Desktop: keyboard-navigable session list with synced full-description detail window (hybrid of CLI agent view + Desktop sidebar)

Open 💬 0 comments Opened Jul 15, 2026 by CloudDevops

Problem: Multi-session power users live between two half-solutions. The CLI agent view has the right interaction — arrow keys, full-row descriptions, Enter to drill in — but is CLI-only. The Desktop sidebar has the right placement — always visible, mouse-clickable — but shows only brief titles and has no arrow-key navigation (Ctrl+Tab cycles blindly with no descriptions).

Proposal: one shared selection across two synced views in Desktop:

  • Left sidebar keeps the brief session/agent listing (clickable, as today), expandable/collapsible via a keyboard shortcut.
  • A detail strip (top of the window) shows full one-line descriptions/status for ~5 rows at a time — a sliding window that follows the selection.
  • Up/Down arrows move the selection in both views simultaneously; the detail window scrolls when the selection passes its edge; Enter opens the session; mouse click on either view moves the same selection.

Why it matters: with many parallel sessions/agents, "which one is this?" requires descriptions, and switching speed requires the keyboard. Today you must choose one or the other.

Prior art / prototype: I built a working terminal prototype of exactly this interaction (Python curses, reads ~/.claude/projects transcripts + Desktop session metadata, Enter runs claude --resume <id>) — happy to share details. The interaction feels great; it belongs in the Desktop app natively.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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