core/docs/DESIGN-0.19.1.md

v0.19.1 — Active Projects, Project System Prompt, Project Detail Panel

Status: Implementation
Depends on: v0.19.0 Projects/Workspaces

---

Overview

Three tightly-scoped improvements that make projects genuinely usable for daily workflow rather than just organizational containers:

1. Active Project — one-click project activation so new chats auto-assign without drag-drop.
2. Project System Prompt — per-project instructions injected into every chat within the project at completion time.
3. Project Detail Panel — side panel UI for managing a project's system prompt, KB bindings, and notes.

---

1. Active Project

State

Location	Key	Type
App.activeProjectId	runtime	string | null
localStorage	cs-active-project	string | null

Behavior

• Click project header's pin icon (or "Set as active" in ⋯ menu) to activate.
• Active project gets a visual indicator: left accent border + subtle background tint using the project's color.
• Creating a new chat (via sendMessage when !App.currentChatId) auto-calls addChannelToProject(activeProjectId, newChannelId) and sets chat.projectId client-side.
• Only one project can be active at a time. Clicking the pin on an already-active project deactivates it.
• Active state persists across page reloads via localStorage.
• If the active project is deleted, activeProjectId is cleared.

Files Changed

File	Change
src/js/app.js	Add activeProjectId: null to App, restore from localStorage on init
src/js/projects-ui.js	setActiveProject(id), clearActiveProject(), menu items, pin icon
src/js/chat.js	Auto-assign in sendMessage after channel creation
src/js/ui-core.js	.active class on project group in renderChatList
src/css/styles.css	.project-group.active styling

---

2. Project System Prompt

Injection Order

1. Admin system prompt       (global policy — no opt-out)
2. Persona OR channel prompt (role/character definition)
3. ▸ PROJECT system prompt   (project-specific context)  ← NEW
4. KB hint                   (available knowledge bases)
5. Memory hint               (user facts from v0.18.0)
6. Summary / conversation    (message history)

The project prompt sits between the role definition and the KB hint. This lets a persona define "you are a coding assistant" while the project adds "this project is the React dashboard for client X."

Backend Flow (completion.go)

In loadConversation, after the persona/channel system prompt block:

// ── Project system prompt (v0.19.1) ──
if h.stores.Projects != nil {
    projID, _ := h.stores.Projects.GetProjectIDForChannel(ctx, channelID)
    if projID != "" {
        proj, err := h.stores.Projects.GetByID(ctx, projID)
        if err == nil {
            if sp, ok := proj.Settings["system_prompt"].(string); ok && sp != "" {
                messages = append(messages, providers.Message{
                    Role:    "system",
                    Content: sp,
                })
            }
        }
    }
}

Storage

Uses existing projects.settings JSONB column. No migration needed.

{
  "system_prompt": "You are helping build the Chat Switchboard project..."
}

Files Changed

File	Change
server/handlers/completion.go	Inject project system prompt in loadConversation

---

3. Project Detail Panel

Registration

Follows the same PanelRegistry.register() pattern as notes and preview panels. Registered during app init via _registerProjectPanel().

Panel Layout

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ Project: <name>         [✕] │  ← header (editable name)
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ System Prompt               │
│ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ textarea (auto-resize)  │ │
│ └─────────────────────────┘ │
│                    [Save]   │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Knowledge Bases        [+]  │
│ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ • KB Alpha          [✕] │ │
│ │ • KB Beta           [✕] │ │
│ └─────────────────────────┘ │
│ (empty: "No KBs bound")    │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Notes                       │
│ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ • Meeting notes     [✕] │ │
│ │ • Design spec       [✕] │ │
│ └─────────────────────────┘ │
│ (empty: "No notes")        │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ Color     [●]               │
│ Archived  [ ]               │
└─────────────────────────────┘

Interactions

• System prompt: Textarea with debounced save (1s) or explicit Save button. Writes to PUT /projects/:id with settings: { system_prompt: "..." }.
• KB add: [+] opens a dropdown of available KBs (from GET /knowledge-bases), filtered to exclude already-bound ones. Calls POST /projects/:id/knowledge-bases.
• KB remove: [✕] calls DELETE /projects/:id/knowledge-bases/:kbId.
• Notes: Read-only list with [✕] to unbind. Notes are auto-associated from channel creation (v0.19.0).
• Color: Reuses the invisible color picker pattern from setProjectColor().
• Open trigger: Click project name in sidebar header, or "Project details" in ⋯ menu.

Files Changed

File	Change
src/index.html	Add #sidePanelProject div inside #sidePanelBody
src/js/projects-ui.js	openProjectPanel(id), _registerProjectPanel(), panel rendering, KB/note management
src/js/app.js	Call _registerProjectPanel() in init
src/css/styles.css	.project-panel-* styles

---

Files Summary

File	Phase	Type
server/handlers/completion.go	2	Modified
src/js/app.js	1,3	Modified
src/js/projects-ui.js	1,3	Modified
src/js/chat.js	1	Modified
src/js/ui-core.js	1	Modified
src/css/styles.css	1,3	Modified
src/index.html	3	Modified
VERSION	—	Modified (0.19.0 → 0.19.1)
CHANGELOG.md	—	Modified

No new files. No migrations. Backend change is a single injection point in completion.go.