Activity dock: always visible, opens the Activity panel on click #143

Summary

Clicking the Activity pill above the composer expands a small summary, and only a second click opens the Activity panel, where the useful information is. Make the pill open the Activity panel directly, remove the expand/collapse step, and keep the pill visible by default through a new setting.

This replaces this issue's original report: the clock icon on the expanded summary's elapsed-time line overlapped its "6m" label (ActivityDock.tsx:453, :497). The overlap came from buttonVariants' [&_svg]:-mx-0.5 (apps/web/src/components/ui/button.tsx:11) overriding the icon's mr-1. The redesign removes that line, so the overlap goes with it.

Seen on v0.10.0, Linux desktop (AppImage).

Current state

apps/web/src/components/activity/ActivityDock.tsx:

• Collapsed pill: provider glyph plus Active N and Done N. A click toggles expanded (:405-413). The parent owns that state through expanded/onExpandedChange (:264-267), in ChatView.tsx:6836 and ProviderTerminalActivityDock.tsx.
• Expanded summary (:416-505): one row each for Subagents and Background tasks. Each row shows that section's active and done counts, the oldest active item's elapsed time, and a stale/error marker (SectionStatus, :214-229). Clicking a row calls openSection(section), which opens the Activity panel.
• What the expanded view adds:
  • The counts per section. The pill shows only the combined totals.
  • One elapsed time. The panel shows elapsed or completed times for every item.
  • The per-section stale/error marker. This is the only signal the pill lacks.

Proposed behavior

• Clicking the pill calls onOpenSection with the section to open:

  • the section with an error;
  • else the one with active work, Subagents first;
  • else the one with the most recent item.

  If the Activity panel is already open, the click focuses it and scrolls to that section.

• Remove:

  • the expanded state and onExpandedChange, in the dock and both callers;
  • the chevron and the expanded rows;
  • the Escape-to-collapse handler.

• Move onto the pill: a stale or error marker when any section is stale or failing, reusing SectionStatus and its icons. Errors win over stale.

• Pill accessibility:

  • The aria-label becomes "Open Activity: Subagents 1 active, 6 done; Background tasks 0 active, 0 done", plus the status when degraded.
  • A tooltip shows the same breakdown.
  • Drop aria-expanded.

• Kept as is: the live-region announcement (liveAnnouncement, :319), the compact layout, and the sheet inset.

Always visible (new setting, on by default)

• New client setting activityDockAlwaysVisible in ClientSettingsSchema (packages/contracts/src/settings.ts:119). Default true. It is a per-device display preference, so it lives next to wordWrap and diffIgnoreWhitespace, not in ServerSettings.
• Settings row: Always show Activity, placed right after Chat agent activity (apps/web/src/components/settings/SettingsPanels.tsx:1032), with a reset action. Description: "Keep the Activity button above the chat even before any subagent or background task runs."
  • When Chat agent activity is off, the row is disabled and explains why: "Turn on Chat agent activity to show it."
• On (default):
  • The pill shows on every thread whose provider reports activity, even with no records yet. selectActivityDockVisibility (apps/web/src/components/activity/activityPresentation.ts:33-70) drops the hasRecords requirement for supported sections, but still hides unsupported ones.
  • Idle state: with no records, the pill shows the provider glyph and a muted Activity label instead of "Active 0 · Done 0". Clicking it still opens the Activity panel, which shows its existing empty state.
  • Providers that never report subagents or background tasks get no pill, as today. A permanent zero would suggest nothing is running when BiBCode just can't see it.
• Off: today's rule. The pill appears once the thread has a subagent or background task.

Acceptance criteria

• One click on the pill opens the Activity panel on the chosen section, by the rules above.
• With the panel already open, a click focuses it and scrolls to that section without closing it.
• The pill shows a stale or error marker whenever any section is stale or failing.
• No expanded summary, chevron or collapse state remains. The expanded/onExpandedChange props are gone from ActivityDock and its callers.
• The accessible name and tooltip give per-section counts. Screen readers no longer announce an expandable control.
• Keyboard: Enter or Space on the pill opens the panel.
• activityDockAlwaysVisible decodes with default true. Stored settings without the key still decode.
• With the setting on, the pill shows on a thread whose provider supports activity before any record exists, in its idle state. It still hides for unsupported providers.
• With the setting off, visibility matches today's rule.
• Settings shows Always show Activity with a reset action. It is disabled with a reason while Chat agent activity is off.

Validation

• ActivityDock.test.tsx and ProviderTerminalActivityDock.test.tsx:
  • section choice: error, then active, then latest;
  • a click calls onOpenSection;
  • the marker on the pill;
  • the accessible name.
• activityPresentation.test.ts: visibility with the setting on/off, with records/without, and with supported/unsupported sections.
• Contracts settings test: the default and decoding of old stored settings.
• SettingsPanels.test.tsx: the row, its reset, and the disabled reason.
• ActivityPanel.test.tsx: opening at a section when the panel is already open.
• vp check and vp run typecheck.
• UI.md review: one step to useful information, and the degraded state stays visible.
• vercel-react-best-practices review: removed state, no new effects for scrolling.
• Update docs/user/workspace-ui.md if it describes the dock, and review the docs/testing/ runbooks.
• Profiler coverage: none applies (client-only UI change).

Open questions

• Should a second click on the pill, with the panel open on that section, close the panel? Default: no, keep it predictable.