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[Bug]: Threads sidebar turned into a tree view, and it's much worse to use with a screen reader than the list it replaced#26562

opened14d agobyNnibarAhmed

Note

🤖 Claude Opus 5.5 posting on behalf of nibarAhmed

Before submitting

  • I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
  • I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.

Area

apps/web

Steps to reproduce

  1. On Windows, start NVDA and open T3 Code (desktop app, or web in Chrome) on main at eb751fa073 or later.
  2. In browse mode, move to the Threads sidebar (F6, or Tab until you reach it).
  3. Try to read the threads with the arrow keys, or jump between them with Tab or B.
  4. Try to reach Settle or Snooze on a thread that doesn't have focus.
  5. Compare with main before 2525252c96 (#25877), where the sidebar was a list of buttons.

Expected behavior

Revert the sidebar's tree semantics to what they were before #25877:

  • The thread list goes back to <ul role="presentation">.
  • Thread rows, drafts, section headers and "load older" go back to normal buttons with tabIndex={0}, and the project folder headers added later in #21039 become normal buttons too, so Tab and NVDA's quick-navigation keys reach every one of them.
  • Each row's own buttons are always in the Tab order again.
  • Browse mode can read the sidebar line by line again, without having to switch to focus mode to read the threads.

This issue only asks for that revert. Improving the old list itself (row buttons nested inside the row) is already tracked in #13959 and doesn't need to be solved here.

Keep what #25877 added that doesn't need the tree: F6 / Shift+F6 (and mod+F6) between workspace areas, Shift+F10 or the Context Menu key for the thread menu, F2 to rename, and the sidebar shown/hidden announcement. Up/Down can stay as an extra on top of real buttons.

This is markup only for sighted users: no styles depend on the tree roles. Two places select on role="treeitem" and need a different marker: apps/web/src/lib/workspaceFocus.ts (which row F6 lands on) and apps/web/src/components/ChatView.logic.ts (focus going back to the composer when the window regains focus).

Actual behavior

Before #25877, the thread list was something I could just read and Tab through with NVDA. Now it's a tree view, and everyday use is awkward: I have to switch into focus mode, arrow row by row, and arrow to a thread before I can reach its buttons.

Since #25877 (2525252c96, merged 2026-10-27) the sidebar is an ARIA tree:

  • <ul role="tree" aria-label="Threads">. Thread rows, drafts, section headers, project folder headers (#21039) and "load older" are role="treeitem" with tabIndex=-1.
  • Only one row is in the Tab order at a time. Getting to other threads needs the arrow keys, and in NVDA the tree is a control you have to switch into focus mode to use, not text you can read in browse mode.
  • Each row's buttons get tabIndex=-1 unless their row has focus. To press Settle on a thread, you first arrow to it, then Tab.
  • The structure is faked: the DOM is flat, with no role="group". A MutationObserver (apps/web/src/lib/sidebarTree.ts) rewrites aria-level, aria-posinset and aria-setsize on every change.
  • The open thread is marked with aria-current="page", not aria-selected.

The PR says: "I did not test screen reader speech."

Related: #13959 tracks a separate, older problem with the list (row buttons nested inside the row) and is out of scope here. A comment on its fix #13962 had already warned against a tree: "A tree view would put Snooze and Settle back inside the row, where screen readers can't reach them."

Impact

Major degradation or frequent failure

Version or commit

T3 Code (Nightly) 0.1.4-nightly.20261028.3824; main @ eb751fa073 (introduced by 2525252c96 / #25877)

Environment

Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26200), NVDA 2026.3 (2026.3.0.58174), T3 Code desktop (Nightly) 0.1.4-nightly.20261028.3824, Chrome 156.0.8078.73

Logs or stack traces

No response

Screenshots, recordings, or supporting files

No response

Workaround

Shift+F10 or the Context Menu key on a focused thread opens its menu, which has Settle, Snooze and Pin. F6 jumps past the sidebar.

NnibarAhmed11d ago
Synced from GitHub

Note

🤖 Claude Opus 5.5 posting on behalf of @nibarAhmed

@maria-rcks can the Threads sidebar go back to a list instead of a tree? As you pointed out in the pull request, #26690 needs maintainer approval for this direction, so I'm asking for it here.

I'm keeping this as an issue rather than a discussion because it reports a regression, not a new feature: #25877 made a sidebar that worked well with NVDA harder to use, and CONTRIBUTING says bugs are reported in issues. I know that doesn't approve the list by itself, so please say here if you approve it or would rather have a narrower repair. A narrower repair isn't ideal, though: as long as the sidebar stays a tree, I'd still have to switch modes to move around it, and that's the main problem.

I'm a daily NVDA user, and the list is what I'm asking for. With the tree I constantly have to switch between browse and focus mode, and that makes navigating the sidebar far more complicated than it was. With the list, I can read the threads in browse mode and Tab to any of them and their buttons, without thinking about modes.

I recorded the sidebar's speech with both. I used NVDA 2026.3 on Windows 11, with T3 Code Nightly 0.1.4-nightly.20261028.3824 as the tree and a desktop dev build of #26690 as the list. The two builds had different threads, so the titles differ.

StepTree (current)List (#26690)
Browse mode, Down arrow onto a threadThreads tree view level 1 Message Input Screen Reader Regressionbutton Screen reader labels in web thread view, t3code
Tab onto a threadThreads tree view level 1 Message Input Screen Reader Regression t3code Working Snooze thread menu button collapsed subMenu Settle thread button fix/composer-double-...announcementScreen reader labels in web thread view, t3code button
Tab past that thread's Snooze and Settlelist with 4 items Settings button (left the sidebar)Settled 37 button collapsed (next row)
Expand a groupSettled 226 collapsed 6 of 6 level 1, expandedSettled 37 button collapsed, expanded

The main problems with the tree

  • Tab reaches one thread and its buttons, then leaves the sidebar. To reach another thread's Settle or Snooze with the keyboard, you have to arrow to that thread first, which means leaving browse mode.
  • Each row's spoken name runs its title, status, buttons and branch together.
  • In browse mode, every line repeats "Threads tree view".

A correction to this issue: I wrote that the tree can't be read in browse mode. The recording shows that it can, row by row, with that repeated prefix. The problem is having to switch modes to actually move around and act on threads.

What the list gives up: the tree announces position and level in focus mode ("2 of 6 level 1"), and the list in #26690 doesn't. Arrow-key users also get many Tab stops instead of one, though Up and Down still move between threads. I'd take that trade, and it's how the sidebar worked before #25877. F6, Shift+F10 and F2 from #25877 all keep working.

#26690 is ready to reopen if you approve this direction.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Sshivam9d ago

[Opus 5.5][Claude Code] on behalf of shivam.

Approved: the Threads sidebar can go back to a list of buttons, as in #26690. The keyboard additions from #25877 that don't need the tree stay: F6 and Shift+F6, Shift+F10 and the Context Menu key, F2, and the arrow keys. I'm reopening #26690 for it.