fix(tui): use braille dots for the active task/status spinner

[elkaix]

Summary

Standardizes the working/thinking indicator on a single animation. The active task/status marker previously animated through pulsing star glyphs (✦ ✧ ✶ ✷ ✸ ✹); it now uses the same braille dotted frames (⠋ ⠙ ⠹ ⠸ ⠼ ⠴ ⠦ ⠧ ⠇ ⠏) already used by the bottom thinking-word spinner.

Changes

• ui/shell/glyphs.py: ACTIVE_MARKER_FRAMES now aliases SPINNER_FRAMES (braille); STAR_SPINNER_FRAMES kept as a backward-compatible alias. The static / reduced-motion active marker (TRANSCRIPT_ACTIVE_MARKER) becomes the calm dot ● instead of a static star ✶.
• ui/shell/motion.py: active_marker_frame() drives the braille frames via spinner_frame_at.
• ui/shell/tool_renderers/_render_utils.py: docstring wording.
• Tests updated to assert braille frames and the ● reduced-motion glyph (test_shell_motion, test_render_hardening, test_live_view_todos, test_live_view_notifications).

Verification

• ruff check + ruff format --check: clean
• pyright: 0 errors
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_motion.py, test_render_hardening.py, test_live_view_todos.py, test_live_view_notifications.py, test_spinner_words.py: all green
• No remaining star-spinner glyphs in ui/ source

Note: the static ✻ Cogitated for Xs completed-thinking trace marker is intentionally left unchanged (it is a one-shot status glyph, not the animated spinner). Say the word if that should also change.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Style
  • Animated spinner/active markers now use braille dot frames instead of star symbols for more consistent visual feedback; reduced-motion falls back to a static dot.
• Documentation
  • Loading/active-marker wording clarified to reflect the braille spinner usage.
• Tests
  • UI tests updated to match the new braille-dot visuals and reduced-motion behavior.

[coderabbitai]

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 53c58f9 and f145dbb.

📒 Files selected for processing (7)

• src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/glyphs.py
• src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/motion.py
• src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/tool_renderers/_render_utils.py
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_live_view_notifications.py
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_live_view_todos.py
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_render_hardening.py
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_motion.py

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The PR consolidates shell active-marker animation glyphs from a separate star-frame sequence to the shared braille spinner frames. glyphs.py establishes new canonical ACTIVE_MARKER_FRAMES/ACTIVE_MARKER_FRAME_INTERVAL_S constants aliased to spinner frames, repoints legacy STAR_SPINNER_* names for backward compatibility, and updates TRANSCRIPT_ACTIVE_MARKER to use the reduced-motion glyph. motion.py refactors active_marker_frame() to use the centralized frames. All tests update UI assertions and frame verification to expect braille dots instead of stars.

Changes

Active Marker Glyph Consolidation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Glyph constant centralization src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/glyphs.py	ACTIVE_MARKER_FRAMES and ACTIVE_MARKER_FRAME_INTERVAL_S are introduced as canonical aliases to the braille spinner frames. Legacy STAR_SPINNER_* constants repoint to these aliases for backward compatibility. TRANSCRIPT_ACTIVE_MARKER shifts from a fixed star (✶) to REDUCED_MOTION_GLYPH. Public exports updated in __all__.
Motion layer animation refactor src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/motion.py	Imports replace star-specific constants with active-marker constants. active_marker_frame() delegates to spinner_frame_at() using the new ACTIVE_MARKER_FRAMES and interval, while reduced-motion still returns TRANSCRIPT_ACTIVE_MARKER.
Test validation for centralized frames tests/ui_and_conv/test_render_hardening.py, tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_motion.py, tests/ui_and_conv/test_live_view_notifications.py, tests/ui_and_conv/test_live_view_todos.py	test_render_hardening.py asserts active-marker frames/interval match spinner frames/interval. test_shell_motion.py replaces star-frame tests with braille-dot frame tests and verifies reduced-motion returns REDUCED_MOTION_GLYPH. Pinned-todo rendering tests in notifications and todos expect the dot marker (●) instead of star (✶).
Documentation update src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/tool_renderers/_render_utils.py	loading_marker docstring clarifies the animated braille spinner is reserved for pinned todo header/status lines.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~12 minutes

Suggested labels

bug

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 15.38% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 70.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title follows conventional commits format with valid 'fix' type and clear scope/description matching the main change.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is comprehensive, covering changes across multiple files, verification steps, and backward compatibility. All template sections are addressed.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

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🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/thinking-spinner-braille-dots

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