feat: Improve the display of thinking content in the desktop UI (#8414)

Signed-off-by: jh-block <jhugo@block.xyz>

ui/desktop/src/components/GooseMessage.tsx

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { useMemo, useRef } from 'react';
 import ImagePreview from './ImagePreview';
 import { formatMessageTimestamp } from '../utils/timeUtils';
 import MarkdownContent from './MarkdownContent';
+import ThinkingContent from './ThinkingContent';
 import ToolCallWithResponse from './ToolCallWithResponse';
 import {
   getTextAndImageContent,
@@ -47,27 +48,9 @@ export default function GooseMessage({
 }: GooseMessageProps) {
   const contentRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement | null>(null);
 
-  let { textContent, imagePaths } = getTextAndImageContent(message);
+  const { textContent: displayText, imagePaths } = getTextAndImageContent(message);
   const thinkingContent = getThinkingContent(message);
 
-  const splitChainOfThought = (text: string): { displayText: string; cotText: string | null } => {
-    const regex = /<think>([\s\S]*?)<\/think>/i;
-    const match = text.match(regex);
-    if (!match) {
-      return { displayText: text, cotText: null };
-    }
-
-    const cotRaw = match[1].trim();
-    const displayText = text.replace(regex, '').trim();
-
-    return {
-      displayText,
-      cotText: cotRaw || null,
-    };
-  };
-
-  const { displayText, cotText } = splitChainOfThought(textContent);
-
   const timestamp = useMemo(() => formatMessageTimestamp(message.created), [message.created]);
   const toolRequests = getToolRequests(message);
   const messageIndex = messages.findIndex((msg) => msg.id === message.id);
@@ -132,15 +115,10 @@ export default function GooseMessage({
     <div className="goose-message flex w-[90%] justify-start min-w-0">
       <div className="flex flex-col w-full min-w-0">
         {thinkingContent && (
-          <div className="mb-2 text-xs text-gray-400/70 italic">
+          <ThinkingContent
-            <MarkdownContent content={thinkingContent} />
+            content={thinkingContent}
-          </div>
+            isExpanded={isStreaming && !displayText.trim() && imagePaths.length === 0 && toolRequests.length === 0}
-        )}
+          />
-
-        {cotText && (
-          <div className="mb-2 text-sm text-gray-400 italic">
-            <MarkdownContent content={cotText} />
-          </div>
         )}
 
         {(displayText.trim() || imagePaths.length > 0) && (

ui/desktop/src/components/ThinkingContent.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { useState, useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
+import MarkdownContent from './MarkdownContent';
+import { Collapsible, CollapsibleContent, CollapsibleTrigger } from './ui/collapsible';
+import Expand from './ui/Expand';
+
+interface ThinkingContentProps {
+  content: string;
+  isExpanded: boolean;
+}
+
+export default function ThinkingContent({ content, isExpanded }: ThinkingContentProps) {
+  const [manualToggle, setManualToggle] = useState<boolean | null>(null);
+  const prevIsExpanded = useRef(isExpanded);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (prevIsExpanded.current && !isExpanded) {
+      setManualToggle(null);
+    }
+    prevIsExpanded.current = isExpanded;
+  }, [isExpanded]);
+
+  const expanded = manualToggle !== null ? manualToggle : isExpanded;
+
+  return (
+    <Collapsible open={expanded} onOpenChange={(open) => setManualToggle(open)} className="mb-2">
+      <CollapsibleTrigger className="flex items-center gap-1.5 text-xs text-text-secondary hover:text-text-primary transition-colors cursor-pointer">
+        <Expand size={3} isExpanded={expanded} />
+        <span className="italic">Thinking</span>
+      </CollapsibleTrigger>
+      <CollapsibleContent>
+        <div className="mt-1 ml-[18px] text-xs text-text-secondary italic">
+          <MarkdownContent content={content} />
+        </div>
+      </CollapsibleContent>
+    </Collapsible>
+  );
+}

ui/desktop/src/types/message.ts

@@ -94,19 +94,39 @@ export function getTextAndImageContent(message: Message): {
     }
   }
 
+  // Strip <think> tags from assistant text — the thinking is surfaced via getThinkingContent
+  if (message.role === 'assistant') {
+    textContent = textContent.replace(/<think>[\s\S]*?<\/think>/gi, '');
+  }
+
   return { textContent, imagePaths };
 }
 
 export function getThinkingContent(message: Message): string | null {
-  const thinkingContents = message.content
+  const parts: string[] = [];
-    .filter((content) => content.type === 'thinking')
-    .map((content) => {
-      if ('thinking' in content) return content.thinking;
-      return '';
-    })
-    .filter((text) => text.length > 0);
 
-  return thinkingContents.length > 0 ? thinkingContents.join('') : null;
+  // Structured thinking content blocks
+  for (const content of message.content) {
+    if (content.type === 'thinking' && 'thinking' in content && content.thinking) {
+      parts.push(content.thinking);
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Inline <think> tags in assistant text content
+  if (message.role === 'assistant') {
+    for (const content of message.content) {
+      if (content.type === 'text') {
+        const regex = /<think>([\s\S]*?)<\/think>/gi;
+        let match;
+        while ((match = regex.exec(content.text)) !== null) {
+          const text = match[1].trim();
+          if (text) parts.push(text);
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  return parts.length > 0 ? parts.join('') : null;
 }
 
 export function getToolRequests(message: Message): (ToolRequest & { type: 'toolRequest' })[] {