diff --git a/.changelog/19452.txt b/.changelog/19452.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3be80b92bb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/19452.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+ui: when an Action has long output, anchor to the latest messages
+```
diff --git a/ui/app/components/action-card.hbs b/ui/app/components/action-card.hbs
index ba4d797fb56..7bd8db9ad8e 100644
--- a/ui/app/components/action-card.hbs
+++ b/ui/app/components/action-card.hbs
@@ -71,7 +71,12 @@
       <code><pre>Error: {{this.instance.error}}</pre></code>
     {{/if}}
     {{#if this.instance.messages.length}}
-      <code><pre>{{this.instance.messages}}</pre></code>
+      <code tabindex="0">
+        <pre {{did-update this.anchorToBottom this.instance.messages}}>
+          {{this.instance.messages}}
+        </pre>
+        <div class="anchor" />
+      </code>
     {{else}}
       {{#if (eq this.instance.state "complete")}}
         <p class="no-messages">Action completed with no output</p>
diff --git a/ui/app/components/action-card.js b/ui/app/components/action-card.js
index 5f129695f6c..b02ed044533 100644
--- a/ui/app/components/action-card.js
+++ b/ui/app/components/action-card.js
@@ -48,4 +48,30 @@ export default class ActionCardComponent extends Component {
     // Either the passed instance, or the peer-selected instance
     return this.selectedPeer || this.args.instance;
   }
+
+  @tracked hasBeenAnchored = false;
+
+  /**
+   * Runs from the action-card template whenever instance.messages updates,
+   * and serves to keep the user's view anchored to the bottom of the messages.
+   * This uses a hidden element and the overflow-anchor css attribute, which
+   * keeps the element visible within the scrollable <code> block parent.
+   * A trick here is that, if the user scrolls up from the bottom of the block,
+   * we don't want to force them down to the bottom again on update, but we do
+   * want to keep them there by default (so they have the latest output).
+   * The hasBeenAnchored flag is used to track this state, and we do a little
+   * trick when the messages get long enough to cause a scroll to start the
+   * anchoring process here.
+   *
+   * @param {HTMLElement} element
+   */
+  @action anchorToBottom(element) {
+    if (this.hasBeenAnchored) return;
+    const parentHeight = element.parentElement.clientHeight;
+    const elementHeight = element.clientHeight;
+    if (elementHeight > parentHeight) {
+      this.hasBeenAnchored = true;
+      element.parentElement.scroll(0, elementHeight);
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/ui/app/styles/components/actions.scss b/ui/app/styles/components/actions.scss
index cca1e695c3c..017650121f5 100644
--- a/ui/app/styles/components/actions.scss
+++ b/ui/app/styles/components/actions.scss
@@ -117,14 +117,30 @@
       }
 
       .messages {
+        width: 100%;
         overflow: hidden;
 
-        code > pre {
-          height: 200px;
+        code {
           background-color: #0a0a0a;
           color: whitesmoke;
+          display: block;
+          overflow: auto;
+          height: 200px;
           border-radius: 6px;
           resize: vertical;
+          pre {
+            background-color: transparent;
+            color: unset;
+            overflow-anchor: none;
+            min-height: 100%;
+            white-space: pre-wrap;
+          }
+          .anchor {
+            overflow-anchor: auto;
+            height: 1px;
+            margin-top: -1px;
+            visibility: hidden;
+          }
         }
       }