Fix chatbox losing focus during automated workflows (#4574)

- Add preserveFocus option to openFile() function to prevent focus theft
- Implement automated workflow detection based on task streaming state and auto-approval settings
- Preserve chat focus when AI is actively processing to prevent accidental text insertion
- Update file mention handling to respect automated workflow state
- Add comments to clarify user-initiated vs automated file opening

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

Author: hannesrudolph

src/core/mentions/index.ts

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import { getCommitInfo, getWorkingState } from "../../utils/git"
 import { getWorkspacePath } from "../../utils/path"
 
 import { openFile } from "../../integrations/misc/open-file"
+import { ClineProvider } from "../webview/ClineProvider"
 import { extractTextFromFile } from "../../integrations/misc/extract-text"
 import { diagnosticsToProblemsString } from "../../integrations/diagnostics"
 
@@ -36,7 +37,21 @@ export async function openMention(mention?: string): Promise<void> {
 		if (mention.endsWith("/")) {
 			vscode.commands.executeCommand("revealInExplorer", vscode.Uri.file(absPath))
 		} else {
-			openFile(absPath)
+			// Check if we're in an automated workflow when opening file mentions
+			const visibleProvider = ClineProvider.getVisibleInstance()
+			const currentCline = visibleProvider?.getCurrentCline()
+			const autoApprovalEnabled = visibleProvider?.contextProxy.getValue("autoApprovalEnabled")
+
+			// Detect automated workflow: AI is actively processing, streaming, or auto-approval is enabled
+			// and there's an active task that hasn't completed reading/processing
+			const isInAutomatedWorkflow =
+				currentCline &&
+				(currentCline.isStreaming ||
+					currentCline.isWaitingForFirstChunk ||
+					(autoApprovalEnabled && !currentCline.didCompleteReadingStream) ||
+					(autoApprovalEnabled && currentCline.presentAssistantMessageLocked))
+
+			openFile(absPath, { preserveFocus: !!isInAutomatedWorkflow })
 		}
 	} else if (mention === "problems") {
 		vscode.commands.executeCommand("workbench.actions.view.problems")

src/core/webview/webviewMessageHandler.ts

@@ -426,7 +426,23 @@ export const webviewMessageHandler = async (
 			openImage(message.text!)
 			break
 		case "openFile":
-			openFile(message.text!, message.values as { create?: boolean; content?: string; line?: number })
+			// Check if we're in an automated workflow (AI is streaming/processing)
+			const currentCline = provider.getCurrentCline()
+			const autoApprovalEnabled = getGlobalState("autoApprovalEnabled")
+
+			// Detect automated workflow: AI is actively processing, streaming, or auto-approval is enabled
+			// and there's an active task that hasn't completed reading/processing
+			const isInAutomatedWorkflow =
+				currentCline &&
+				(currentCline.isStreaming ||
+					currentCline.isWaitingForFirstChunk ||
+					(autoApprovalEnabled && !currentCline.didCompleteReadingStream) ||
+					(autoApprovalEnabled && currentCline.presentAssistantMessageLocked))
+
+			openFile(message.text!, {
+				...(message.values as { create?: boolean; content?: string; line?: number }),
+				preserveFocus: !!isInAutomatedWorkflow,
+			})
 			break
 		case "openMention":
 			openMention(message.text)
@@ -481,6 +497,7 @@ export const webviewMessageHandler = async (
 			const customModesFilePath = await provider.customModesManager.getCustomModesFilePath()
 
 			if (customModesFilePath) {
+				// User-initiated settings opening, keep focus
 				openFile(customModesFilePath)
 			}
 
@@ -490,6 +507,7 @@ export const webviewMessageHandler = async (
 			const mcpSettingsFilePath = await provider.getMcpHub()?.getMcpSettingsFilePath()
 
 			if (mcpSettingsFilePath) {
+				// User-initiated settings opening, keep focus
 				openFile(mcpSettingsFilePath)
 			}
 
@@ -513,6 +531,7 @@ export const webviewMessageHandler = async (
 					await fs.writeFile(mcpPath, JSON.stringify({ mcpServers: {} }, null, 2))
 				}
 
+				// User-initiated settings opening, keep focus
 				await openFile(mcpPath)
 			} catch (error) {
 				vscode.window.showErrorMessage(t("mcp:errors.create_json", { error: `${error}` }))

src/integrations/misc/open-file.ts

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ interface OpenFileOptions {
 	create?: boolean
 	content?: string
 	line?: number
+	preserveFocus?: boolean
 }
 
 export async function openFile(filePath: string, options: OpenFileOptions = {}) {
@@ -148,6 +149,7 @@ export async function openFile(filePath: string, options: OpenFileOptions = {})
 		await vscode.window.showTextDocument(document, {
 			preview: false,
 			selection,
+			preserveFocus: options.preserveFocus,
 		})
 	} catch (error) {
 		if (error instanceof Error) {