Follow the agent into a tab it opened to work in

browser_open_tab created the page with activate: false, so the agent worked in
a tab the user could not see while the panel sat on a page where nothing was
happening. The panel now follows a tab the agent deliberately opened.

Scoped to that tool only. A page spawning its own tab (popup, target=_blank) is
the site grabbing the view rather than the agent choosing a workspace, and
stays in the background as before — two existing tests pin that and caught the
first version of this change, which moved both.

A tab the user claimed still wins over both: the work starts in the background
instead of pulling the page out from under them mid-read.

Author: Sg312

apps/desktop/src/main/browser-agent/driver.ts

@@ -1910,7 +1910,8 @@ async function executeToolInner(
         }
       }
       assertCurrentExecution()
-      const tab = session.addAutomationTab()
+      // The agent chose to open this page to work in, so the panel follows it.
+      const tab = session.addAutomationTab({ reveal: true })
       const contents = tab.view.webContents
       if (url) {
         assertCurrentExecution()

apps/desktop/src/main/browser-agent/session.test.ts

@@ -1715,6 +1715,21 @@ describe('browser-agent session', () => {
     expect(contents.loadURL).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
   })
 
+  it('brings an agent-opened working tab into view, unless the user claimed the visible one', () => {
+    // browser_open_tab is the agent choosing a page to work in — the panel
+    // follows it so the work is visible, which a popup deliberately does not.
+    const first = session.ensureTab()
+    const working = session.addAutomationTab({ reveal: true })
+    expect(session.activeTab()).toBe(working)
+    expect(working.id).not.toBe(first.id)
+
+    // Once the user claims what they are looking at, the next agent tab opens
+    // behind it rather than yanking the page out from under them.
+    session.claimActiveTabForUser()
+    const background = session.addAutomationTab({ reveal: true })
+    expect(session.activeTab()).not.toBe(background)
+  })
+
   it('keeps agent popups in the background and context-menu links user-owned', () => {
     const onTabCreated = vi.fn()
     session = freshSession(win, { onTabCreated })

apps/desktop/src/main/browser-agent/session.ts

@@ -1590,10 +1590,24 @@ export function addTab(): AgentTab {
   return addTabInternal()
 }
 
-/** Opens a tab for agent work without replacing the page the user is viewing. */
-export function addAutomationTab(): AgentTab {
+/**
+ * Opens a tab for agent work.
+ *
+ * `reveal` is for the agent deliberately opening a page to work in
+ * (`browser_open_tab`): the panel follows it, so the user watches the work
+ * instead of staring at a page where nothing is happening. It is NOT set when a
+ * page spawns a tab on its own (popups, `target="_blank"`) — that is the site
+ * grabbing the view, not the agent choosing a workspace.
+ *
+ * Even with `reveal`, a tab the user claimed themselves wins: pulling the view
+ * off the page they are reading is the same interruption as a window stealing
+ * focus mid-sentence. The work still starts, just in the background, and the
+ * tab strip shows it arriving.
+ */
+export function addAutomationTab({ reveal = false }: { reveal?: boolean } = {}): AgentTab {
   restoreBrowserSession()
-  const tab = addTabInternal({ activate: false, notify: false })
+  const followTheWork = reveal && !currentScope.visibleTabUserSelected
+  const tab = addTabInternal({ activate: followTheWork, notify: false })
   currentScope.automationTabId = tab.id
   applyActiveTabThrottling()
   persistBrowserSession()