Agent Markers

Nerve parses special markers in agent responses to render rich UI elements. These markers are stripped from the visible text and replaced with interactive components.

TTS Markers — [tts:...]

Makes the agent's response play back as audio.

Format

[tts: Text to be spoken aloud]

How It Works

1. User sends a voice message → Nerve prepends [voice] to the text
2. Nerve appends a system hint to the message telling the agent to include [tts:...] markers in its response
3. Agent responds with both readable text AND a [tts:...] marker
4. Nerve extracts the marker, strips it from visible text, and sends it to the TTS engine for audio playback
5. Fallback: If the agent forgets the marker but the user sent a voice message, Nerve auto-speaks the full response text

Example

Agent response:

The weather in Istanbul is 22°C and sunny.

[tts: The weather in Istanbul is 22 degrees and sunny.]

Nerve displays: "The weather in Istanbul is 22°C and sunny."
Nerve speaks: "The weather in Istanbul is 22 degrees and sunny."

Rules for Agents

• Place [tts:...] at the end of the response
• The spoken text can differ from the written text (e.g., expand abbreviations, simplify formatting)
• Only the first [tts:...] marker is used for audio; all markers are stripped from display
• Never send only a TTS marker — the response must be readable as text too
• TTS markers are only expected when the user sends a voice message (indicated by [voice] prefix)

Implementation

• Injection: src/features/chat/operations/sendMessage.ts — applyVoiceTTSHint() appends the system hint when [voice] prefix is detected
• Extraction: src/features/tts/useTTS.ts — extractTTSMarkers() parses markers from response text
• Fallback: src/contexts/ChatContext.tsx — auto-speaks response if voice message had no [tts:...] marker

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Chart Markers — [chart:{...}]

Embeds interactive charts inline in the conversation.

Format

[chart:{"type":"<type>","title":"<title>","data":{...}}]

The marker must contain valid JSON inside [chart:{...}]. The parser uses bracket-balanced scanning (not regex) to handle nested JSON correctly.

Chart Types

Type	Renderer	Data Required	Use Case
tv	TradingView Widget	symbol (no data)	Live financial tickers — stocks, crypto, forex, commodities
line	Lightweight Charts	labels + values or series	Custom time-series data
area	Lightweight Charts	labels + values or series	Custom time-series with gradient fill
candle	Lightweight Charts	labels + candles (OHLC)	Custom candlestick data
bar	Recharts	labels + values	Category comparisons
pie	Recharts	labels + values	Proportions

Examples

TradingView live ticker (no data needed — pulls live market data):

[chart:{"type":"tv","symbol":"TVC:GOLD","interval":"W","title":"Gold — Weekly"}]

Line chart with custom data:

[chart:{"type":"line","title":"Monthly Revenue","data":{"labels":["Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr"],"values":[4200,5800,4900,7100]}}]

Multi-series line chart:

[chart:{"type":"line","title":"Growth","data":{"labels":["Q1","Q2","Q3","Q4"],"series":[{"name":"Users","values":[100,250,480,720]},{"name":"Revenue","values":[10,35,90,180]}]}}]

Candlestick chart with OHLC data:

[chart:{"type":"candle","title":"BTC Weekly","data":{"labels":["W1","W2","W3"],"candles":[{"open":42000,"high":44000,"low":41000,"close":43500},{"open":43500,"high":45000,"low":42500,"close":44800},{"open":44800,"high":46000,"low":43000,"close":43200}]}}]

Bar chart:

[chart:{"type":"bar","title":"Revenue by Region","data":{"labels":["US","EU","Asia"],"values":[5200,3800,2900]}}]

Pie chart:

[chart:{"type":"pie","title":"Market Share","data":{"labels":["Chrome","Safari","Firefox"],"values":[65,20,15]}}]

TradingView Symbols

Asset	Symbol
Gold	TVC:GOLD
Silver	TVC:SILVER
Bitcoin	BITSTAMP:BTCUSD
Ethereum	BITSTAMP:ETHUSD
Apple	NASDAQ:AAPL
Tesla	NYSE:TSLA
EUR/USD	FX:EURUSD
S&P 500	SP:SPX
US Dollar Index	TVC:DXY
Uranium	NYMEX:UX1!

