From 45fff13b1d609b582e2fcbd831dd2b243b9e5336 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vincent Koc <vincentkoc@ieee.org>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2026 01:13:02 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] TUI: strip only leading inbound metadata (#22461)

---
 src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/tui/tui-formatters.ts                  |  4 +-
 src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts             |  3 +-
 3 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts b/src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts
index 775de7564..29cf42c48 100644
--- a/src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts
+++ b/src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts
@@ -87,3 +87,49 @@ export function stripInboundMetadata(text: string): string {
 
   return result.join("\n").replace(/^\n+/, "");
 }
+
+export function stripLeadingInboundMetadata(text: string): string {
+  if (!text || !SENTINEL_FAST_RE.test(text)) {
+    return text;
+  }
+
+  const lines = text.split("\n");
+  let index = 0;
+
+  while (index < lines.length && lines[index] === "") {
+    index++;
+  }
+  if (index >= lines.length) {
+    return "";
+  }
+
+  if (!INBOUND_META_SENTINELS.some((s) => lines[index].startsWith(s))) {
+    return text;
+  }
+
+  while (index < lines.length) {
+    const line = lines[index];
+    if (!INBOUND_META_SENTINELS.some((s) => line.startsWith(s))) {
+      break;
+    }
+
+    index++;
+    if (index < lines.length && lines[index].trim() === "```json") {
+      index++;
+      while (index < lines.length && lines[index].trim() !== "```") {
+        index++;
+      }
+      if (index < lines.length && lines[index].trim() === "```") {
+        index++;
+      }
+    } else {
+      return text;
+    }
+
+    while (index < lines.length && lines[index].trim() === "") {
+      index++;
+    }
+  }
+
+  return lines.slice(index).join("\n");
+}
diff --git a/src/tui/tui-formatters.ts b/src/tui/tui-formatters.ts
index 9d2ea8284..ae52e3b37 100644
--- a/src/tui/tui-formatters.ts
+++ b/src/tui/tui-formatters.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { formatRawAssistantErrorForUi } from "../agents/pi-embedded-helpers.js";
-import { stripInboundMetadata } from "../auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.js";
+import { stripLeadingInboundMetadata } from "../auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.js";
 import { stripAnsi } from "../terminal/ansi.js";
 import { formatTokenCount } from "../utils/usage-format.js";
 
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ export function extractTextFromMessage(
   const text = extractTextBlocks(record.content, opts);
   if (text) {
     if (record.role === "user") {
-      return stripInboundMetadata(text);
+      return stripLeadingInboundMetadata(text);
     }
     return text;
   }
diff --git a/src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts b/src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts
index 894b59d6f..82c6a795d 100644
--- a/src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts
+++ b/src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import type { TUI } from "@mariozechner/pi-tui";
-import { stripInboundMetadata } from "../auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.js";
 import type { SessionsPatchResult } from "../gateway/protocol/index.js";
 import {
   normalizeAgentId,
@@ -327,7 +326,7 @@ export function createSessionActions(context: SessionActionContext) {
         if (message.role === "user") {
           const text = extractTextFromMessage(message);
           if (text) {
-            chatLog.addUser(stripInboundMetadata(text));
+            chatLog.addUser(text);
           }
           continue;
         }