[marius-kilocode]

What Problem This Solves

In VS Code 1.143, selected text in the Kilo chat transcript cannot be copied with Cmd/Ctrl+C or with right-click > Copy. The selection clears, focus moves to the prompt, and the clipboard keeps its old content. The per-message Copy button still works. This affects the sidebar, Agent Manager and editor chat tabs on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Fixes #15379
Fixes #15382
Fixes #15394
Fixes #15446
Fixes #15449
Fixes #15455

Related: #15457 (same Cmd+C failure; the Cmd+A part of that issue was not verified).

Why This Change Was Made

The cause is in VS Code, not in a Kilo release. microsoft/vscode#341552 (commit f5f64f0, shipped in 1.143.0) changed the webview host. It now records the last focused element in the webview. Before a native clipboard command (execCommand), it focuses that element again if focus is on the document body.

Transcript text is not focusable, so after a mouse selection the focus is on the body. The last focused element is almost always the prompt textarea. VS Code focuses the textarea, the selection collapses, and Copy copies nothing. Upstream issue: microsoft/vscode#344028 (open, no milestone; VS Code main still has the change).

The fix gives the transcript container tabIndex={-1}. A mouse press inside the transcript now moves focus to the transcript (native browser behavior), so VS Code records a non-editable element and does not move focus to the prompt. tabIndex={-1} keeps the transcript out of the Tab order. Mouse focus does not show a focus ring.

The change is in MessageList, so it covers the sidebar, Agent Manager and editor chat tabs. It does not depend on the VS Code version.

User Impact

• Cmd/Ctrl+C and right-click > Copy work again for selected transcript text in VS Code 1.143.
• After a click in the transcript, the webview no longer moves focus back to the prompt by itself when the VS Code window becomes active again. The extension restoreInput path is not changed.

Evidence

Real Kilo UI with the vscode-self-test harness. Each run: click the prompt, drag-select transcript text, press Cmd+C, read the clipboard with pbpaste. Before and after use the same origin/main build with only this change removed or added.

VS Code	Surface	Without fix	With fix
1.143.1	Sidebar, code block	Selection cleared, focus on prompt, clipboard unchanged	Selection kept, clipboard = selected code
1.143.1	Sidebar, paragraph	Selection cleared, clipboard unchanged	Clipboard = selected text
1.143.1	Agent Manager	Selection cleared, clipboard unchanged	Selection kept, clipboard = selected text
1.141.0	Sidebar, code block	Copy works (VS Code change not present)	Copy works

A focus trace on 1.143.1 without the fix shows VS Code's own webview host (index.html, execCommand handler) calls textarea.focus() between the Cmd+C keydown and the copy event. Kilo's own focus restore code does not run during the copy.

Other checks:

• New Playwright test tests/transcript-copy.spec.ts: fails without the fix, passes with it.
• bun run compile (typecheck and lint): pass.
• bun run test:unit: 6965 pass, 2 skip, 0 fail.
• No focus ring after a mouse click in the transcript (checked by screenshot and computed style).

Not tested: right-click > Copy (the macOS context menu is native and the harness cannot click it; it uses the same webview.copy() > execCommand path as Cmd+C), Windows and Linux.

[kilo-code-bot]

Code Review Summary

Status: 1 Issues Found | Recommendation: Address before merge

Overview

Severity	Count
CRITICAL	0
WARNING	0
SUGGESTION	1

Issue Details (click to expand)

SUGGESTION

File	Line	Issue
packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/components/chat/MessageList.tsx	884	User-visible bug fix without a changeset entry

The tabIndex={-1} fix is sound: it makes the transcript a mouse-focusable, non-editable target so VS Code 1.143 refocuses it instead of the prompt before a native Copy, and -1 keeps it out of the Tab order. The new Playwright test exercises the real mechanism (focus lands on .message-list after a drag selection) and uses an existing story, so no new story or baseline is needed.

The only gap is release hygiene: this PR fixes six user-facing issues in the VS Code extension but ships without a .changeset/*.md entry, unlike comparable vscode fixes in this repo (e.g. .changeset/browser-open-always-allow.md). A short user-facing changeset would give the fix release notes and a kilo-code version bump.

Files Reviewed (2 files)

• packages/kilo-vscode/tests/transcript-copy.spec.ts - 0 issues
• packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/components/chat/MessageList.tsx - 1 issue

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