fix(web): keep script-only drafts reachable in the sidebar#25272

Problem

Running a project script in a new thread with an empty composer opens a terminal without adding the draft to the sidebar. Navigating to another thread leaves no sidebar path back to the script output or its controls.

Change

Keep unsent drafts visible while their thread has a terminal session, including after the command exits. Use the existing terminal label when there is no prompt or attachment preview, and apply the same condition to the sidebar's draft count. Allow Discard and Undo to handle a draft session without a composer record.

Scope and approval

Fixes pingdotgg/t3code#25194

Triaged bug via the automated issue flow; #25194.

Verification

• Reproduced in the real web app on main with echo started; sleep 300; echo finished, an empty draft, navigation to a saved thread, and browser Back restoring the still-existing terminal.
• Added a failing Chromium regression test before implementation: expected two terminal-backed draft rows, received zero. It now covers running and exited terminals, excludes a draft without a terminal, and retains the rows after navigation.
• Added a failing regression for Discard on a session without composer content, then verified Discard and Undo restore the session and mapping without inventing composer content.
• vp run check:changed passed: format, lint, knip, affected-package typechecks, and 108 tests in six files.
• Independent Codex and Claude reviews found no remaining blocking findings on the final revision.

Evidence

The fixed client keeps an empty, unsent draft reachable through its terminal-backed sidebar row. The base retains terminal output but offers no sidebar return path.

Chromium154.0.0.0, Linux desktop user agent, DPR2, font scaling100%, responsive web without device emulation. CSS viewports1440×900 and390×900. Full surface PNGs are1280×800(desktop preview export downscale) and780×1800(narrow). No crops. Sidebar initialized at1440 and measured256CSSpx on both revisions. Existing isolated parent server reused; no real customer data or provider turns.

Fonts ready; CSS motion/transitions/caret disabled for stills. Two stills per state500ms apart are pixel-identical(all8pairs). Date/Date.now freeze was attempted; cached relative-age labels still differ across revisions. These are visible age-text differences, not layout changes. Stills are separately settled inactive-draft scenes with saved thread selected and terminal/details panels closed; recordings retain the full interactive panels.

Diff0 marks any nonzero maximum RGB-channel difference; DiffT uses max-channel difference>16(on0–255). Both amplify retained RGB differences×8 against black. No spatial masking, alignment, crop, or ignored regions. All still/diff pairs and video contact sheets were opened and inspected.

1440px light

After:0s empty draft/no row;~1–3s Run script and started output;~4–5s saved thread with inactive draft row;~6–7s click row restores draft and started output. Before:0s empty draft;~1–3s run/started;~4–5s saved thread without draft row;~6s browser Back restores output.

Before recording · After recording

Stability samples: Before+500ms · After+500ms.

1440px dark

After:0s empty draft/no row;~1–3s Run script and started output;~4–5s saved thread with inactive draft row;~6–7s click row restores draft and started output. Before:0s empty draft;~1–3s run/started;~4–5s saved thread without draft row;~6s browser Back restores output.

Before recording · After recording

Stability samples: Before+500ms · After+500ms.

390px light

After:0s empty draft;~1–3s Run script/started;~4–5s open sidebar and select saved thread;~6–8s reopen drawer, select draft row;~9–10s same draft/started output. Before:~1–3s run/started;~4–6s saved thread;~7–9s open drawer and observe missing draft;~10–11s browser Back restores draft output.

Before recording · After recording

Stability samples: Before+500ms · After+500ms.

390px dark

After:0s empty draft;~1–3s Run script/started;~4–5s open sidebar and select saved thread;~6–8s reopen drawer, select draft row;~9–10s same draft/started output. Before:~1–3s run/started;~4–6s saved thread;~7–9s open drawer and observe missing draft;~10–11s browser Back restores draft output.

Before recording · After recording

Stability samples: Before+500ms · After+500ms.

Supplemental recordings and coverage

A/B are covered in all four appearance/width recordings. No explicit missing-composer runtime fixture was forced; the real empty composer path was used. Source-only boundaries(promoted drafts, unreadable terminal metadata, environment collisions, numeric multi-terminal ordering), native mobile/Electron shell, relay/tunnel, providers, Settings and command palette were not independently exercised. No implementation changes or commits were made.

What else changed visibly

• Added draft row contains terminal fallback title(Terminal1 or live process label sleep), draft icon and project identity; its divider appears. The existing saved row moves down by the draft block height.
• Relative age text on the saved row differs between before/after because its cached clock predates conditioning. The age does not affect the tested visibility behavior.
• Recordings naturally show pointer/click/focus/hover states, live terminal labels, Git action/change-count updates during checkout, and responsive drawer transitions. Main stills close both detail and terminal panels; narrow drawer-toggle focus differs between pairs; there are no loading spinners or ghost rows in accepted stills.
• Light/dark palettes and responsive drawer dimensions are intentional paired capture conditions. Head and base use the same standard palette per pair.

Reproduction material

matrix-final.md

fixtures.md

fixture.png

capture-driver.mjs

make-diffs.py

pixel-report.json

video-report.json

The driver is a reconstructed callable T3-preview recipe; browser tools were orchestrated interactively during capture. No auth/localStorage dump, session, pairing token, or private data is uploaded. Final worktree: fix/issue-25194, 8cb07b3d6f7deae991f9951ff45048d527de5c2a, clean. Parent owns server teardown.

Independent proof audit

All matrix rows A–H passed. In a project with no saved threads, opening a terminal adds the draft row and suppresses the empty state; closing the last terminal removes the row and restores the empty state. Discard followed immediately by the visible Undo control restores the row, held for over two seconds; selecting it returns to the retained terminal.

Empty-project terminal creation · Last-terminal removal and empty state · Discard and Undo · Return through restored row · Audit amendment.

The independent initial screenshot used different theme/profile settings, so its pixel comparison is not evidence of equivalence. The matched base/head pairs above establish the visible delta. Native Electron shell, mobile, and remote permission boundaries were not exercised; the change is in the shared web sidebar.

Models: GPT-6.1-Sol through the Codex harness; Claude Opus 5.5 through the Claude Agent harness.