Orchestrator Dock — Interactive UX Test Plan

Manual tmux test checklist for the global orchestrator dock and its interaction with the rest of the editor. Run each flow interactively (tmux + send-keys + capture-pane) and record PASS/FAIL. This is the script behind the bug sweep in orchestrator-dock-gaps.md.

Harness: tmux new-session -d -s v -x 160 -y 42, launch ./target/release/fresh --log-file /tmp/v.log .. The dock toggle is reachable from an editor session via Ctrl+P → "Orchestrator: Toggle Dock". From a terminal session, exit terminal-input first (Ctrl+]).

A. Dock lifecycle

1. Toggle show: dock appears as a full-height left column; the menu bar / explorer / splits / status bar all sit to its right.
2. Toggle hide: dock disappears; chrome reclaims the left edge.
3. Re-show after hide: dock returns, focused.
4. Open with 1 session, 2 sessions, many (list fills height; hint pinned at the bottom).

B. Session switching (the core)

5. ↑/↓ moves the selection and live-switches the active window (the pane to the right re-roots) with a directional wipe.
6. List order is stable as the active window changes.
7. Enter on a session dives: focus moves to that window, dock stays visible (blurred).
8. Esc leaves the dock: focus to editor, dock stays visible.
9. Mouse click on a session row selects + switches + focuses the dock (keyboard ↑↓ work afterward).
10. Mouse wheel over the dock scrolls the list and does NOT scroll the window underneath.

C. Editing while the dock is open

11. Dive into an editor session → type → text inserts in the buffer; dock stays open.
12. After diving, the cursor is visible and moves as you type/arrow.
13. While the dock is focused, typing does NOT leak into the buffer.
14. Switch session → dive → edit a different session's buffer.
15. Save (Ctrl+S) in a dived session works.

D. Filter / search

16. / focuses the filter input.
17. Typing filters the session list live.
18. ↑/↓ navigate the filtered results (and live-switch).
19. Enter in the filter returns to the list (does NOT dive/blur); a second Enter then dives.
20. Esc in the filter returns to the list; Esc again leaves the dock.

E. Multi-select / actions

21. Space toggles the highlighted row's checkbox ([x]).
22. Action buttons (Stop / Archive / Delete) reachable (Tab or mouse) and fire; disabled states correct (launch session, last window).
23. Delete shows an in-place confirm; Cancel/Confirm work.
24. + New (button or Alt+N) opens the new-session form.
25. Scope toggle (Alt+P / button) flips current-project ↔ all.
26. Worktrees toggle (Alt+T) shows/hides discovered on-disk worktrees.

F. Command palette / menu / popups with the dock open

27. Ctrl+P while the dock is focused: blurs the dock and opens the palette (key falls through); dock stays visible.
28. Command palette expand is constrained to the window (does not overlap the dock column).
29. Menu bar (F10 / Alt+F) opens; dropdowns align to the chrome (not offset by the dock) — known gap if not.
30. LSP / hover / completion popups position within the window.
31. Full-screen modals (Settings, keybinding editor, wizard, event-debug) now render in the chrome area (right of the dock), not overlapped.

F.1 Settings editor (with the dock open) — run 2026-05-27

31a. Open Settings while the dock is visible: PASS — the dialog renders beside the dock (right of the column), fully visible, no overlap. (Before the fix it centered on the full screen and the dock overpainted its left ~32 cols.) 31b. Keyboard-operable: PASS — Settings has focus (the dock blurred on the Ctrl+P that opened the palette); the dock doesn't steal keys. 31c. Esc closes: PASS — Settings dismissed, dock still visible & usable. 31d. Dock hidden baseline: PASS — Settings renders full-width centered. 31a. Open Settings (Ctrl+P → "Settings") while the dock is visible: the Settings dialog renders and is usable; note whether the dock column overlaps its left edge (z-order) or dims correctly. 31b. Settings is keyboard-operable (navigate categories, Tab focus, search, Esc) — the dock must not steal its keys. 31c. Close Settings (Esc): the editor + dock return to a clean state (no residual dim, dock still visible & usable, cursor correct). 31d. Open Settings while the dock is hidden (baseline): renders full-width as normal.

F.2 Live Grep & other overlays (with the dock open)

31e. Live Grep (Alt+/) opens its floating overlay beside the dock (right of the column), not overlapping it; results + preview show. 31f. Live Grep is keyboard-operable (type query, ↑↓ results, Enter opens a match in the editor), and the dock doesn't steal keys. 31g. Resume Live Grep (Alt+Shift+/) restores prior query/results. 31h. Quickfix export to the Utility (bottom) dock works; the left dock and bottom dock coexist.

G. File explorer with the dock open

32. Ctrl+E focuses the file explorer; the dock stays put.
33. Open a file from the explorer → it opens in the dived window's buffer.
34. Explorer filter (/ inside explorer) works independently of the dock.

