feat(core): enable topic update narration by default and promote to general (#25586)

Co-authored-by: JAYADITYA <96861162+JayadityaGit@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Jack Wotherspoon <jackwoth@google.com>

packages/cli/src/config/config.ts

@@ -992,7 +992,9 @@ export async function loadCliConfig(
     experimentalMemoryManager: settings.experimental?.memoryManager,
     contextManagement,
     modelSteering: settings.experimental?.modelSteering,
-    topicUpdateNarration: settings.experimental?.topicUpdateNarration,
+    topicUpdateNarration:
+      settings.general?.topicUpdateNarration ??
+      settings.experimental?.topicUpdateNarration,
     noBrowser: !!process.env['NO_BROWSER'],
     summarizeToolOutput: settings.model?.summarizeToolOutput,
     ideMode,

packages/cli/src/config/settingsSchema.ts

@@ -418,6 +418,16 @@ const SETTINGS_SCHEMA = {
         },
         description: 'Settings for automatic session cleanup.',
       },
+      topicUpdateNarration: {
+        type: 'boolean',
+        label: 'Topic & Update Narration',
+        category: 'General',
+        requiresRestart: false,
+        default: true,
+        description:
+          'Enable the Topic & Update communication model for reduced chattiness and structured progress reporting.',
+        showInDialog: true,
+      },
     },
   },
   output: {
@@ -2228,9 +2238,8 @@ const SETTINGS_SCHEMA = {
         category: 'Experimental',
         requiresRestart: false,
         default: false,
-        description:
-          'Enable the experimental Topic & Update communication model for reduced chattiness and structured progress reporting.',
-        showInDialog: true,
+        description: 'Deprecated: Use general.topicUpdateNarration instead.',
+        showInDialog: false,
       },
     },
   },

packages/core/src/config/config.ts

@@ -1196,7 +1196,7 @@ export class Config implements McpContext, AgentLoopContext {
         },
       },
     };
-    this.topicUpdateNarration = params.topicUpdateNarration ?? false;
+    this.topicUpdateNarration = params.topicUpdateNarration ?? true;
     this.modelSteering = params.modelSteering ?? false;
     this.injectionService = new InjectionService(() =>
       this.isModelSteeringEnabled(),