diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/components/ToolActivity.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/components/ToolActivity.tsx
index d68a6410..3761e02c 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/components/ToolActivity.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/Chat/components/ToolActivity.tsx
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ function getToolSummary(toolName: string, toolInput: Record<string, unknown>): s
     case 'Write':
       return (toolInput.file_path as string) ?? '';
     case 'Bash':
-      return truncate((toolInput.command as string) ?? '', 80);
+      return bashOperation((toolInput.command as string) ?? '');
     case 'Grep':
     case 'Glob':
       return (toolInput.pattern as string) ?? '';
@@ -54,8 +54,72 @@ function getToolSummary(toolName: string, toolInput: Record<string, unknown>): s
   }
 }
 
-function truncate(str: string, max: number): string {
-  return str.length > max ? str.slice(0, max) + '...' : str;
+/**
+ * The first segment of a compound command is usually scaffolding — a `cd` into the repo, or an `echo`
+ * labelling the output for a human — and it is exactly what a head-truncated summary has room to show.
+ * A stack of rows then reads `cd /home/…/platform && git status…`, `echo "=== server-side…`, with the
+ * grep that actually answered the question off the end of every one of them.
+ *
+ * Only a leading `cd`/`echo` is skipped, and only up to a following `&&`/`;`, so nothing that does work
+ * is ever hidden. This is display-only: expanding the row, and the copy button, still give the real
+ * command verbatim.
+ */
+const PREAMBLE = /^\s*(?:cd\s+[^&;|]+|echo\s+(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'|[^&;|]+))\s*(?:&&|;)\s*/;
+
+function bashOperation(command: string): string {
+  let rest = command;
+  for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
+    const next = rest.replace(PREAMBLE, '');
+    if (next === rest) break;
+    rest = next;
+  }
+  // A command that is *only* a preamble (`cd somewhere`) still has to say something.
+  return rest.trim() || command.trim();
+}
+
+/**
+ * Split a summary so the browser truncates it in the **middle** instead of at the end.
+ *
+ * The end is where the identity lives: one filename per row distinguishes ten `Read`s that share a
+ * directory, and a command's target is the last thing on the line. Cutting the tail — which both
+ * `slice()` and CSS `truncate` do — throws away precisely the part you were scanning for. So the tail
+ * is pinned as its own non-shrinking span and the head is left to ellipsise, which lands the cut in the
+ * middle at whatever width the panel happens to be.
+ */
+const HEAD_MAX = 200;
+
+function splitSummary(text: string): { head: string; tail: string } {
+  const flat = text.replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim();
+  if (flat.length <= 48) return { head: flat, tail: '' };
+  const window = flat.slice(-40);
+  const cut = Math.max(window.lastIndexOf('/'), window.lastIndexOf(' '));
+  // Prefer a real boundary; a tail cut mid-token still beats no tail at all.
+  const tail = cut > 0 && cut < window.length - 1 ? window.slice(cut + 1) : window.slice(-24);
+  const head = flat.slice(0, flat.length - tail.length);
+  return { head: head.length > HEAD_MAX ? head.slice(0, HEAD_MAX) : head, tail };
+}
+
+/**
+ * What the collapsed row never said: whether the call found anything.
+ *
+ * `done` reported only that it ran — the least interesting fact in a trace, in the loudest colour on the
+ * row, repeated on every row. Whether a grep matched is the thing you were actually scanning for, and it
+ * used to cost an expand to learn.
+ */
+function outputHint(toolName: string, output: string): string | null {
+  const lines = output.split('\n').filter((l) => l.trim()).length;
+  const plural = (n: number, word: string) => `${n} ${word}${n === 1 ? '' : 's'}`;
+  switch (toolName) {
+    case 'Grep':
+      return lines ? plural(lines, 'match') : 'no matches';
+    case 'Glob':
+      return lines ? plural(lines, 'file') : 'no files';
+    case 'Read':
+    case 'Bash':
+      return lines ? plural(lines, 'line') : 'no output';
+    default:
+      return null;
+  }
 }
 
 /**
@@ -76,10 +140,11 @@ export const ToolActivity = ({ message }: ToolActivityProps) => {
   const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
 
   const Icon = toolIcons[message.toolName] ?? Wrench;
-  const summary = getToolSummary(message.toolName, message.toolInput);
+  const { head, tail } = splitSummary(getToolSummary(message.toolName, message.toolInput));
   const pending = message.output === undefined;
   const isError = message.isError === true;
   const children = message.children ?? [];
+  const hint = pending || isError ? null : outputHint(message.toolName, message.output ?? '');
 
   // Computed even while collapsed, because the +/− counts are what make the collapsed row worth reading.
   const diff = useMemo(() => editDiff(message.toolName, message.toolInput), [message.toolName, message.toolInput]);
@@ -95,7 +160,10 @@ export const ToolActivity = ({ message }: ToolActivityProps) => {
         <ChevronRight className={`h-3 w-3 shrink-0 transition-transform ${open ? 'rotate-90' : ''}`} />
         <Icon className="h-4 w-4 shrink-0 text-duck-teal" />
         <span className="font-medium text-foreground">{message.toolName}</span>
-        <span className="min-w-0 flex-1 truncate font-mono text-xs text-muted-foreground">{summary}</span>
+        <span className="flex min-w-0 flex-1 items-center font-mono text-xs text-muted-foreground">
+          <span className="min-w-0 truncate">{head}</span>
+          {tail && <span className="shrink-0">{tail}</span>}
+        </span>
         <span className="flex shrink-0 items-center gap-2">
           {stat && (stat.added > 0 || stat.removed > 0) && (
             <span className="tabular-nums text-xs">
@@ -109,9 +177,10 @@ export const ToolActivity = ({ message }: ToolActivityProps) => {
               {children.length} step{children.length === 1 ? '' : 's'}
             </span>
           )}
+          {hint && <span className="text-xs tabular-nums text-muted-foreground">{hint}</span>}
           {pending && <span className="inline-block h-2 w-2 animate-pulse rounded-full bg-warning" />}
-          {!pending && !isError && <span className="text-xs text-success">done</span>}
-          {!pending && isError && <span className="text-xs text-destructive">error</span>}
+          {/* Success is the default case and says nothing worth a colour; only a failure earns one. */}
+          {isError && <span className="text-xs text-destructive">error</span>}
         </span>
       </button>