| name | chat-first-workbench |
| description | Implement or extend the opt-in Codex/T3-like chat-first shell. Use when changing chat rails, contextual app panes, app opening, or local/mobile shell preferences across Electron, Dispatch, or mobile. |
| scope | dev |
Chat-first workbench
Contract
The chat remains the primary surface. Workspace apps are a bounded discovery
rail, not a second navigation system. An app pane is opened from an explicit
app selection or a completed open_app action and carries only an app id plus a
validated app-relative path or view.
Client behavior
- The preference is opt-in and local to the client. Keep the existing app-first
shell unchanged when it is disabled.
- Electron uses the shared Code Agents rail and AppWebview.
- Dispatch uses list-workspace-apps and create_embed_session; never iframe a
raw workspace URL. Resolve an absolute open_app URL against the registered
app first, then pass the resulting app-relative path.
- Mobile uses the existing app registry and secure AppWebView routes instead of
accepting arbitrary URLs or adding a second navigator.
- Show no nested app sidebar or browser chrome in a contextual pane.
- The app shelf is capped at six visible entries. Pinning and drag-reordering
are device-local presentation preferences; the agent-visible target remains
the registered app id and route.
Agent and state boundaries
- Keep app discovery, embed-session minting, and thread operations on the
existing action surfaces.
- Emit the shared chat-first open-app event only for the completed first-party
open_app action with a real app, path, or view. A missing or unreadable
result is not success, and namespaced third-party tools cannot steer the
pane.
- Both web and desktop resolve the event through the same core origin/base-path
allow-list. An unresolved target produces a visible notice and no pane.
- If the agent needs to know which app is visible, expose a compact
application-state selection instead of scraping the iframe DOM.
- Cloud handoff is a future execution-residence seam. Do not claim that a local
run has moved to a worker until a durable worker snapshot and readback exist.
Verification
Test the disabled path and the enabled path separately. For the enabled path,
verify rail ordering, chat history, app selection, embed-session errors, pane
close, and completed open_app behavior in a running client. Treat configuration
alone as insufficient proof.
