[FEATURE] Show a summary of the user's original request

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Show a summary of the user's original request and current progress in the status line during long thinking/tool-use phases. this because long thinking and distraction combined lead to forget which request i initated.for use customers who utilize claude for big projects we have like hundreds of pending request piplined and hence it is easy to forget at which request we are

Proposed Solution

Show a summary of the user's original request and current progress in the status line during long thinking/tool-use phases.

Alternative Solutions

enable defalt view (like background job) showing the message history and current message, this should not need to wait for claude agent as message

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Interactive mode (TUI)

Use Case Example

Scenario: User requests a multi-step feature implementation.

> Implement user story US001234 — Add MFA to login flow

Claude begins working — spawns research agents, reads files, plans implementation, writes code, runs tests. This takes 5-10 minutes.

Current experience:
> Implement user story US001234 — Add MFA to login flow

⠋ Thinking...

The user sees only a spinner. After 5 minutes they wonder: "What did I ask for? Is it still working? What stage is it at?"

Desired experience:
> Implement user story US001234 — Add MFA to login flow

⠋ Thinking...
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Task: Implement MFA login (US001234) │
│ Step: 3/6 — Writing auth service changes │
│ Done: ✓ Research ✓ Plan ◌ Implement ... │
│ Elapsed: 3m 42s │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Proposed Behavior

1. Task banner: When a response involves multiple tool calls or extended thinking (>30s), show a persistent status line with:

• A truncated summary of the user's original message
• Elapsed time
• Current tool/action being performed (e.g., "Reading 3 files", "Running bash command", "Agent: QC review")

1. Progress breadcrumbs: When the assistant outputs intermediate text between tool calls, keep the most recent status line visible (or scrollable) so the user can always see context.
2. Completion summary: When a long operation finishes, begin the response with a one-line reminder:

✓ Completed: Implement MFA login (US001234) — 6m 12s

Why This Matters

• Cognitive load: Users multitask. Coming back to a terminal after a few minutes with no context is disorienting.
• Trust: Visible progress builds confidence that the tool is working, not stuck.
• Debugging: If something goes wrong mid-process, knowing which step failed helps the user give better follow-up instructions.
• Long pipelines: Power users running multi-agent workflows or complex refactors are especially affected — these can run 10+ minutes with dozens of tool calls.

Alternatives Considered

• Workaround: The assistant can be instructed (via CLAUDE.md) to print manual status updates between stages. This helps between tool calls but not during thinking or tool execution.
• Terminal title: Could set the terminal title to the current task summary — lightweight but limited.

Additional Context

_No response_