Add an always-visible macOS status bar (tray) item that surfaces OpenChamber's
live state and acts as a quick launcher, plus a series of related desktop UX
fixes around mini-chat, window routing, notifications and shortcuts.
Tray (new):
- Monochrome template cube glyph that adapts to the menu bar light/dark.
- Icon-driven activity indicator: a smooth, eased, infinite "breathing" fill
while sessions are busy; a static filled cube when finished sessions are left
unread; a plain outline when idle. Text counters next to the icon only for
actionable states (pending approvals, errors).
- Menu lists active sessions (status glyph, branch, unread count) with overflow
rolled into a submenu; pending permission/question approvals with inline
Allow once / Allow always / Deny; quick actions (New Session, New Mini Chat,
Show OpenChamber, Quit). Header shows the active instance name
("Local OpenChamber" or the remote host label) for multi-window clarity.
- Session list sourced from the global (cross-project) sessions store, sorted by
last-updated, independent of which directories are currently open; live
status/unread/branch merged in from directory sync stores where available.
Sub-session (multi-run) activity rolls up to the parent row.
- Event-driven updates (global store + directory stores + notifications +
registry) with a short debounce; polling kept only as a slow safety net.
Tray/window routing:
- Opening a session from the tray targets the surface the user was last on: if a
mini-chat is active it switches that existing window to the session in place
(no new window); otherwise the main window (revealed without a reload).
- app.activate (dock click) restores the last-focused/minimized window instead
of spawning a new main window; only creates one when nothing is left.
- "Open in main window" and tray session-open now create the main window when
none exists, queuing the session as a pending deep-link so it opens once the
fresh renderer is ready.
Mini chat:
- New Mini Chat is now a customizable shortcut, exposed in Settings > Shortcuts,
in the File menu (hint only, renderer owns the binding), and in the tray.
- Themed splash backdrop on window open to remove the white flash / flicker;
dismissed once content is ready, leaving the content's single cube logo.
- Mini-chat can switch sessions in place via openchamber:open-session.
Notifications:
- The active/selected session only counts as "seen" when the window is focused,
so turns completing while the app is backgrounded raise an unread marker;
refocusing the window clears it.
Add dedicated Electron Mini Chat windows for focused chat sessions without the full desktop shell. Mini Chat can open existing sessions or draft sessions, supports pinning above other windows, transfers sessions or drafts back to the main window, and deduplicates existing-session windows.
Expose Mini Chat entry points from the main header, session sidebar, command palette, and `mod+alt+n`. Add a dedicated Vite entry and React runtime so the compact surface can stay isolated from full-app chrome while still sharing chat, sync, theme, locale, model, agent, and worktree behavior.
Keep Mini Chat behavior scoped to the compact surface:
- limit assistant/user message actions to the appropriate Mini Chat set
- hide workspace changed-files UI in Mini Chat
- keep draft worktree selection and streaming directory state in sync
- mark sessions viewed while they are open in Mini Chat
- support Mini Chat-specific keyboard shortcuts for input focus, model selection, thinking variant cycling, favorite model cycling, and opening new Mini Chat drafts
Harden Electron integration by gating Mini Chat controls on desktop IPC availability, restricting pin/unpin IPC to Mini Chat windows, and only closing Mini Chat after the main window handoff succeeds.
Bohdan Triapitsyn