9a;
+}
+
+.playpen-pane.playpen-attn-input {
+  border-color: #f0c069;
+}
+
+.playpen-pane.playpen-attn-failed {
+  border-color: #f2a0a0;
+}
+
+/* The header carries a wash of the same colour. The border alone is a hairline
+   around a large shape; the header is a solid band right next to the dot and
+   the title, which is what makes a pane readable at a glance in a four-way
+   split. */
+.playpen-pane.playpen-attn-done .playpen-pane-header {
+  background-color: rgba(125, 220, 154, 0.12);
+}
+
+.playpen-pane.playpen-attn-input .playpen-pane-header {
+  background-color: rgba(240, 192, 105, 0.12);
+}
+
+.playpen-pane.playpen-attn-failed .playpen-pane-header {
+  background-color: rgba(242, 160, 160, 0.12);
+}
+
 /* The pane being dragged. There is no separate drop indicator: the layout
    rearranges live during the drag, so the view itself is the preview. */
 .playpen-pane.dragging {