Summary

Pulled the branch and walked the diff. The change is a clean visual simplification of the compact Activity row: drop the redundant tool-name list and trailing count badge, keep just Activity: N tools plus the duration. The DESIGN.md update encodes the new invariant. One coordination note about #1729 below.

Code reference

Reading static/ui.js:3792 on the branch, the new template literal is:

group.innerHTML=`<button type="button" class="tool-call-group-summary" aria-expanded="${collapsed?'false':'true'}" onclick="..."><span class="tool-call-group-chevron">${li('chevron-right',12)}</span><span class="tool-call-group-label">Activity</span><span class="tool-call-group-duration"></span></button><div class="tool-call-group-body"></div>`;

vs origin/master which still has .tool-call-group-list ("tools / thinking" placeholder) and .tool-call-group-count ("0" badge) spans.

The matching _syncToolCallGroupSummary simplification on static/ui.js:4874-4895:

const cards=Array.from(group.querySelectorAll('.tool-card-row .tool-card'));
const toolCount=cards.length;
const label=group.querySelector('.tool-call-group-label');
const durationEl=group.querySelector('.tool-call-group-duration');
if(label){
  if(toolCount) label.textContent=`Activity: ${toolCount} tool${toolCount===1?'':'s'}`;
  else label.textContent='Activity';
}

That drops the thinkingCount query, the uniqueNames extraction, the parts join, and the total = toolCount + thinkingCount accounting. The thinking activity is still rendered on expand (it's inside .tool-call-group-body); just not previewed in the collapsed summary anymore.

Diagnosis

The DESIGN.md edit at DESIGN.md:140-143 is precise about the new invariant:

Summary line uses one disclosure for internals and stays intentionally terse, e.g. Activity: 4 tools. It should not repeat the always-present thinking area, list individual tool names, or add a second trailing count badge.

That language explicitly forbids each of the three things removed. The two static regression tests in tests/test_ui_tool_call_cleanup.py lock in the absence of .tool-call-group-list / .tool-call-group-count from the template, so future changes that try to reintroduce a names list or count badge will trip a test.

The CSS removals in static/style.css:1753-1756 (deleting the rules for .tool-call-group-list and .tool-call-group-count) are clean orphan cleanup since both spans are now gone.

Coordination with #1729

#1729 ("persist compact activity disclosure state") is open right now and edits the same ensureActivityGroup() template with a different shape — it keeps the .tool-call-group-list span and the .tool-call-group-count span, and rewrites the onclick to call _toggleActivityGroup(this). Whichever of these two PRs lands second will need a rebase; mechanically:

• If this lands first, fix: persist compact activity disclosure state #1729 needs to drop its .tool-call-group-list and .tool-call-group-count spans and apply just the persistence-key + onclick rewrite.
• If fix: persist compact activity disclosure state #1729 lands first, this PR needs to keep the new persistence wiring in _toggleActivityGroup while still removing the two spans + their CSS + their _syncToolCallGroupSummary accounting.

I left the same coordination note on #1729. The two changes are conceptually independent (visual cleanup vs. UI-state durability), so neither should block the other — just needs a quick reconciliation pass on whichever rebases.

Verification

CI is green on 3.11/3.12/3.13 at commit 443425d. The before/after media in docs/pr-media/1725/ shows the simplification clearly. Looks good to merge once the #1729 ordering is decided.

Thanks @Michaelyklam — this shipped in v0.51.8 (commit 85d0279) as part of a 7-PR full-sweep batch release. Stage rebased your branch onto current master, ran the full pre-release gate (4584 pytest, browser tests, Opus advisor verdict SHIP), and merged via release PR #1737.

GitHub didn't auto-close because the merge commit only references the squash-merged stage branch, not your fork's commit directly — closing manually for hygiene.

Live now on https://get-hermes.ai/ and on existing installs after git pull + restart.

Release notes: https://github.com/nesquena/hermes-webui/releases/tag/v0.51.8