UI inconsistency: "Todos" in left-hand navigation is more of a contextual sidebar, not a page

[trisweb]

"Todos" is not like the other pages in the left nav. It pertains to the current chat session, it is not a global page; however the left navigation is for pages that are global, so it's confusing when going there that it does not match that expectation. Todos is more like a sidebar for a currently active chat session; but I kinda get it, there's no mechanism for activating such a sidebar (yet).

Recommend a more structured dual-purpose navigation approach for consistent and predictable information architecture:

• Left-hand navigation: top-level pages and features, such as Chats, Tasks, Kanban, Settings, etc. (basically everything except Todos)
• Top header that better follows the page hierarchy: Hermes logo and customizable agent name top-left that takes you Home when clicked (to Chats); Right side of top header has sub-controls for the current page, one of which can be ToDos for the current Chat session when in a chat session. The center can remain the page/feature title as it is today.

This would create a 2-level hierarchy enabling a place for sub-features within a page, which is logical for the Todos feature.

Items clicked in this contextual area would open as right-hand drawers or sidebars, to go alongside the current view. They should not overlay the content but be more like a split-screen, so they can stay open.

One could imagine other contextual features within each of the main top-level functions, for example viewing a Kanban item quickly without leaving your list. Lots of potential uses in a standard and predictable way.

[trisweb]

Just realized the Workspace panel is this too, but global. Both good. The right-arrow UI to open it is very difficult to find, so having a top-bar with a clearer nav for the Workspace feature would be a win too.

[nesquena-hermes]

Thanks for raising this @trisweb — and the follow-up about Workspace is well-spotted.

You're right that Todos is per-session, not global — it lives in static/index.html:159 as a left-rail panel tab (next to Chats / Cron / Kanban / Memory etc.), but its contents are scoped to the currently-active session's todo list. Same surface, different semantic shape from the other items.

A few thoughts on the proposal:

1. The dual-purpose nav direction is reasonable. Top-bar sub-controls for the current page (Todos chip → opens the per-session todo drawer) is a more honest IA than mixing global pages with session-scoped panels in the same rail. The Composer toolbar already has the precedent (workspace chip, mode picker, etc. live there because they're contextually-scoped to the current send).

2. Workspace is interesting — it's bifurcated already. The workspace panel is global (it pertains to the registered workspace, not a session), but it's accessed via an edge-toggle on the right rail (btnWorkspacePanelEdgeToggle) that's deliberately unobtrusive. Several users have flagged that the right-arrow is hard to find — see UI/UX Improvement: Workspace side panel show/hide #2211 (Workspace side panel show/hide) for related discussion.

3. What I'd flag as a tension. The left rail today serves a third role beyond "global pages" and "session sub-features" — it's also the quick-keyboard-shortcut surface for things you toggle a lot in the same session (Todos, Memory, Kanban-per-session). Moving Todos to a contextual right-drawer would slow that down. So the right shape is probably "Todos stays accessible from the left rail BUT is visually clustered as session-scoped" rather than removed entirely.

I'm labeling this enhancement + ux and putting it in Milestone 2 — Power user features for now. The IA refactor is real but it's a multi-PR design pass (the left rail, top bar, right drawer, and breakpoint behavior all need to stay coherent), so it's not a quick fix. If you want to sketch a more concrete proposal (mockup, target spec, or a small "phase 1" that just adds a Todos chip to the topbar for the active session without removing the left-rail entry), that would help move this forward.

Related: #2211 (workspace panel show/hide), #2942's sibling at #2867 (tool-output visual distinction — another "shared rail, different semantic weight" tension).

[trisweb]

Yep, good pattern recognition LLM agent. I will say I'm not proposing removing the left nav, just ensuring that its purpose is clear and consistent. In our case it ought to be the primary pages and top level functions.

To simplify this proposal, I'd just say the workspace and todos should go as icons or icon+text links in the top right as a consistent location, and the Todos should only appear in Chats when one is selected. Each should pop out a side panel on the right similarly to how Workspace currently works.

That should cover it, providing the more scoped features that belong "in context" on the right, with the more global top level features on the left nav.