Collapse long user messages and offer “Send as text file” for large pasted text

[Conanxy]

What feature would you like to see?

When a user pastes or sends a large block of text in the web composer, HAPI should offer two options:

1. Send it as normal text.
2. Convert it into a .txt attachment.

After sending, long user messages should be collapsed by default, with “Show more”, “Show less”, and “Copy” actions.

The complete original content should still be preserved and delivered to the agent. Collapsing should only affect how the message is displayed.

This would make conversations containing logs, code, specifications, stack traces, or other long pasted content much easier to navigate.

Additional information

No response

[github-actions]

Thanks for the clear request. This is not currently implemented.

Plain-text paste currently stays in the composer as text; the paste handler only intercepts pasted image files. The existing attachment pipeline already accepts arbitrary file types up to 50 MiB, so converting selected text into a text/plain .txt file can reuse that pipeline.

User messages currently render the complete text without a collapse state. A Copy action already copies the original full text. The hub also stores the complete text separately from attachment metadata, so the requested Show more / Show less behavior can remain presentation-only without changing what is preserved or sent.

Relevant code:

• web/src/components/AssistantChat/HappyComposer.tsx:1395 - paste handling only extracts image files; ordinary pasted text is left unchanged.
• web/src/lib/attachmentAdapter.ts:9 - attachment upload limit is 50 MiB.
• web/src/lib/attachmentAdapter.ts:39 - composer attachment adapter accepts arbitrary file types.
• web/src/components/AssistantChat/messages/UserMessage.tsx:107 - user text is rendered directly with no collapse state.
• web/src/components/AssistantChat/messages/UserMessage.tsx:125 - message actions receive the full text for Copy.
• hub/src/sync/messageService.ts:876 - full message text and attachment metadata are persisted as separate fields.
• cli/src/utils/attachmentFormatter.ts:18 - uploaded attachments are added to agent prompts as file references.

Need more info:

• What threshold should trigger the Send as text / Send as .txt choice: character count, line count, or byte size?
• How many lines should remain visible when a long user message is collapsed by default?

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HAPI Bot

[Conanxy]

Thanks for the clear request. This is not currently implemented.

Plain-text paste currently stays in the composer as text; the paste handler only intercepts pasted image files. The existing attachment pipeline already accepts arbitrary file types up to 50 MiB, so converting selected text into a text/plain .txt file can reuse that pipeline.

User messages currently render the complete text without a collapse state. A Copy action already copies the original full text. The hub also stores the complete text separately from attachment metadata, so the requested Show more / Show less behavior can remain presentation-only without changing what is preserved or sent.

Relevant code:

• web/src/components/AssistantChat/HappyComposer.tsx:1395 - paste handling only extracts image files; ordinary pasted text is left unchanged.
• web/src/lib/attachmentAdapter.ts:9 - attachment upload limit is 50 MiB.
• web/src/lib/attachmentAdapter.ts:39 - composer attachment adapter accepts arbitrary file types.
• web/src/components/AssistantChat/messages/UserMessage.tsx:107 - user text is rendered directly with no collapse state.
• web/src/components/AssistantChat/messages/UserMessage.tsx:125 - message actions receive the full text for Copy.
• hub/src/sync/messageService.ts:876 - full message text and attachment metadata are persisted as separate fields.
• cli/src/utils/attachmentFormatter.ts:18 - uploaded attachments are added to agent prompts as file references.

Need more info:

• What threshold should trigger the Send as text / Send as .txt choice: character count, line count, or byte size?
• How many lines should remain visible when a long user message is collapsed by default?

HAPI Bot

Thanks for checking the implementation details.

My preference would be:

1. Trigger the choice when pasted content exceeds either 4,000 characters or 40 lines, whichever comes first. Character count plus line count is more intuitive than byte size, especially for logs and code.

2. Show an explicit choice between “Send as text” and “Send as .txt”. Please do not silently convert the content into a file.

3. For long user messages, show the first 10 lines by default, followed by “Show more” / “Show less”. The existing Copy action should continue copying the complete original text.

The same threshold can be used for both the paste prompt and the collapsed display. I do not think the threshold needs to be configurable in the first version.

[Conanxy]

Thanks for checking the implementation details. My preference would be: Trigger the choice when pasted content exceeds either 4,000 characters or 40 lines, whichever comes first. Character count plus line count is more intuitive than byte size, especially for logs and code. Show an explicit choice between “Send as text” and “Send as .txt”. Please do not silently convert the content into a file. For long user messages, show the first 10 lines by default, followed by “Show more” / “Show less”. The existing Copy action should continue copying the complete original text. The same threshold can be used for both the paste prompt and the collapsed display. I do not think the threshold needs to be configurable in the first version.   ***@***.***