The header tab strip stops working past roughly a dozen sessions: it wraps
into two or three rows, eats vertical space and still cannot be scanned.
This adds a vertical session list in a left <aside> as an ALTERNATIVE
layout — a filter box, a live count, and a 44px collapsed rail that keeps
the ambient signal (status dot, task badge) visible.
The strip is not removed. Settings -> Display -> Tab Bar -> Session List
Layout switches between them and the default stays 'header', so existing
users see no change until they opt in.
Structure: one #sessionTabs element, two mount points. applySessionListLayout()
re-parents the SAME node between #sessionTabsHost and #sessionSidebarList,
which is why there is no second renderer and no duplicated wiring — app.$()
caches getElementById results and never invalidates them, so a moved node
keeps every existing consumer (settings-ui, webview-tabs, the generated
gesture bundle, the mobile tests) working untouched.
Notable integration points:
- Below 1024px the sidebar is an off-canvas drawer overlaying the terminal;
closed it gets inert + aria-hidden so it cannot be tabbed into, and touch
swipes over it no longer switch sessions.
- Subagent and ultracode windows anchor to the right edge of a sidebar row
instead of its bottom, connector curves follow.
- Alt+B toggles; the chord is gated out of the PTY so xterm cannot also
write ESC b into a live session.
- Collapse state lives in its own localStorage key (the settings blob is
rebuilt from DOM controls on every save) and falls back to in-memory
intent where storage throws.
Verified: frontend syntax + public asset checks, tsc, eslint, 26 new jsdom
tests, and a headless-Chromium harness (scripts/verify-session-sidebar.mts)
that renders a synthetic 25-session fleet in both layouts at 1600/1000/393px
and asserts mount point, widths, inert/aria state and row count.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
