Activity Status
While the agent is working, muxd displays a live status line at the bottom of the TUI. It gives you a real-time picture of what the agent is doing, how much it has done, and how long it has been running — without scrolling through the output.
What It Shows
The status line has four components:
[file_edit internal/store/store.go] · 7 tools · 3 files changed · 0:42
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Current tool | The tool being called right now, with relevant context (file path, command, etc.) |
| Tool count | Total number of tool calls made in this turn so far |
| Files changed | Number of distinct files written or edited |
| Elapsed time | Wall-clock time since the turn started |
Spinners and Background Jobs
The status line uses an animated spinner while the agent is active. You can change the spinner style at runtime:
/spinner
or:
/config set theme.spinner mini-dot
When background shell jobs are running (via bash_background), muxd shows a separate background-job indicator so you can tell long-running work is still active even between regular tool calls.
Thinking Messages
Between tool calls, while the model is generating its next response, a rotating thinking message is shown in place of the tool name:
[Reasoning through the test failures...] · 4 tools · 1 file changed · 0:18
The messages rotate every few seconds. They are cosmetic — they do not reflect anything about the model's internal state.
During Streaming
The status line remains visible while the assistant's response is being streamed to the terminal. Instead of a tool name, it shows the streaming state:
[Writing...] · 12 tools · 5 files changed · 1:03
This means you always know whether the agent is thinking, calling a tool, or writing its reply.
Examples
Different operations produce different status line text:
[bash: go test ./...] — running a shell command
[file_read src/main.go] — reading a file
[file_edit internal/agent/loop.go] — editing a file
[file_write tests/integration_test.go] — writing a new file
[web_search: golang context cancellation] — running a web search
[Background: npm run dev] — background shell job started/running
[Writing...] — streaming a response
[Thinking about the next step...] — between tool calls
Always On
The activity status is always shown during an agent run and cannot be disabled. It disappears automatically when the agent finishes its turn and the input prompt returns.