H. Cross-cutting

35. Terminal session: dock visible while a terminal is the active window; Ctrl+] then Ctrl+P reaches the palette.
36. Resize the terminal: dock width clamps; chrome reflows; hint stays pinned.
37. Closing the last non-dock window / session edge cases don't panic.
38. No stray rendering artifacts in the dock column when scrolling the window.

I. Round-trip (toggle on → use → toggle off → edit → toggle on)

A single end-to-end scenario, not isolated flows — catches state leaking across toggles (lingering editor mode, stale focus, cursor, key capture). 39. Toggle the dock on (Ctrl+P → Toggle Dock). 40. ↑/↓ between sessions; confirm the window re-roots each time. 41. Enter to dive into a session; type/edit in its buffer; confirm the edit lands and the dock stays visible. 42. Toggle the dock off; confirm the chrome reclaims the full width and the editor is fully usable (type, move cursor, Ctrl+P palette, Ctrl+E explorer) with no residual dock key-capture. 43. Do a normal editor workflow with the dock off (open a file, edit, save) — behaves exactly as if the dock never existed. 44. Toggle the dock on again; confirm it reopens focused, the session list is intact/correct, and ↑↓/dive work again (no stale state). 45. Repeat 39–44 a couple of times — no drift, no leaked mode, cursor always correct.

Results log

Run 2026-05-27 (after host-level dock-key rework)

• 1 (show) : PASS — full-height left column, chrome to its right.
• 4 (fills/pins) : PASS — list fills, hint pinned.
• 5 (↑↓ live-switch) : PASS — right pane re-roots to each session.
• 6 (order stable) : PASS.
• 7 (Enter dive) : PASS — focus to editor, dock stays; Down no longer moves the dock.
• 8 (Esc leave) : PASS.
• C12 (cursor) : PASS — with the buffer focused + dock blurred the caret renders in the buffer (x=76); earlier "parked" reading was the explorer-focus confound.
• C11/13 (edit) : PASS — typing reaches the buffer after dive; while focused, typing does NOT leak to the buffer.
• 16/17 (/, filter): PASS — / focuses filter, typing filters live.
• 18 (filtered ↑↓) : PASS — navigate filtered results.
• 19 (Enter in filt) : PASS — returns to list (no dive); ↑↓ keep working.
• 21 (Space select) : PASS — toggles [x] on the highlighted row.
• 27 (Ctrl+P) : PASS — blurs dock, opens palette, dock stays.
• 28 (palette width) : PASS — palette renders right of the dock; dock column intact.
• A2 (toggle hide) : PASS.

Not verifiable via tmux (terminal-mouse limitation here)

• 9 (mouse click row): SGR mouse events don't reach the app under this tmux harness. Covered instead by the e2e mouse_click_on_dock_new_ button_opens_form (hit-test) + mode-independent keys (click re-focuses → keyboard works). Needs a real terminal for full manual confirmation.

Live Grep / Settings / menu run 2026-05-27 (with dock open)

• 29 (menu dropdown) : PASS — File menu opens right of the dock (the chrome layout already offsets it); no overlap.
• 31a–d (Settings) : PASS — renders beside the dock (chrome area), keyboard-operable, Esc clean, hidden-dock baseline OK.
• 31e (Live Grep) : PASS — Alt+/ overlay opens beside the dock (chrome-centred), not overlapping it.
• 31f (LG operable) : PASS — has focus; dock doesn't steal keys; Esc closes cleanly, dock + editor intact. (Result population is a git-grep/env matter, not the dock.)
• Note: opening LG/Settings from a terminal session needs Ctrl+] first (the dock's Alt+/ blur falls through to the PTY otherwise).

Round-trip run 2026-05-27 (flows 39–45, after rebase onto master)

• 39 toggle ON : PASS — dock shows, sessions listed.
• 40 ↑↓ switch : PASS — window re-roots.
• 41 Enter dive : PASS — dock stays visible (blurred).
• 42 toggle OFF : PASS — chrome reclaims the full left edge.
• 43 editor w/ dock off : PASS — Ctrl+P palette opens, no residual dock key-capture; editor fully usable.
• 44 toggle ON again : PASS — reopens focused, list intact, ↑↓ work.
• 45 repeat : PASS — no drift / leaked mode across cycles.

New interaction from the rebase (gap)

Master added a "Show empty/1-file sessions" filter to the modal picker (hidden by default), and the dock shares filterSessions, so the dock now hides empty/1-file sessions (e.g. a freshly-launched session with no edits). But buildDockSpec has no toggle to reveal them — so the dock can't show empty sessions at all. Add the toggle (or a dock equivalent) to buildDockSpec. Tracked in orchestrator-dock-gaps.md.

Key root-cause note

Dock keys are handled at the floating-panel layer (host dispatch_floating_widget_key), NOT via editor.defineMode — mode bindings resolve against the active buffer's mode, which the dock floats over, so a session whose buffer has a local mode (terminal, markdown, …) would shadow them. This is why earlier mode-based Space// never worked.