Review — end-to-end ✅ (approved after small tooltip fix pushed)

What this ships

v0.50.226 — restores the rail-era app titlebar by absorbing @aronprins' PR #1141:

• Removes the tps-chip element (id="tpsStat") from the global app titlebar (static/index.html)
• Centers the titlebar (desktop): .app-titlebar and .app-titlebar-inner use justify-content:center; mobile media query overrides back to space-between so the hamburger keeps its slot (static/style.css:210-211, static/style.css:844-846)
• Restores n_messages count in the subtitle slot via syncAppTitlebar (static/panels.js:36-37)
• Deletes the _syncQueueTitlebar helper that was hijacking the subtitle slot for queue state, plus its single call site in updateQueueBadge and syncTopbar (static/ui.js)

Traced against upstream hermes-agent

Pulled fresh nousresearch/hermes-agent tarball. grep -rn "tpsStat\|app-titlebar\|tps-chip" returns nothing — pure WebUI-frontend chrome change with zero agent coupling.

End-to-end trace

Removing #tpsStat is safe

The streaming metering SSE listener at static/messages.js:827-839 is the only consumer of the chip. It has a defensive guard:

source.addEventListener('metering',e=>{
  try{
    const d=JSON.parse(e.data||'{}');
    const el=$('tpsStat');
    if(!el) return;          // ← guard at line 833
    ...
    el.textContent=`${tps} t/s · ${high}${low?' · '+low:''}`;
  }catch(_){}
});

With the chip gone, $('tpsStat') returns null, the guard returns immediately, and the wrapping try/catch swallows nothing because no error is thrown. ✅ The PR description's claim is accurate.

_syncQueueTitlebar removal — orphan check

grep -rn "tpsStat\|tps-chip\|_syncQueueTitlebar" static/ api/
# static/messages.js:832    ← guarded, fine
# (no other refs)

Both updateQueueBadge (the line that was calling it) and syncTopbar had their _syncQueueTitlebar invocations removed in the diff. The queue is still surfaced through the existing queuePill element via _updateQueuePill at static/ui.js:1317-1347 — count>0 + flyout-not-visible → pill shows; click pill → re-opens card. The user-facing affordance for queue state is unchanged; only the titlebar duplicate is gone.

syncAppTitlebar subtitle update path

syncAppTitlebar is called from many places that matter:

• syncTopbar() calls it (chat panel updates, message stream completion, send/queue events)
• i18n.js:4199 after locale switch
• panels.js:81-100, 177, 737, 1719, 1755, 1783, 2076, 2082, 2770 (panel changes, rename, switch session)
• commands.js:336 after slash-command runs

That covers every path where S.messages would change in chat panel context. The subtitle stays current.

Mobile layout

static/style.css:843-846 override:

.app-titlebar{justify-content:space-between;}
.app-titlebar-hamburger,.app-titlebar-spacer{display:flex;}
.app-titlebar-inner{flex:1 1 auto;}

Inside the @media (max-width:768px) block — mobile gets space-between (so the hamburger pushes to one side and content fills) while desktop centers. Verified the override comes after the desktop rule so cascade is correct.

What I caught — stale tooltip on queue hide button

static/ui.js:1206 had:

hideBtn.title='Hide queue (click the titlebar badge to show again)';

But this PR removes the titlebar queue badge entirely — there is no longer anything in the titlebar to "click to show again". The actual affordance is the queue pill (rendered by _updateQueuePill after the card is hidden). User following the tooltip would look in the wrong place.

What I pushed — 1d11646

hideBtn.title='Hide queue (click the queue pill to show again)';

Plus updated the adjacent code comment. Two-line cosmetic fix; no behaviour change.

Other audit — confirmed correct

• JS syntax: node --check passes on panels.js, ui.js, messages.js.
• i18n coverage: n_messages key exists in all 7 locales (en, ru, es, de, zh, zh-Hant, ko).
• PR's tests: 4/4 pass — verifies (a) id="tpsStat" gone from index.html, (b) centered desktop CSS present, (c) subtitle line in panels.js, (d) _syncQueueTitlebar symbol gone from ui.js.
• Race / state: no shared state mutated; pure DOM chrome.
• CI on PR: ✅ test (3.11), ✅ test (3.12), ✅ test (3.13).

Edge-case trace

Tests

• PR's tests (test_app_titlebar_restore.py): 4/4 pass.
• Local full suite: 2547 passed, 47 skipped, 1 PR-unrelated failure (test_sprint3.py::test_workspace_add_rejects_system_paths — verified pre-existing on master with the same file; macOS-specific quirk unrelated to titlebar).
• CI on PR: green on 3.11/3.12/3.13.

Minor observations (non-blocking)

• The "0 messages" subtitle on a fresh session is technically rendered (since the conditional is if (typeof t === 'function') not if (vis.length > 0)). This matches the rail-era behaviour the PR explicitly restores, so it's intended — just noting for future polish.
• The tps-chip CSS rule deletion also removes its styling block; if anyone re-introduces a metering chip elsewhere they'll need to redefine the styles.

Recommendation

Approved. Clean restoration of the rail-era titlebar — TPS chip removal is safe (guarded listener), _syncQueueTitlebar removal is complete (no orphan refs), subtitle correctly switches to message count via syncAppTitlebar, mobile override preserves hamburger layout. One stale tooltip on the queue hide button caught and fixed in 1d11646. CI green; PR's 4 tests + full suite (2547 passed, only an unrelated pre-existing failure) confirm no regression. Parked at approval — ready for the release agent's merge/tag pipeline.