feat: allow dismissing pending user-input questions

Add dismiss/close functionality to the pending user-input question UI.
Empty answers ({}) are treated as a dismissal -- both adapters detect
this and inform the model with explicit "[User dismissed this question
without answering]" text. No contract or pipeline changes needed.

Closes #479, Closes #856

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: mrinc

apps/server/src/codexAppServerManager.ts

@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ interface PendingUserInputRequest {
   threadId: ThreadId;
   turnId?: TurnId;
   itemId?: ProviderItemId;
+  questionIds?: string[];
 }
 
 interface CodexUserInputAnswer {
@@ -864,7 +865,17 @@ export class CodexAppServerManager extends EventEmitter<CodexAppServerManagerEve
     }
 
     context.pendingUserInputs.delete(requestId);
-    const codexAnswers = toCodexUserInputAnswers(answers);
+    const isDismissed =
+      Object.keys(answers as Record<string, unknown>).length === 0 &&
+      pendingRequest.questionIds;
+    const codexAnswers = isDismissed
+      ? Object.fromEntries(
+          pendingRequest.questionIds!.map((id) => [
+            id,
+            { answers: ["[User dismissed this question without answering]"] },
+          ]),
+        )
+      : toCodexUserInputAnswers(answers);
     this.writeMessage(context, {
       id: pendingRequest.jsonRpcId,
       result: {
@@ -1148,12 +1159,19 @@ export class CodexAppServerManager extends EventEmitter<CodexAppServerManagerEve
 
     if (request.method === "item/tool/requestUserInput") {
       requestId = ApprovalRequestId.makeUnsafe(randomUUID());
+      const rawQuestions = Array.isArray((request.params as Record<string, unknown>)?.questions)
+        ? ((request.params as Record<string, unknown>).questions as Array<Record<string, unknown>>)
+        : [];
+      const questionIds = rawQuestions
+        .map((q) => (typeof q.id === "string" ? q.id : null))
+        .filter((id): id is string => id !== null);
       context.pendingUserInputs.set(requestId, {
         requestId,
         jsonRpcId: request.id,
         threadId: context.session.threadId,
         ...(effectiveTurnId ? { turnId: effectiveTurnId } : {}),
         ...(rawRoute.itemId ? { itemId: rawRoute.itemId } : {}),
+        ...(questionIds.length > 0 ? { questionIds } : {}),
       });
     }
 

apps/server/src/provider/Layers/ClaudeAdapter.ts

@@ -2501,6 +2501,22 @@ const makeClaudeAdapter = Effect.fn("makeClaudeAdapter")(function* (
           } satisfies PermissionResult;
         }
 
+        // Empty answers means the user dismissed the question without answering.
+        if (Object.keys(answers as Record<string, unknown>).length === 0) {
+          const dismissedAnswers: Record<string, string> = {};
+          for (const q of questions) {
+            dismissedAnswers[q.question || q.header] =
+              "[User dismissed this question without answering]";
+          }
+          return {
+            behavior: "allow",
+            updatedInput: {
+              questions: toolInput.questions,
+              answers: dismissedAnswers,
+            },
+          } satisfies PermissionResult;
+        }
+
         // Return the answers to the SDK in the expected format:
         // { questions: [...], answers: { questionText: selectedLabel } }
         return {

apps/web/src/components/ChatView.tsx

@@ -1081,6 +1081,7 @@ export default function ChatView({ threadId }: ChatViewProps) {
   const activePendingIsResponding = activePendingUserInput
     ? respondingUserInputRequestIds.includes(activePendingUserInput.requestId)
     : false;
+
   const activeProposedPlan = useMemo(() => {
     if (!latestTurnSettled) {
       return null;
@@ -3193,6 +3194,55 @@ export default function ChatView({ threadId }: ChatViewProps) {
     [activeThreadId, setThreadError],
   );
 
