Refine AI image context handling

app/commands/builtins.py

@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ async def echo(ctx: "CommandContext") -> None:
 @command_registry.command(
     "ai",
     "Ask a configurable AI model",
-    usage=".ai / ..ai [N] [--model] prompt",
+    usage=".ai / ..ai [N] [--img] [--model] prompt",
     category="ai",
 ).shared()
 async def ai(ctx: "CommandContext") -> None:
@@ -299,20 +299,55 @@ async def ai(ctx: "CommandContext") -> None:
             ctx.args,
             default_context_messages=ctx.manager.config.ai.context_messages,
         )
+    except ValueError as exc:
+        await ctx.reply(str(exc))
+        return
+
+    try:
         selected_alias = ai_service.select_model_alias(invocation.model_flags)
+    except ValueError as exc:
+        await ctx.reply(str(exc))
+        return
+
+    status = await ctx.reply(
+        "\n".join(
+            [
+                "⏳ AI request started",
+                f"model: {selected_alias}",
+                f"context: {invocation.context_messages} message(s)",
+                "tools: understand_image"
+                if invocation.use_image_understanding
+                else "tools: none",
+                f"prompt: {invocation.prompt[:200]}{'...' if len(invocation.prompt) > 200 else ''}",
+            ]
+        )
+    )
+
+    async def _progress(text: str) -> None:
+        try:
+            await status.edit_text(text)
+        except Exception:
+            pass
+
+    try:
         response = await ai_service.generate(
             ctx,
             AIInvocation(
                 context_messages=invocation.context_messages,
                 model_flags=[selected_alias],
+                use_image_understanding=invocation.use_image_understanding,
                 prompt=invocation.prompt,
             ),
+            progress=_progress,
         )
-    except ValueError as exc:
-        await ctx.reply(str(exc))
-        return
-    except RuntimeError as exc:
-        await ctx.reply(str(exc))
+    except (RuntimeError, ValueError) as exc:
+        await _progress(f"❌ {exc}")
         return
 
+    final_text = f"✅\n{response.text}"
+    if len(final_text) <= 3900:
+        await _progress(final_text)
+        return
+
+    await _progress("✅ Response ready")
     await _reply_long(ctx, response.text)