bash-tasks page: live interval poll + spawn_blocking the dir scan (review)

Two fixes from review:
- Liveness: /api/state isn't polled while online (only during login), so
  hooking refreshBashTasks to it only populated on cold load. Bash tasks
  start + finish asynchronously between turns, so add a light ~4s interval
  to keep the tasks pill live; the /api/state-time call now just does the
  first-paint populate. Doc note corrected to match.
- Move the blocking dir scan + per-file reads in /api/bash-tasks off the
  async executor via tokio::task::spawn_blocking (damocles nit).

docs/web-ui/agent.md

@@ -63,9 +63,11 @@ through. Three flex columns:
     click opens the loose-ends flyout.
   - **Tasks pill** (`⚙ tasks · N`): hidden when empty; click opens the
     running-bash-tasks flyout (`GET /api/bash-tasks` — the in-flight
-    Pending/Running tasks from the in-container `bash-tasks/` dir). Polled
-    on the same `/api/state` cycle as loose-ends, since tasks complete
-    asynchronously between turns. Snapshot only (no SSE push yet).
+    Pending/Running tasks from the in-container `bash-tasks/` dir). Unlike
+    loose-ends (refreshed on turn_end), tasks start + finish asynchronously
+    between turns and `/api/state` isn't polled while online, so the pill
+    polls the endpoint on a light interval (≈4s). Snapshot only (no SSE push
+    yet).
   - **Overflow button** (`⋯`): always visible. Opens a frosted popover
     (`#overflow-menu`, positioned outside the header to escape any
     stacking context) with four management rows followed by a model

frontend/packages/agent/src/app.js

@@ -1354,9 +1354,11 @@ window.marked = marked;
       // db, fetched via the per-agent socket). Cold-load fetches
       // it here; turn_end refreshes it via the renderer below.
       refreshLooseEnds();
-      // Running bash tasks live in the in-container bash-tasks dir (not
-      // /api/state); same poll cadence as loose-ends. They complete async
-      // between turns, so polling on each state cycle keeps the count live.
+      // Cold-load populate of the running-bash-tasks pill. Tasks complete
+      // asynchronously between turns (independent of turn_end SSE) and
+      // /api/state isn't polled while online, so a dedicated interval (set
+      // up next to the initial refreshState() below) keeps the count live;
+      // this call just fills it immediately on first paint.
       refreshBashTasks();
       // Skip the re-render if nothing structurally changed. The most
       // common case is `online` polling itself — without this guard, the
@@ -1387,6 +1389,12 @@ window.marked = marked;
     }
   }
   refreshState();
+  // Keep the running-bash-tasks pill live. Unlike loose-ends (refreshed on
+  // turn_end SSE), bash tasks start + finish asynchronously between turns and
+  // /api/state isn't polled while online — so poll the cheap snapshot endpoint
+  // on a light interval. Fails silently (renders zero) when offline. v1 is
+  // polling; an SSE push for task state could replace this later.
+  setInterval(refreshBashTasks, 4000);
 
   // ─── live event stream ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
   // Scrolling, pill, backfill + SSE plumbing live in hive-fr0nt::TERMINAL_JS

hive-ag3nt/src/web_ui.rs

@@ -539,8 +539,13 @@ async fn api_loose_ends(State(state): State<AppState>) -> Response {
 /// fail the whole list.
 async fn api_bash_tasks() -> Response {
     let dir = crate::paths::harness_dir().join("bash-tasks");
-    let mut tasks: Vec<hive_sh4re::TaskFile> = Vec::new();
-    if let Ok(rd) = std::fs::read_dir(&dir) {
+    // The dir scan + per-file reads are blocking fs I/O; run them off the
+    // async executor so a slow or large tasks dir can't stall other requests.
+    let tasks = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || {
+        let mut tasks: Vec<hive_sh4re::TaskFile> = Vec::new();
+        let Ok(rd) = std::fs::read_dir(&dir) else {
+            return tasks;
+        };
         for entry in rd.flatten() {
             let path = entry.path();
             if path.extension().and_then(|e| e.to_str()) != Some("json") {
@@ -559,17 +564,20 @@ async fn api_bash_tasks() -> Response {
                 tasks.push(task);
             }
         }
-    }
-    // Running before Pending, then oldest-first so a long-runner sits on top.
-    tasks.sort_by(|a, b| {
-        let rank = |s: &hive_sh4re::TaskStatus| match s {
-            hive_sh4re::TaskStatus::Running => 0,
-            _ => 1,
-        };
-        rank(&a.status)
-            .cmp(&rank(&b.status))
-            .then(a.created_at.cmp(&b.created_at))
-    });
+        // Running before Pending, then oldest-first so a long-runner sits on top.
+        tasks.sort_by(|a, b| {
+            let rank = |s: &hive_sh4re::TaskStatus| match s {
+                hive_sh4re::TaskStatus::Running => 0,
+                _ => 1,
+            };
+            rank(&a.status)
+                .cmp(&rank(&b.status))
+                .then(a.created_at.cmp(&b.created_at))
+        });
+        tasks
+    })
+    .await
+    .unwrap_or_default();
     axum::Json(serde_json::json!({ "tasks": tasks })).into_response()
 }