+  const onDismissUserInput = useCallback(
+    async (requestId: ApprovalRequestId) => {
+      const api = readNativeApi();
+      if (!api || !activeThreadId) return;
+
+      setRespondingUserInputRequestIds((existing) =>
+        existing.includes(requestId) ? existing : [...existing, requestId],
+      );
+      await api.orchestration
+        .dispatchCommand({
+          type: "thread.user-input.respond",
+          commandId: newCommandId(),
+          threadId: activeThreadId,
+          requestId,
+          answers: {},
+          createdAt: new Date().toISOString(),
+        })
+        .catch((err: unknown) => {
+          setThreadError(
+            activeThreadId,
+            err instanceof Error ? err.message : "Failed to dismiss user input.",
+          );
+        });
+      setRespondingUserInputRequestIds((existing) => existing.filter((id) => id !== requestId));
+      setPendingUserInputAnswersByRequestId((existing) => {
+        const { [requestId]: _, ...rest } = existing;
+        return rest;
+      });
+      setPendingUserInputQuestionIndexByRequestId((existing) => {
+        const { [requestId]: _, ...rest } = existing;
+        return rest;
+      });
+    },
+    [activeThreadId, setThreadError],
+  );
+
+  // Dismiss pending user input on Escape key press.
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (!activePendingUserInput || activePendingIsResponding) return;
+    const handler = (event: globalThis.KeyboardEvent) => {
+      if (event.key === "Escape") {
+        event.preventDefault();
+        void onDismissUserInput(activePendingUserInput.requestId);
+      }
+    };
+    document.addEventListener("keydown", handler);
+    return () => document.removeEventListener("keydown", handler);
+  }, [activePendingUserInput, activePendingIsResponding, onDismissUserInput]);
+
   const setActivePendingUserInputQuestionIndex = useCallback(
     (nextQuestionIndex: number) => {
       if (!activePendingUserInput) {
@@ -4064,6 +4114,7 @@ export default function ChatView({ threadId }: ChatViewProps) {
                         questionIndex={activePendingQuestionIndex}
                         onSelectOption={onSelectActivePendingUserInputOption}
                         onAdvance={onAdvanceActivePendingUserInput}
+                        onDismiss={onDismissUserInput}
                       />
                     </div>
                   ) : showPlanFollowUpPrompt && activeProposedPlan ? (

apps/web/src/components/chat/ComposerPendingUserInputPanel.tsx

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import {
   derivePendingUserInputProgress,
   type PendingUserInputDraftAnswer,
 } from "../../pendingUserInput";
-import { CheckIcon } from "lucide-react";
+import { CheckIcon, XIcon } from "lucide-react";
 import { cn } from "~/lib/utils";
 
 interface PendingUserInputPanelProps {
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ interface PendingUserInputPanelProps {
   questionIndex: number;
   onSelectOption: (questionId: string, optionLabel: string) => void;
   onAdvance: () => void;
+  onDismiss: (requestId: ApprovalRequestId) => void;
 }
 
 export const ComposerPendingUserInputPanel = memo(function ComposerPendingUserInputPanel({
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ export const ComposerPendingUserInputPanel = memo(function ComposerPendingUserIn
   questionIndex,
   onSelectOption,
   onAdvance,
+  onDismiss,
 }: PendingUserInputPanelProps) {
   if (pendingUserInputs.length === 0) return null;
   const activePrompt = pendingUserInputs[0];
@@ -38,6 +40,7 @@ export const ComposerPendingUserInputPanel = memo(function ComposerPendingUserIn
       questionIndex={questionIndex}
       onSelectOption={onSelectOption}
       onAdvance={onAdvance}
+      onDismiss={onDismiss}
     />
   );
 });
@@ -49,13 +52,15 @@ const ComposerPendingUserInputCard = memo(function ComposerPendingUserInputCard(
   questionIndex,
   onSelectOption,
   onAdvance,
+  onDismiss,
 }: {
   prompt: PendingUserInput;
   isResponding: boolean;
   answers: Record<string, PendingUserInputDraftAnswer>;
   questionIndex: number;
   onSelectOption: (questionId: string, optionLabel: string) => void;
   onAdvance: () => void;
+  onDismiss: (requestId: ApprovalRequestId) => void;
 }) {
   const progress = derivePendingUserInputProgress(prompt.questions, answers, questionIndex);
   const activeQuestion = progress.activeQuestion;
@@ -122,7 +127,7 @@ const ComposerPendingUserInputCard = memo(function ComposerPendingUserInputCard(
   return (
     <div className="px-4 py-3 sm:px-5">
       <div className="flex items-center gap-3">
-        <div className="flex items-center gap-2">
+        <div className="flex flex-1 items-center gap-2">
           {prompt.questions.length > 1 ? (
             <span className="flex h-5 items-center rounded-md bg-muted/60 px-1.5 text-[10px] font-medium tabular-nums text-muted-foreground/60">
               {questionIndex + 1}/{prompt.questions.length}
@@ -132,6 +137,16 @@ const ComposerPendingUserInputCard = memo(function ComposerPendingUserInputCard(
             {activeQuestion.header}
           </span>
         </div>
+        <button
+          type="button"
+          disabled={isResponding}
+          onClick={() => void onDismiss(prompt.requestId)}
+          className="flex size-5 shrink-0 cursor-pointer items-center justify-center rounded text-muted-foreground/40 transition-colors hover:text-muted-foreground/70 hover:bg-muted/40 disabled:opacity-50 disabled:cursor-not-allowed"
+          aria-label="Dismiss question"
+          title="Dismiss (Esc)"
+        >
+          <XIcon className="size-3.5" />
+        </button>
       </div>
       <p className="mt-1.5 text-sm text-foreground/90">{activeQuestion.question}</p>
       <div className="mt-3 space-y-1">