Intervals: 1 (1min), 5, 15, 60, D (daily), W (weekly), M (monthly). Default: W

Rules for Agents

• Place chart markers on their own line for best rendering
• The marker text is stripped from the visible message — add context before/after
• Keep labels short (they need to fit on chart axes)
• For real financial instruments, prefer tv type (live data, interactive, no manual data needed)
• For custom/computed data, use line/area/candle/bar/pie
• 3–12 data points is the sweet spot for readability

How Agents Learn About Charts

Unlike TTS markers (which use runtime prompt injection), chart markers are taught to agents via the TOOLS.md workspace file. Nerve's installer can inject chart documentation into TOOLS.md automatically (see PR #218).

Agents that have the chart syntax in their TOOLS.md will naturally include [chart:{...}] markers when data visualization is appropriate.

Implementation

• Parser: src/features/charts/extractCharts.ts — bracket-balanced [chart:{...}] extraction with JSON validation
• Router: src/features/charts/InlineChart.tsx — dispatches to correct renderer by type
• TradingView: src/features/charts/TradingViewWidget.tsx — official script injection embed
• Lightweight Charts: src/features/charts/LightweightChart.tsx — line/area/candle with dark theme
• Recharts: Lazy-loaded for bar/pie (bundled in InlineChart.tsx)

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Kanban Markers -- [kanban:create] / [kanban:update]

Lets agents propose task changes on the kanban board. Markers are parsed from agent output, converted into proposals, and stripped from the displayed result.

Format

Create a task:

[kanban:create]{"title":"Fix login timeout bug","priority":"high","description":"Users report 504 errors after 30s"}[/kanban:create]

Update an existing task:

[kanban:update]{"id":"a1b2c3d4-...","status":"done","result":"Fixed the timeout by increasing the keepalive"}[/kanban:update]

Safety Limits

• Max 5 markers per message (additional markers are ignored)
• Max 2 KB per JSON payload (markers exceeding this are skipped)
• Malformed JSON or missing required fields are silently skipped

Create Payload Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
title	string	Yes	Task title (1--500 chars)
description	string	No	Task description (max 10000 chars)
status	string	No	Initial status (defaults to board config)
priority	string	No	critical, high, normal, low
assignee	string	No	"operator" or "agent:<label>"
labels	string[]	No	Tags (max 50 items)
model	string	No	Model for execution
thinking	string	No	off, low, medium, high
dueAt	number	No	Due date (epoch ms)
estimateMin	number	No	Estimated minutes

Update Payload Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
id	string	Yes	Task ID to update
title	string	No	New title
description	string	No	New description
status	string	No	New status
priority	string	No	New priority
assignee	string	No	New assignee
labels	string[]	No	Replace labels
result	string	No	Result text (max 50000 chars)

How It Works

1. Agent includes [kanban:create] or [kanban:update] markers in its response
2. When the agent session completes, the backend's poller (or POST /api/kanban/tasks/:id/complete) parses the markers
3. Each valid marker creates a proposal in the kanban store
4. Markers are stripped from the result text stored on the task
5. The proposal appears in the frontend's proposal inbox
6. The operator approves or rejects the proposal

When proposalPolicy is "auto", step 6 is skipped -- proposals are applied immediately.

Example

An agent working on a task might output:

I've completed the auth refactoring. I also noticed two related issues.

[kanban:create]{"title":"Add rate limiting to login endpoint","priority":"high","labels":["security"]}[/kanban:create]
[kanban:create]{"title":"Update auth documentation","priority":"low","labels":["docs"]}[/kanban:create]

The result stored on the task: "I've completed the auth refactoring. I also noticed two related issues."

Two proposals are created in the inbox for the operator to review.

Implementation

• Parser: server/lib/parseMarkers.ts -- regex-based extraction with JSON validation
• Integration: server/routes/kanban.ts -- pollSessionCompletion() and POST .../complete handler
• Frontend: Proposals are displayed in the kanban board's proposal inbox

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Marker Processing Pipeline

When an agent response arrives, markers are processed in this order:

1. TTS extraction — [tts:...] markers are extracted and queued for audio playback
2. Chart extraction — [chart:{...}] markers are extracted and attached to the message object
3. Image extraction — Inline image references are extracted
4. Markdown rendering — Remaining text is rendered as markdown with syntax highlighting
5. Tool result rendering — Tool call sentinels are converted to collapsible <details> elements

The cleaned text (with all markers stripped) is what the user sees. Charts render as interactive components below the message text.