Agent output can trigger rapid scroll oscillation on Windows

[bholmesdev]

Summary

A Windows 11 user reports that while working with agents and asking them to generate code, Warp sometimes starts scrolling rapidly up and down, making the console unusable until it recovers or the user restarts Warp.

Problem

The user says this happens during agent workflows when generated code is involved. The console begins scrolling up and down very quickly, preventing normal use. The user reports that coworkers/friends have also seen the behavior. Sometimes waiting a few seconds resolves it; otherwise they need to restart the console.

Original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/devsarg/comments/1tfvlwp/comment/omozfn9/

Expected behavior

Agent output should not cause the terminal viewport to rapidly oscillate or prevent the user from interacting with the console.

Actual behavior

Warp rapidly scrolls up and down and becomes effectively unusable until it recovers or is restarted.

Reproduction steps or desired workflow

1. Use Warp on Windows 11.
2. Work with an agent and ask it to generate code.
3. Intermittently, observe the console begin rapidly scrolling up and down.
4. Wait for it to recover or restart Warp if it does not.

Artifacts

None attached. Reporter said they will document/send details the next time it happens.

Warp version

Unknown

Operating system

Windows 11

[oz-for-oss]

@bholmesdev

Here's what I found while triaging this issue:

This looks like a Windows-specific agent/terminal rendering issue rather than intentional agent behavior, but the current report does not include enough evidence to estimate a reliable repro yet.

I have a few follow-up questions before I can narrow this down:

1. Can you attach a short screen recording that captures the rapid scroll oscillation as it starts?
2. Was this happening in Warp's built-in Agent view, or in an external CLI/TUI agent such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or Codex running inside Warp?

Reply in-thread with those details and the triage workflow will automatically re-evaluate the issue and update the diagnosis, labels, and next steps.

Maintainer details

I concluded that windows users report intermittent rapid viewport scrolling during agent code-generation output, likely in the agent/terminal rendering path but underspecified without visual evidence or the exact agent surface..

Triage summary

This is a Windows 11 bug report for intermittent rapid scrolling up and down while agent output is generating code. The report is plausible and adjacent to existing AI/TUI streaming-output rendering issues such as #7200, #9365, and #9899, but it is not specific enough to confirm a duplicate or a single root cause.

Current assessment

• Type: bug in the agent/terminal rendering surface.
• Reproducibility: unknown. The issue is reported as intermittent and lacks a recording, logs, Warp version/channel, exact agent surface, and deterministic trigger.
• Likely area: terminal block-list viewport/autoscroll while streamed agent output changes rich-content heights. If this was an external CLI/TUI agent such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or Codex, the alt-screen scroll reporting and CLI agent footer/input paths may also be involved.

Code areas inspected

• app/src/terminal/view.rs handles scroll-position updates, entering agent view, and AIBlockEvent::AIOutputUpdated.
• app/src/terminal/view/rich_content.rs inserts rich content and scrolls after rich block insertion.
• app/src/terminal/block_list_viewport.rs centralizes ScrollPositionUpdate and active-conversation autoscroll behavior.
• app/src/terminal/block_list_element.rs remeasures dirty rich-content heights during layout before viewport iteration.
• app/src/terminal/alt_screen/alt_screen_element.rs and app/src/terminal/view/use_agent_footer/mod.rs are relevant if the report is actually about an external CLI/TUI agent running inside Warp.

Follow-up needed

The main blockers are visual evidence and knowing whether the failing surface is Warp's built-in Agent view or an external CLI/TUI agent running in the terminal.

Question reasoning

1. Can you attach a short screen recording that captures the rapid scroll oscillation as it starts? — The symptom is visual and intermittent, so a recording is the highest-value evidence for distinguishing viewport autoscroll, duplicated rendering, and TUI redraw behavior.
2. Was this happening in Warp's built-in Agent view, or in an external CLI/TUI agent such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or Codex running inside Warp? — The relevant code path and duplicate comparison differ substantially between built-in Agent rich-content rendering and external agent terminal/alt-screen rendering.

This is my automated analysis and may be incorrect. A maintainer will verify the details.

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