MCP settings could remount into a full-page spinner even when cached server data was available, and overlapping refreshes could let stale responses replace newer state. Historical chat sessions also had no explicit history-loading state, so slow transcript reads looked like a blank session.
This keeps cached MCP/session lists visible during refresh, ignores stale list responses, clears the selected MCP server when returning to the list, and gives historical sessions explicit loading/error states with de-duped history loads.
Constraint: Fix must stay local-state focused and avoid changing MCP config persistence.
Rejected: Add a broad transcript/session indexing layer | too large for the issue-level stall fix.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Do not remove the stale-response guards without re-testing rapid settings navigation and session switching.
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- mcpSettings.test.tsx
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- sessionStore.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- chatStore.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- ActiveSession.test.tsx
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/sessions.test.ts src/server/__tests__/mcp.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run lint
Tested: cd desktop && bun run check:desktop
Tested: bun run check:server
Not-tested: Manual Windows desktop reproduction for issue #648.
Desktop MCP local and project scopes were still anchored to the active session workDir when adding or editing servers, which made a selected session worktree look like the target project. The form now treats the target project as explicit input for local/project scopes, and the server update path can remove the old scoped config before writing to the newly selected directory.
Constraint: Local MCP scope is private user config keyed by project path; project scope writes the selected project's .mcp.json
Rejected: Keep using the active session workDir as the implicit target | it can point at transient session worktrees and hides where config is written
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Do not reintroduce implicit active-session cwd writes for MCP create/edit; local and project scopes need an explicit target project
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- mcpSettings.test.tsx
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/mcp.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run check:desktop
Tested: bun run check:server
Tested: bun run quality:gate --mode baseline --allow-live --only 'provider-smoke:*' --provider-model deepseek:main:deepseek-main
Tested: Live filesystem MCP probes with DeepSeek deepseek-v4-pro across local/project scopes; see artifacts/quality-runs/mcp-live-split-2026-05-25T09-15-18-245Z/summary.json
Not-tested: Full bun run verify was not rerun after the live MCP smoke
Related: #585
Desktop MCP settings were using the process startup directory for local
project config and treated new custom servers as user-global. The desktop
API now carries the active cwd into local MCP reads, writes, and enablement
state, and the settings page exposes the same local/project/user scopes that
the CLI supports.
Constraint: Claude Code MCP scope semantics are local, project, and user.
Constraint: Desktop sessions can switch projects inside one long-lived server process.
Rejected: Only clear getProjectPathForConfig cache | still leaves request-scoped desktop API calls tied to getOriginalCwd
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Do not route MCP local config or disabledMcpServers through ambient original cwd in desktop APIs.
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/mcp.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- mcpSettings.test.tsx
Tested: bun run check:server
Tested: bun run check:desktop
Not-tested: Live provider smoke; the change is config/control-channel scoped.
Desktop MCP settings was synchronously probing every configured server from /api/mcp, which made the list page scale with connection latency and surface brittle behavior as installs accumulated more MCPs. Return lightweight snapshot rows from the list API, keep explicit status checks separate, and let the desktop UI refresh status in a constrained background lane while preserving project-aware server identity.
Constraint: MCP list must stay responsive even with many configured servers
Rejected: Probe all servers from the list view without limits | still fans out with server count and can overload slow installs
Rejected: Keep servers permanently unchecked until detail view | misses the desired loading feedback when the MCP page opens
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Reversibility: clean
Directive: Keep /api/mcp as a configuration snapshot endpoint; do not reintroduce per-row live connect work on list load
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/mcp.test.ts; cd desktop && bun run test -- mcpSettings.test.tsx; cd desktop && bun x tsc --noEmit --ignoreDeprecations 5.0
Not-tested: Real desktop interaction against an environment with dozens of live MCP servers
Desktop MCP management now has a working server API, a global-only settings surface,
and slash-command entry points that surface MCP and skills from the composer before
routing users into the right settings view.
Constraint: Project-scoped MCP browsing in settings was too slow and noisy because it scanned multiple workdirs
Rejected: Keep project MCP aggregation on the settings homepage | duplicated entries and poor responsiveness
Rejected: Route /mcp directly on Enter without an intermediate card | removed the user's ability to choose a specific target first
Confidence: medium
Scope-risk: moderate
Reversibility: clean
Directive: Keep settings focused on global MCP; add project-scoped MCP affordances in the chat-context slash surfaces instead of re-expanding the settings homepage
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/mcp.test.ts; cd desktop && bun run test -- pages.test.tsx mcpSettings.test.tsx; cd desktop && bun x tsc --noEmit --ignoreDeprecations 5.0
Not-tested: Manual IAB verification after this final commit/merge cycle
