[feat] Show the checked-out branch on the "local" workspace row in the v2 sidebar #6520

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1. github-actions commented on Aug 16, 2026

   

   github-actionsBot

   on Aug 16, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

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   This is a feature request rather than a bug, and the code confirms every claim in it. Here's what I found.

   ---

   Summary

   The v2 sidebar renders every local main workspace row with the literal text local, so with two or more projects open the rows carry no information about which branch each checkout is sitting on. The branch data is present on the decorated model the row already receives — it's just never rendered, because the row prints {name || branch} and name is always the non-empty string "local" for main workspaces. v1's WorkspaceListItem rendered the branch as a muted mono subtitle; the v2 row has no equivalent.

   Affected code

   The row title, which short-circuits on a non-empty name:

   • apps/desktop/src/renderer/routes/_authenticated/_dashboard/components/DashboardSidebar/components/DashboardSidebarWorkspaceItem/components/DashboardSidebarExpandedWorkspaceRow/DashboardSidebarExpandedWorkspaceRow.tsx:297 — {name || branch} inside the title <span>; branch is destructured at line 98 and otherwise unused in the expanded row.

   The name source:

   • apps/desktop/src/renderer/utils/getV2WorkspaceDisplayName/getV2WorkspaceDisplayName.ts:15 — if (workspace.type === "main") return "local";. Locked in by getV2WorkspaceDisplayName.test.ts:5-13 ("always displays main workspaces as 'local'").

   The data plumbing, which already carries the branch through:

   • .../hooks/useDashboardSidebarData/buildDashboardSidebarProjects.ts:91-92 — decorateSidebarWorkspace sets name: getV2WorkspaceDisplayName(workspace) and branch: workspace.branch side by side. Same decorator feeds project groups, the Pinned section (buildDashboardSidebarPinnedWorkspaces), and Sessions, so anything added to the expanded row shows up in all three.

   v1, for reference:

   • apps/desktop/src/renderer/screens/main/components/WorkspaceSidebar/WorkspaceListItem/WorkspaceListItem.tsx:259 — const showBranchSubtitle = isBranchWorkspace || (!!name && name !== branch); and :436-442, rendering <span className="text-muted-foreground/60 truncate font-mono leading-tight">{branch}</span>. Note lines 309 and 319: enabling the subtitle also switched the row's vertical padding and icon alignment.

   The workarounds are gated exactly as described: onRename={isMainWorkspace ? undefined : startRename} (DashboardSidebarWorkspaceItem.tsx:252 and :344), the section submenu behind {!isPinned && !isLocalMainWorkspace && projectId !== null && (…)} (DashboardSidebarWorkspaceContextMenu.tsx:193), and the hover card's Branch block at DashboardSidebarWorkspaceHoverCardContent.tsx:64-80.

   Two things worth confirming before implementing

   The branch value is live, not stale. I checked this because a subtitle sourced from a stale column would be worse than nothing. packages/host-service/src/runtime/pull-requests/pull-requests.ts:529-582 (syncWorkspaceRow) reads the real HEAD from the worktree on GitWatcher events and writes workspaces.branch back; it skips only session (projectId === null) and archived rows, so local main workspaces are covered. A branch subtitle should track checkouts made in a terminal.

   The "only when off the default branch" variant does need new plumbing, contrary to the "needs no new query" note — that applies to the always-on variant only. The sidebar's project identity comes from the host fan-out project.list, and neither HostProjectRow (apps/desktop/src/renderer/hooks/host-projects/useHostProjects/useHostProjects.utils.ts:6-20) nor the procedure that fills it (packages/host-service/src/trpc/router/project/project.ts:65-83) returns a default branch, even though projects.defaultBranch exists in packages/local-db/src/schema/schema.ts:46. SidebarProjectInput would need the field too (buildDashboardSidebarProjects.ts:14-25). Resolving it live per project via resolveDefaultBranchName (packages/host-service/src/runtime/git/refs.ts:207) is the other option. The always-on and Experimental-toggle variants need no new data.

   Fix direction

   The narrowest change that matches existing precedent:

   1. Add a sibling helper next to getV2WorkspaceDisplayName — e.g. getV2WorkspaceBranchSubtitle({ type, name, branch }) returning branch when type === "main", null when type === "session", and for worktrees branch only when it differs from the display name. That last guard matters: getV2WorkspaceDisplayName already falls back to branch for unnamed worktrees, so an unguarded subtitle would print the same string twice. Both other v2 surfaces already guard exactly this way — V2WorkspaceTitle.tsx:17 (rawBranch === name ? null : rawBranch) and V2WorkspaceRow.tsx:219-221 (case-insensitive compare, plus a type !== "session" check).
   2. Render it under the title in DashboardSidebarExpandedWorkspaceRow.tsx, styled like v1's (truncate font-mono text-[11px] leading-tight text-muted-foreground/60).

   Two layout details to watch in step 2. The title cell is a grid-cols-[minmax(0,1fr)_auto] items-center grid (line 277) whose right-hand cell is pinned col-start-2 row-start-1 (line 302) — a second line in column 1 will want that cell to span both rows or self-center, or the diff stats and hover buttons will ride up against the title. And the chips strip below (DashboardSidebarWorkspaceChips) early-returns null when there are no agents/ports (line 37-39) and sits outside the clickable row div (line 390-396), so reusing it as the branch line means both relaxing that early return and accepting its fixed h-7; putting the subtitle inside the title column keeps the two independent. Its pl-[42px] / pl-[50px] values (line 50) are the alignment reference if you want the branch to line up with the title.

   Reproduction

   1. Add two projects to the v2 sidebar, both with their local main workspace row visible.
   2. In a terminal, git checkout -b feat/app-platform in one of the two checkouts; leave the other on main.
   3. Both rows read local, with the branch visible only on hover, in ⌘K, or in the top-bar chip for the active workspace.

   For a regression test, the renderer has essentially no component-test infrastructure (one @testing-library/react file, Redirect.test.tsx), so the idiomatic coverage is a pure-function test — extend getV2WorkspaceDisplayName.test.ts for the new helper:

   expect(getV2WorkspaceBranchSubtitle({ type: "main", name: "whatever", branch: "feat/app-platform" }))
     .toBe("feat/app-platform");
   // no echo of the title for unnamed worktrees
   expect(getV2WorkspaceBranchSubtitle({ type: "worktree", name: "", branch: "fix-login-bug" }))
     .toBeNull();

   buildDashboardSidebarProjects.test.ts is the place for a companion assertion if the subtitle ends up precomputed on the decorated model instead of derived in the row.
2. svenpeeters commented on Oct 27, 2026

   

   svenpeeters

   on Oct 27, 2026

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   Most of the original problem ("every main row reads local") went away with #7485: local workspaces now have names that users pick. But a named local workspace still does not show which branch the shared checkout is on.

   I'd like to pick this up. My approach: show the branch as a muted mono suffix after the name on type: "local" rows. The suffix is hidden when the branch is the same as the name, and the row stays on one line. Worktree and session rows do not change. I have a working version with before/after screenshots and can open a PR. Does this approach work for you?