The desktop workspace panel and chat transcript were mixing project-level file state with per-turn session history, which made rewind, file attachment, and changed-file previews brittle across multi-turn and historical sessions. This keeps turn checkpoints durable in the transcript, makes workspace refreshes happen at the right lifecycle points, and hardens long file previews without blocking the UI.
Constraint: Right-side workspace changes are project working-tree state, while chat turn cards are session checkpoint state.
Rejected: Treat every changed-file panel entry as session-local | new sessions must still reveal existing dirty project files.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Do not couple global workspace status to session checkpoint cards without preserving both product meanings.
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test src/components/workspace/WorkspacePanel.test.tsx
Tested: cd desktop && bun run lint
Tested: git diff --check
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test
Not-tested: Packaged Tauri runtime smoke test
The workspace panel now treats an empty changed-files status as a browsing case, so opening the panel shows the project tree instead of an empty changed-files view. The panel header controls were also reduced to keep the right workspace rail visually proportional in compact layouts.
Constraint: Users still need to manually inspect the empty changed-files view when they explicitly choose it.
Rejected: Always render the empty changed-files state | it makes the opened workspace feel broken when no files changed.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: narrow
Directive: Do not auto-switch the workspace view after a user has explicitly selected a workspace view.
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- src/components/workspace/WorkspacePanel.test.tsx src/stores/workspacePanelStore.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run lint
Tested: cd desktop && bun run build
Not-tested: Browser E2E visual screenshot pass was not rerun for this small header sizing change.
Workspace inspection now shares the same diff renderer between chat change cards and panel previews, supports scoped preview-tab closing, confirms checkpoint undo, resolves rewind checkpoints from the prompt cwd, and removes light-only workspace chrome so dark theme remains coherent.
Constraint: Workspace review must keep working for existing transcript sessions and non-git session-derived changes.
Rejected: Keep a separate chat diff preview | it drifted from panel rendering and dark theme behavior.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Keep chat and workspace diff rendering shared so theme and truncation behavior do not diverge again.
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- src/components/workspace/WorkspacePanel.test.tsx src/components/chat/MessageList.test.tsx src/stores/workspacePanelStore.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run lint
Tested: cd desktop && bun run build
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/sessions.test.ts
Tested: Browser dark workspace preview at http://127.0.0.1:59468/ with src/App.jsx diff
Not-tested: macOS packaged app build
Expose a workspace inspector for desktop sessions so users can browse the active project, preview files, inspect session-derived changes, and review diffs even when the work directory is not a git repository.
Constraint: The workspace view must work for temporary and non-git project directories.
Rejected: Rely only on git status | non-git sessions would lose the changed-files surface.
Confidence: medium
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Keep undo semantics separate from workspace browsing; checkpoint-backed rewind should remain the source of truth for rollback.
Tested: bun test src/server/__tests__/sessions.test.ts src/server/__tests__/workspace-service.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run test -- src/components/workspace/WorkspacePanel.test.tsx src/stores/workspacePanelStore.test.ts
Tested: cd desktop && bun run lint
Tested: git diff --check
Not-tested: Full desktop packaged app build after this commit
