From 3d7f80eebbe72adafce52bc6d14899a6670dec86 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: patriceckhart <mail@patriceckhart.com>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 18:53:23 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Add spacing around dialog frames

---
 internal/agent/modes/dialog_frame.go | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 internal/agent/modes/help.go         |  4 +--
 internal/agent/modes/interactive.go  |  3 +++
 3 files changed, 42 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/internal/agent/modes/dialog_frame.go b/internal/agent/modes/dialog_frame.go
index 8e41ea5..d12a1f8 100644
--- a/internal/agent/modes/dialog_frame.go
+++ b/internal/agent/modes/dialog_frame.go
@@ -33,6 +33,43 @@ func frameRule(th tui.Theme, width int) string {
 	return th.FG256(th.Muted, strings.Repeat("─", width))
 }
 
+// padDialogFrame inserts breathing room between the shared dialog frame
+// chrome and its body while keeping frameHeader/frameRule as single-row
+// primitives for callers that need exact row accounting.
+func padDialogFrame(lines []string) []string {
+	if len(lines) == 0 {
+		return lines
+	}
+
+	out := append([]string(nil), lines...)
+	if isFrameHeaderLine(out[0]) && (len(out) == 1 || strings.TrimSpace(stripANSIBytes(out[1])) != "") {
+		out = append(out[:1], append([]string{""}, out[1:]...)...)
+	}
+
+	last := len(out) - 1
+	if last > 0 && isFrameRuleLine(out[last]) && strings.TrimSpace(stripANSIBytes(out[last-1])) != "" {
+		out = append(out[:last], append([]string{""}, out[last:]...)...)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+func isFrameHeaderLine(line string) bool {
+	return strings.HasPrefix(stripANSIBytes(line), "── ")
+}
+
+func isFrameRuleLine(line string) bool {
+	plain := stripANSIBytes(line)
+	if plain == "" {
+		return false
+	}
+	for _, r := range plain {
+		if r != '─' {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
 // frameHeaderColor is like frameHeader but renders in a caller-supplied
 // 256-color code. Used by the update-available banner which wants a
 // yellow accent on the rules and title.
diff --git a/internal/agent/modes/help.go b/internal/agent/modes/help.go
index 0e4c8f2..ed25007 100644
--- a/internal/agent/modes/help.go
+++ b/internal/agent/modes/help.go
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ func renderHelpBlock(th tui.Theme, width int) []string {
 	}
 
 	var out []string
-	out = append(out, frameHeader(th, "zot help", width))
+	out = append(out, frameHeader(th, "zot help", width), "")
 
 	// commands section
 	out = append(out, tui.Bold("slash commands:"))
@@ -87,6 +87,6 @@ func renderHelpBlock(th tui.Theme, width int) []string {
 			th.FG256(th.Muted, k[1])))
 	}
 
-	out = append(out, frameRule(th, width), "")
+	out = append(out, "", frameRule(th, width), "")
 	return out
 }
diff --git a/internal/agent/modes/interactive.go b/internal/agent/modes/interactive.go
index 36332a9..b4b38cc 100644
--- a/internal/agent/modes/interactive.go
+++ b/internal/agent/modes/interactive.go
@@ -931,6 +931,9 @@ func (i *Interactive) redraw() {
 	case i.extPanel.Active():
 		dialog = i.extPanel.Render(i.cfg.Theme, cols)
 	}
+	if len(dialog) > 0 {
+		dialog = padDialogFrame(dialog)
+	}
 
 	// Slash-command autocomplete: popup above the status line, only
 	// when the editor starts with "/" and no dialog is already open.