fix(web): plans stop hijacking the UI, fold into chat instead

[t3dotgg]

Plans were way too aggressive in the UI: a 340px sidebar that auto-opened on every turn with steps, usually to show process boilerplate ("Verify: typecheck, lint, targeted tests", "Commit and push", "Babysit CI"). Analysis of real usage: 100 of 122 threads with plans ended with a stale all-checked strikethrough list still occupying the panel, and 22% of plan snapshots had only 1-2 generic steps — sometimes a single line commanding the whole column.

Before:

Now:

The useful kernel is one line: which step is Claude on right now. So plans are now two quiet indicators instead of a surface:

• Inline folded chip in the transcript — one collapsible row per turn that produced plan steps: segment bar, current step, n/m count. Anchored where planning began, expands in place to the full list, mutes when done, scrolls away with history.
• Current step on Working indicators — sidebar rows show the in-progress step (with n/m) in place of the branch while a thread works, and the in-chat "Working for Xm" line appends it. Backed by a small in-memory ThreadPlanProgress registry on the server (same pattern as ThreadBackgroundLiveness), exposed as an optional planProgress field on the thread shell and cleared on turn settle / session exit — stale state is structurally impossible.

Deleted outright: PlanSidebar, the plan right-panel surface kind (storage v9 migration drops persisted plan tabs), the auto-open effect and per-turn dismissal tracking, the autoOpenPlanSidebar setting, and the "Tasks" toggle in the composer. The plan-mode proposed-plan card in the timeline is unchanged.

Verified with tsgo across contracts/server/web/desktop/client-runtime, mobile tsc, vp lint, full web (1818 tests) and server (1888 tests) suites, plus new focused tests for deriveTurnPlans and ThreadPlanProgress.

Built by Claude Fable 5 on Claude Code.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Medium Risk
Large web UX and contract surface-area change plus persisted right-panel migration; orchestration ingestion changes are localized and cleared on settle, but users with only a plan tab open will see that panel close after upgrade.

Overview
Removes the plan right panel (PlanSidebar, plan surface kind, auto-open/dismiss, composer Tasks toggle, and autoOpenPlanSidebar setting). Persisted plan tabs are dropped on right-panel storage v9 migration so plan-only panels close instead of reopening empty.

Adds inline plan UX: deriveTurnPlans feeds collapsible turn-plan rows in the chat timeline; the working row and sidebar thread rows show the current step (and n/m) while a turn runs.

Server: New in-memory ThreadPlanProgress (mirrors background liveness) is updated from runtime ingestion on turn.plan.updated and cleared on turn settle / session.exited; shell snapshots expose optional planProgress on thread shells.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit f3f5d8b. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Move plan display from a right panel sidebar into the chat timeline

• Removes the plan sidebar surface entirely: PlanSidebar, its auto-open/dismiss logic, the plan right panel kind, and the autoOpenPlanSidebar setting are all deleted
• Adds a new TurnPlanTimelineRow component that renders an inline, collapsible plan chip per turn directly in the message timeline, showing step status, a progress bar, and completed/total counts
• Introduces ThreadPlanProgressService on the server to track the current plan step in-memory; progress is recorded on turn.plan.updated and cleared on turn completion, abort, or session exit
• Surfaces active plan step in the thread sidebar row and working indicator while a thread is running
• Bumps right-panel storage to v9; persisted plan surfaces are dropped on migration and panels with only plan surfaces load as closed
• Risk: autoOpenPlanSidebar is removed from ClientSettingsSchema — existing persisted settings containing this field will silently drop it on next decode

^{Macroscope summarized f3f5d8b.}

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[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 4 potential issues.

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit b5d3ab7. Configure here.}

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Needs human review

Significant UI/UX change that removes the plan sidebar feature entirely and replaces it with inline plan chips in the chat timeline. Also introduces a new server-side service, removes a user setting, and modifies schema contracts. The scope of these behavior changes warrants review.

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