Workspace and transcript selections now flow into the composer as lightweight references so users can carry exact snippets into the next prompt without file-only workarounds. The prompt formatter keeps workspace and chat excerpts separate, and the composer avoids sending chat snippets as fake file attachments.
Constraint: Selection references must prepare model context without polluting backend file attachment payloads.
Rejected: Reuse file attachments for chat selections | would leak chat:// pseudo paths into file-oriented payloads.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Keep chat-selection references prompt-only unless the backend gains a first-class chat context attachment type.
Tested: bun run check:desktop
Tested: bun run verify
Tested: agent-browser UI smoke for workspace, user-message, and assistant-message selections
Not-tested: Strict Chrome extension channel; connection timed out, local browser automation covered the flow.
Desktop @ file search was recursively walking the filesystem with a local skip list, which let Python and Node generated directories leak into results and diverged from CLI behavior. Route candidate discovery through the same git-first model: tracked files, untracked files with exclude-standard, and ripgrep fallback for non-git folders, then derive selectable directories from those candidates.
Constraint: Desktop picker must select both files and directories without surfacing ignored project artifacts.
Constraint: No new dependencies; reuse the existing git, ripgrep, settings, and ignore utilities.
Rejected: Maintain a hardcoded directory denylist | it would drift from CLI and miss project-specific ignore rules.
Rejected: Full recursive readdir scanning | it ignores git index semantics and makes large dependency trees visible.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Keep desktop @ file candidate discovery aligned with src/hooks/fileSuggestions.ts before changing ranking or ignore behavior.
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/filesystem.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- FileSearchMenu.test.tsx ChatInput.test.tsx
Tested: cd desktop && bun run lint && bun run test -- --run && bun run build
Tested: bun run check:server
Tested: bun run check:coverage
Tested: bun run verify
Not-tested: Native Windows/Linux manual UI smoke; path handling relies on cross-platform git/ripgrep wrappers and normalized relative paths.
