the watcher shows above the composer, named for what it watches

"watching" was a word in the metadata bar at the top, next to the token
count. the thing the owner actually reads is the strip above the input,
where background tasks live — and a watcher had nothing there at all, so a
commander quietly doing its job looked like a commander doing nothing.

WatcherStrip, in the same component and the same place as the task chips,
because to the person reading it is the same KIND of thing: something
running on their behalf that they want to see without scrolling.

it is NOT a background task and cannot be derived like one — a watcher is a
detached loop that outlives the turn that armed it, so it has no task id
and never appears in `messages`. the platform knows it from a pid file, and
only the screen holding the commander's metadata knows what it watches. so
it is passed in.

named for the subject rather than the fact: "Voice Memos", not "watcher
armed".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Officer-Session: 656f5c85-e49a-4f1f-b9f3-042a04b4d043

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/EmbeddableChat/EmbeddableChat.tsx

@@ -44,6 +44,14 @@ type EmbeddableChatProps = {
    * a commander opened in /chat had `context: 'chat'` and silently lost the control.
    */
   isCommander?: boolean;
+  /**
+   * A detached loop this conversation armed, shown above the composer beside the background tasks.
+   *
+   * Passed in rather than derived, because a watcher is not a background task: it has no task id and is
+   * not in `messages` at all — the platform knows about it from a pid file, and only the screen holding
+   * the commander's metadata can say what it watches.
+   */
+  watcher?: { label: string; running: boolean };
   /**
    * Refuse input entirely, with a reason the composer shows.
    *

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/EmbeddableChat/useEmbeddableChat.ts

@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ type UseEmbeddableChatParams = {
   contextId?: string;
   /** This session is a commander, per `GET /chat/sessions/:id`. See the note where it is surfaced. */
   isCommander?: boolean;
+  watcher?: { label: string; running: boolean };
   emptyState?: ReactNode;
 };
 
@@ -624,6 +625,7 @@ export function useEmbeddableChat(params: UseEmbeddableChatParams, onMessageComp
       would lose the brand-new composer, which has no session yet.
     */
     isCommander: params.context === 'command-hq' || params.isCommander === true,
+    watcher: params.watcher,
     emptyState: params.emptyState,
     /*
       Claude's transcript id, which is what a commander is keyed on everywhere — the Command HQ row, the

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/components/BackgroundTaskTray.tsx

@@ -243,6 +243,28 @@ const TaskStrip = ({ label, children, trailing, divided }: TaskStripProps) => (
   </div>
 );
 
+/**
+ * The commander's own watcher, docked in the same strip as the background tasks.
+ *
+ * A watcher is not a background TASK — it is a detached loop that outlives the turn that armed it, so it
+ * has no task id and never appears in `messages`. It is the same KIND of thing to the person reading:
+ * something running on their behalf that they want to see without scrolling. So it reads the same, sits
+ * in the same place, and says what it is watching rather than that something is watching.
+ */
+export const WatcherStrip = ({ label, running }: { label: string; running: boolean }) => (
+  <TaskStrip label={running ? 'watching' : 'not watching'}>
+    <span
+      className={`inline-flex min-w-0 shrink-0 items-center gap-1.5 rounded-full border px-2 py-0.5 text-xs ${
+        running ? 'border-success/40 text-foreground' : 'border-border text-muted-foreground'
+      }`}
+      title={label}
+    >
+      <span className={`h-1.5 w-1.5 shrink-0 rounded-full ${running ? 'bg-success' : 'bg-muted-foreground/40'}`} />
+      <span className="truncate">{label}</span>
+    </span>
+  </TaskStrip>
+);
+
 // ── Chip ──
 
 type TaskChipProps = {

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/components/InputArea.tsx

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import { useWorkspace } from '../../../components/Workspace';
 import { AttachmentList } from './AttachmentList';
 import { AttachButton } from './AttachButton';
 import { WebpageDialog } from './WebpageDialog';
-import { BackgroundTaskTray } from './BackgroundTaskTray';
+import { BackgroundTaskTray, WatcherStrip } from './BackgroundTaskTray';
 import { useTranslation } from '../../../locales';
 
 type InputAreaProps = {
@@ -119,6 +119,8 @@ export const InputArea = ({ manager, disabled }: InputAreaProps) => {
         <div className="mb-2 px-3 py-1.5 text-xs text-duck-teal bg-duck-teal/10 rounded-md">{commandFeedback}</div>
       )}
 
+      {manager.watcher && <WatcherStrip label={manager.watcher.label} running={manager.watcher.running} />}
+
       <BackgroundTaskTray messages={messages} sessionId={sessionId} />
 
       <QueuedList queued={queued} onRemove={unqueue} onSendNow={sendQueuedNow} />

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/CommandHQ/CommandHqDetail.tsx

@@ -654,6 +654,15 @@ type ResumeState = {
  * Same shape here.
  */
 function ResumedCommander({ sessionId, resume }: { sessionId: string; resume: ResumeState }) {
+  // The commander's own metadata, for the watcher strip above the composer. Same query the MetaBar above
+  // already holds, so this is a cache read rather than a second request.
+  const { commander } = useCommandHqCommander(sessionId);
+  const reference = commander?.referencePaths?.[0];
+  const watcher =
+    commander?.watcherArmed && reference
+      ? { label: reference.split('/').filter(Boolean).pop() ?? reference, running: commander.watcherRunning === true }
+      : undefined;
+
   const { t, tUi } = useTranslation();
   const chat = useChat(undefined, resume.model ?? undefined, {
     replaceUrl: false,
@@ -678,6 +687,9 @@ function ResumedCommander({ sessionId, resume }: { sessionId: string; resume: Re
         sessionId={undefined}
         context="command-hq"
         panelId={`command-hq:${sessionId}`}
+        // Named for what it watches, not for the fact that it does. "Voice Memos" above the composer says
+        // more than "watcher armed" ever did, and it is the only place the reference path is known.
+        watcher={watcher}
         className="min-h-0 flex-1"
       />
     </div>