Mobile: group the new thread list by project instead of repeating the project name on every row

[ap-1325]

Where: mobile app (Android), Home thread list.

Problem. The new thread list shows the project name (with its icon) as the first line of every row. With one or two projects this line is the same on every card, takes a full row per thread, and pushes useful content down. The Legacy Thread List groups threads under a project header, which is much cleaner, but it lacks things the new list has, such as the provider logo on each row. Right now you have to choose between the two.

Proposal. Either of these would solve it:

1. A "Group by project" option in the new list (e.g. in the filter/sort menu): one project header per group with the thread count and the + new-thread button, and rows without the repeated project line. This mirrors the desktop grouping discussed in Sidebar: group the inbox by environment, project or provider — with rows that stop repeating themselves #7836, scoped to mobile.
2. At minimum, drop the project line from rows when it adds no information: when the list is filtered to one project, or when only one project exists.

Rows would keep the provider logo, status, time, and the environment · branch line.

Why it matters on a phone: vertical space is tight, and the repeated line roughly doubles the height of a card's metadata.

Related: #7836 (sidebar grouping, desktop), #10532 (compact sidebar), #6970 (mobile legacy parity).

[aaugmentum]

+1 from iOS. I run several repo projects plus a parent-folder project for cross-repo work. With 6+ projects, the flat list with a project line on every row makes it hard to scan. A "Group by project" option (or the legacy list's headers with the new row design) would fix it.

[grahamfarrar]

Adding a use case, moved here from #18487.

On desktop I use Sidebar (legacy) for per-project trees: about 10 projects across two environments, one thread per subsystem. Example: a "Home Control" project whose threads each run in their own repo folder (Home Page, Pool, Sauna, Climate, PowerWall...). That works well on desktop. On iOS the flat newest-first list shows "Home Control" above every row, so finding one project's thread, or seeing what is active in one area, means scrolling the whole list.

What would cover it:

• a "Group by project" option: one collapsible section per project, collapsed state remembered, the desktop's manual project order respected;
• or, as a smaller first step, a project filter that stays applied ("pin this project") instead of resetting.

[playcations]

Adding Android evidence and a prototype related to the web/desktop project folders in #21039.

On Android, Organization’s repository-grouping setting controls which workspaces count as one project; it does not create collapsible sections in the chat list. With several projects, I want to keep an overview and collapse projects I’m not working on instead of repeatedly changing the project filter.

The prototype adds an opt-in Settings → Organization → Group chats by project layout using the current V2 list:

• Project headers with remembered collapse state, collapsed chat counts, and a new-thread action.
• One shared Settled section. Pinned and snoozed chats keep their existing sections.
• Projects without active or unsent chats are hidden from the grouped list.
• Existing thread-row content and actions are retained. Repository identity/grouping choices remain independent of the layout toggle.

The flat layout remains the default. The Working section and active-thread reordering are off in grouped mode. This addresses project-level browsing and collapse; it keeps the current row metadata, including the project label.

Implementation: feat/mobile-project-folders.

Grouped examples — synthetic data, with 3 Website chats, 5 Mobile app chats, 7 API server chats, and 6 settled chats. Both examples show multiple chats inside one expanded project.

Website: 3 chats expanded	Mobile app: 5 chats expanded

Before and setting — the same APK and sample data, with the layout toggle off/on. “Keep separate” remains selected for project identity while the grouped layout is enabled.

Before: flat list	Organization setting

Verification: exercised on a physical Pixel running Android 10 through ADB, including individual collapse, remembered state after restarting the app, and the shared Settled section. The 65 focused tests and vp run check:changed passed. Captures use synthetic data only. iOS and tablet layouts have not been tested on-device.

Would an opt-in grouped layout with this scope be acceptable for a PR? I’m asking for maintainer direction and scope approval before opening one, following CONTRIBUTING.md.

Implemented with GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex through T3 Code.