fix(ui): smooth chat refresh scroll and suppress new-messages badge flash

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Web UI: make chat refresh smoothly scroll to the latest messages and suppress new-messages badge flash during manual refresh.
 - Cron: route text-only isolated agent announces through the shared subagent announce flow; add exponential backoff for repeated errors; preserve future `nextRunAtMs` on restart; include current-boundary schedule matches; prevent stale threadId reuse across targets; and add per-job execution timeout. (#11641) Thanks @tyler6204.
 - Subagents: stabilize announce timing, preserve compaction metrics across retries, clamp overflow-prone long timeouts, and cap impossible context usage token totals. (#11551) Thanks @tyler6204.
 - Agents: recover from context overflow caused by oversized tool results (pre-emptive capping + fallback truncation). (#11579) Thanks @tyler6204.

ui/src/ui/app-chat.ts

@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ export async function handleSendChat(
   });
 }
 
-export async function refreshChat(host: ChatHost) {
+export async function refreshChat(host: ChatHost, opts?: { scheduleScroll?: boolean }) {
   await Promise.all([
     loadChatHistory(host as unknown as OpenClawApp),
     loadSessions(host as unknown as OpenClawApp, {
@@ -210,7 +210,9 @@ export async function refreshChat(host: ChatHost) {
     }),
     refreshChatAvatar(host),
   ]);
-  scheduleChatScroll(host as unknown as Parameters<typeof scheduleChatScroll>[0]);
+  if (opts?.scheduleScroll !== false) {
+    scheduleChatScroll(host as unknown as Parameters<typeof scheduleChatScroll>[0]);
+  }
 }
 
 export const flushChatQueueForEvent = flushChatQueue;

ui/src/ui/app-lifecycle.ts

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ type LifecycleHost = {
   basePath: string;
   tab: Tab;
   chatHasAutoScrolled: boolean;
+  chatManualRefreshInFlight: boolean;
   chatLoading: boolean;
   chatMessages: unknown[];
   chatToolMessages: unknown[];
@@ -65,6 +66,9 @@ export function handleDisconnected(host: LifecycleHost) {
 }
 
 export function handleUpdated(host: LifecycleHost, changed: Map<PropertyKey, unknown>) {
+  if (host.tab === "chat" && host.chatManualRefreshInFlight) {
+    return;
+  }
   if (
     host.tab === "chat" &&
     (changed.has("chatMessages") ||

ui/src/ui/app-render.helpers.ts

@@ -126,9 +126,23 @@ export function renderChatControls(state: AppViewState) {
       <button
         class="btn btn--sm btn--icon"
         ?disabled=${state.chatLoading || !state.connected}
-        @click=${() => {
-          (state as unknown as OpenClawApp).resetToolStream();
-          void refreshChat(state as unknown as Parameters<typeof refreshChat>[0]);
+        @click=${async () => {
+          const app = state as unknown as OpenClawApp;
+          app.chatManualRefreshInFlight = true;
+          app.chatNewMessagesBelow = false;
+          await app.updateComplete;
+          app.resetToolStream();
+          try {
+            await refreshChat(state as unknown as Parameters<typeof refreshChat>[0], {
+              scheduleScroll: false,
+            });
+            app.scrollToBottom({ smooth: true });
+          } finally {
+            requestAnimationFrame(() => {
+              app.chatManualRefreshInFlight = false;
+              app.chatNewMessagesBelow = false;
+            });
+          }
         }}
         title="Refresh chat data"
       >

ui/src/ui/app-render.ts

@@ -1115,7 +1115,7 @@ export function renderApp(state: AppViewState) {
                 onAbort: () => void state.handleAbortChat(),
                 onQueueRemove: (id) => state.removeQueuedMessage(id),
                 onNewSession: () => state.handleSendChat("/new", { restoreDraft: true }),
-                showNewMessages: state.chatNewMessagesBelow,
+                showNewMessages: state.chatNewMessagesBelow && !state.chatManualRefreshInFlight,
                 onScrollToBottom: () => state.scrollToBottom(),
                 // Sidebar props for tool output viewing
                 sidebarOpen: state.sidebarOpen,

ui/src/ui/app-scroll.ts

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ type ScrollHost = {
   topbarObserver: ResizeObserver | null;
 };
 
-export function scheduleChatScroll(host: ScrollHost, force = false) {
+export function scheduleChatScroll(host: ScrollHost, force = false, smooth = false) {
   if (host.chatScrollFrame) {
     cancelAnimationFrame(host.chatScrollFrame);
   }
@@ -61,7 +61,17 @@ export function scheduleChatScroll(host: ScrollHost, force = false) {
       if (effectiveForce) {
         host.chatHasAutoScrolled = true;
       }
-      target.scrollTop = target.scrollHeight;
+      const smoothEnabled =
+        smooth &&
+        (typeof window === "undefined" ||
+          typeof window.matchMedia !== "function" ||
+          !window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)").matches);
+      const scrollTop = target.scrollHeight;
+      if (typeof target.scrollTo === "function") {
+        target.scrollTo({ top: scrollTop, behavior: smoothEnabled ? "smooth" : "auto" });
+      } else {
+        target.scrollTop = scrollTop;
+      }
       host.chatUserNearBottom = true;
       host.chatNewMessagesBelow = false;
       const retryDelay = effectiveForce ? 150 : 120;

ui/src/ui/app-view-state.ts

@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ export type AppViewState = {
   chatAvatarUrl: string | null;
   chatThinkingLevel: string | null;
   chatQueue: ChatQueueItem[];
+  chatManualRefreshInFlight: boolean;
   nodesLoading: boolean;
   nodes: Array<Record<string, unknown>>;
   chatNewMessagesBelow: boolean;
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ export type AppViewState = {
   sidebarContent: string | null;
   sidebarError: string | null;
   splitRatio: number;
-  scrollToBottom: () => void;
+  scrollToBottom: (opts?: { smooth?: boolean }) => void;
   devicesLoading: boolean;
   devicesError: string | null;
   devicesList: DevicePairingList | null;

ui/src/ui/app.ts

@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ export class OpenClawApp extends LitElement {
   @state() chatThinkingLevel: string | null = null;
   @state() chatQueue: ChatQueueItem[] = [];
   @state() chatAttachments: ChatAttachment[] = [];
+  @state() chatManualRefreshInFlight = false;
   // Sidebar state for tool output viewing
   @state() sidebarOpen = false;
   @state() sidebarContent: string | null = null;
@@ -395,11 +396,12 @@ export class OpenClawApp extends LitElement {
     resetChatScrollInternal(this as unknown as Parameters<typeof resetChatScrollInternal>[0]);
   }
 
-  scrollToBottom() {
+  scrollToBottom(opts?: { smooth?: boolean }) {
     resetChatScrollInternal(this as unknown as Parameters<typeof resetChatScrollInternal>[0]);
     scheduleChatScrollInternal(
       this as unknown as Parameters<typeof scheduleChatScrollInternal>[0],
       true,
+      Boolean(opts?.smooth),
     );
   }