[nplez1]

	Files	Added	Deleted	Net
Test	6	$\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$​459	0	$\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$​459
Prod	26	$\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$​588	$\color{#cf222e}{\Huge{\mathbf{−}}}$​55	$\color{#1a7f37}{\Huge{\mathbf{+}}}$​533

ELI5

If the same project is checked out on two computers and both have a workspace on the same git branch, Orca used to show two separate cards in the sidebar. With the new "Group by branch" setting (on by default), those become one card with a small dropdown to switch between the computers.

What Changed

Before: workspaces from one project on two hosts rendered as one card per host. When a project spanned hosts, each card carried a host chip, but nothing tied the two same-branch cards together.

After: in Project grouping, workspaces in one project that sit on the same branch on two or more hosts render as a single card. The card header has a host dropdown (one row per host, local first). Selecting a host swaps which workspace backs the card — status, branch, PR, agents, tabs and activation all follow it. Until the user picks one, the card follows whichever host is currently active. A new Workspace options checkbox, "Group by branch", controls this; it appears only in Project grouping, is on by default, and turning it off restores today's list exactly.

Mechanism:

• A row-merge pass over the built sidebar rows (mergeSameBranchRows) collapses depth-0, non-lineage rows in the same project section that share a branch, but only when the branch maps to exactly one worktree per host and spans at least two hosts. If a host has two checkouts of the branch, the whole branch is left unmerged rather than hiding one behind the dropdown.
• The merged row carries branchGroup (host-ordered members) and a stable branchGroupKey. The card renders the selected member's worktree, so every existing per-worktree behavior — activation, agent rows, tabs, context menu — works unchanged.
• The host choice lives in an in-memory branchGroupHostByKey slice field keyed by the branch-group key, so it survives sidebar virtualization. It is deliberately not persisted.
• The branch-group derivation (getBranchGroupKeyForWorktree / getBranchGroupMembersForWorktree) is shared, so the sidebar merge and the card cannot disagree.
• Reveal and selection match any sibling, so revealing a host's workspace still lands on the merged card.
• The preference is plumbed through the usual UI-state path (types, RPC schema, hydration, persisted-UI write baseline), with absence meaning on.

Why

The alternatives were a per-host selector on every card regardless of grouping, or a separate "grouped" view. Merging only when the branch is unambiguous (one checkout per host) and only in Project grouping keeps the change local to the row model and the card, and makes the setting a pure presentation toggle with no data migration.

Cross-host aggregation on a single card — showing every host's agents or tabs at once — was explored and deliberately dropped. It requires a cross-host tab model the tab store does not have (unifiedTabsByWorktree is keyed by bare worktreeId, and host resolution ignores tab.executionHostId), so it is a separate, much larger change. None of that work is in this PR.

Linked Issue

nplez1/orca has GitHub Issues disabled, so there is no issue to link and none was requested upstream. This is a fork-only enhancement.

Visual Proof

Not attached. Reproducing the merged card needs the same project checked out on two hosts, and this environment has no multi-host fixture and no Orca Electron CDP capture tooling. A real-Radix render test listed under Testing exercises the dropdown opening in a portal; a before/after capture should be added by a reviewer who has two hosts configured.

Testing

• pnpm tc, pnpm lint, the changed-code quality gate, pnpm run build:electron-vite, and verify:localization-extraction all pass.
• Test suites: sidebar + store slices + tab-group + tab-bar — 732 files / 6490 tests.
• New coverage: the merge rules and selection resolver (branch-groups.test.ts), the host dropdown against mocked and real Radix primitives (two WorktreeBranchHostSelect tests), hydration defaults (ui-hydration-view-layout.test.ts), the persisted-UI write baseline, and the reveal lookup for a merged row.

Platforms: verified on macOS only (typecheck, tests, lint, build). No platform-specific code was added; the change is renderer-only and host-agnostic.

AI Disclosure

Implemented by an AI coding agent (pi, model deepseek-flash) on behalf of the fork author.

Review

Agent skill upstream boundary

• Not applicable, or this change follows docs/reference/agent-skill-sharing-upstream-boundary.md and copies or mechanically translates no upstream skill-installer source, tests, fixtures, registry entries, path tables, comments, or documentation.

Notes

• Security: no new IPC or network surface; the setting is a presentation preference.
• Cross-platform: no path or shortcut handling was added.
• SSH/remote: the merge is host-aware and activation routes by the selected host's execution host id; no local fallback was introduced.
• Mobile: untouched.
• Backwards compatibility: the preference is optional and absence means on, so old profiles opt in; no data migration.
• Performance: the merge runs once per row-model rebuild inside the existing memo, and only in Project grouping with the all-hosts view.
• Two new locale keys (mergeSameBranch, WorktreeBranchHostSelect.label) will need coverage when the translation pipeline next runs.

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why (ELI5, the user-facing before/after, the mechanism, and why over the alternatives)
• Before/after screenshots or videos attached for UI changes (see Visual Proof)
• Self-reviewed for correctness, security, and performance
• Cross-platform, SSH/remote, and path/shortcut impact considered (or N/A)
• pnpm lint, pnpm typecheck, and pnpm test pass (build covered by build:electron-vite)