[FEATURE] Buddy: Persist feedback panel and add shortcut to inject feedback into terminal

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

The Buddy feature is incredibly valuable — it catches legitimate concerns and bugs in the code being generated by the Claude agent that I would otherwise take significant time to identify myself. However, the current UX makes it very difficult to actually act on Buddy's feedback.

The feedback window disappears too quickly (~5 seconds). Buddy's feedback appears briefly at the end of the Claude agent's response and then vanishes. I find myself constantly racing to read it before it disappears. If I miss it, the feedback is gone and I have no way to retrieve it. This means valuable bug catches and code quality insights are being lost.

There is no way to easily act on Buddy's feedback. Even when I do manage to read the feedback in time, I then have to manually retype or paraphrase what Buddy flagged in order to ask the Claude agent to address it. This creates unnecessary friction in what should be a seamless review workflow.

Proposed Solution

I'd like to propose two improvements, one quick fix and one more impactful feature:

1. Persist the Buddy feedback panel (quick fix)

Instead of auto-dismissing after ~5 seconds, the Buddy feedback panel should remain visible until the user explicitly dismisses it (e.g., pressing Escape or clicking a close button). This way users can read the feedback at their own pace and decide whether to act on it.

2. Add a shortcut command to inject Buddy feedback into the terminal (bigger feature)

Introduce a keyboard shortcut or slash command (e.g., /buddy-feedback or a keybinding like Ctrl+B) that:

• Automatically takes the most recent Buddy feedback and pre-fills it as a message in the terminal input
• Presents it as a prompt like: "Buddy flagged the following concerns: [feedback]. Would you like to ask Claude to review this?"
• The user can then simply press Enter to send it to the Claude agent, edit it first, or dismiss it

This would turn Buddy into a true interactive code review companion — instead of passively displaying feedback that the user has to manually transcribe, it becomes a one-keystroke action to have the agent address Buddy's concerns directly.

Alternative Solutions

Currently I work around this by trying to quickly read the Buddy feedback before it disappears, then manually typing what I remember into the terminal to ask the Claude agent about it. This is error-prone — I often miss details or lose the feedback entirely if I'm not watching the terminal at the exact right moment.

Another workaround would be to scroll back through the terminal output to find the Buddy feedback, but it's not always easy to locate and the feedback format doesn't stand out enough for quick scanning.

A simpler alternative to the full shortcut command would be to at least log Buddy feedback to a persistent location (e.g., a /buddy-history command or a section in the session summary) so it can be reviewed after the fact.

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Interactive mode (TUI)

Use Case Example

Real-world scenario:

1. I'm working on a full-stack application and I ask the Claude agent to refactor a complex authentication module
2. The agent produces a large code change spanning multiple files
3. Buddy analyzes the generated code and catches a legitimate concern — e.g., "The refactored auth middleware no longer validates token expiry before proceeding to the next handler"
4. The Buddy feedback panel appears for ~5 seconds at the bottom of the terminal, then disappears
5. I was reading the code diff and missed the Buddy feedback window entirely
6. The bug goes unnoticed until I discover it manually during testing, which could have been avoided

With the proposed feature:

1. Same scenario as above — Buddy catches the token expiry validation issue
2. The feedback panel stays visible until I dismiss it, so I can finish reading the diff and then review Buddy's concern at my own pace
3. I press a shortcut (e.g., Ctrl+B) and Buddy's feedback is pre-filled into my terminal input: "Buddy flagged: The refactored auth middleware no longer validates token expiry before proceeding to the next handler. Would you like to address this?"
4. I press Enter, and the Claude agent immediately reviews and fixes the issue
5. Total time saved: several minutes of manual testing and debugging, with zero manual transcription of Buddy's feedback

Additional Context

Buddy is already producing legitimate, high-quality feedback that catches real bugs and code quality issues. The core analysis is excellent — the main gap is in the UX for surfacing and acting on that feedback. These proposed changes would significantly amplify the value Buddy already provides.

This could be implemented incrementally:

• Phase 1 (quick win): Make the feedback panel persistent (dismissible on Escape/click) instead of auto-hiding after ~5 seconds
• Phase 2: Add a /buddy or Ctrl+B shortcut to pre-fill the most recent Buddy feedback into the terminal input for the user to send or edit