feat: default sidebar v2 on for nightly and dev builds

[t3dotgg]

What Changed

Sidebar v2 now defaults on for nightly and dev builds, and stays off for production. It remains a single toggle in Settings → Beta — only the default moves.

The default is resolved per surface from signals that already exist:

Surface	Signal	Defaults on
Hosted web	VITE_HOSTED_APP_CHANNEL → APP_STAGE_LABEL	Nightly
Desktop	version regex → APP_STAGE_LABEL	Nightly, Dev
Mobile	expoConfig.extra.appVariant	development, preview

Two small pure resolvers do the work — resolveSidebarV2Default (web) and resolveThreadListV2Default (mobile) — each read through a single hook so no consumer touches the raw setting.

Why

The beta only gets exercised if it's on where regressions are cheap. Production users should keep v1 until we flip it deliberately.

The wrinkle is that client settings persist as a whole blob, so any user who has ever opened Settings already has sidebarV2Enabled: false stored — indistinguishable from "never touched it". This adds a companion sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser flag, mirroring the existing updateChannelConfiguredByUser precedent in desktop settings: the channel default applies until the user picks a side, and touching the switch pins the choice for good.

Mobile needs no equivalent — its preferences persist as sparse patches, so undefined already means "never chosen".

Notes

Resolution is client-side only. A nightly client pointed at a stable server gets v2; a stable client on a nightly server does not. That's correct today since v2 lives entirely in the client, and resolveSidebarV2Default is the single place to add a server-version input if that changes.

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why
• I included before/after screenshots for any UI changes — no visual change; this only moves which sidebar is default per channel, and both sidebars ship today
• I included a video for animation/interaction changes — n/a

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Medium Risk
Changes default UI for many internal/nightly users and relies on migration logic for persisted client settings; risk is mitigated by tests, legacy opt-in handling, and hydration/loading guards.

Overview
Sidebar v2 (web/desktop) and Thread List v2 (mobile) now default on for pre-release builds (web: Nightly/Dev via APP_STAGE_LABEL; mobile: development/preview app variants) and stay off on stable/production unless the user has chosen otherwise.

Web adds sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser so a stored sidebarV2Enabled: false from the full client-settings blob is not treated as an explicit opt-out when the user never touched the beta toggle. Toggling Settings → Beta sets that flag and pins the choice. useSidebarV2Enabled / resolveSidebarV2Enabled apply stage defaults, preserve legacy enabled: true opt-ins, and keep v1 until settings hydrate to avoid remounting the sidebar.

Mobile mirrors the pattern with resolveThreadListV2Enabled and useThreadListV2Enabled (sparse preferences: undefined = never chosen), including holding v1 while preferences load.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 6713291. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Enable sidebar v2 by default on nightly and dev builds

• Adds resolveSidebarV2Enabled in branding.logic.ts and useSidebarV2Enabled in useSettings.ts to derive sidebar v2 state from stage label, user preference, and settings hydration.
• Sidebar v2 is now on by default for nightly and dev stage labels; explicit user opt-in or opt-out is preserved via the new sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser field in ClientSettingsSchema.
• Adds a parallel useThreadListV2Enabled hook on mobile that defaults thread list v2 on for development and preview app variants, using the same load-guarded pattern.
• Behavioral Change: users on nightly/dev who have never touched the sidebar v2 toggle will now see sidebar v2 by default; their next toggle interaction sets sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser to lock in their choice.

^{Macroscope summarized 6713291.}

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Thread List v2 now uses environment-specific defaults, while preserving explicit user preferences.
  • Sidebar v2 now defaults on in development and nightly builds, and off elsewhere unless manually configured.
  • Sidebar beta choices are remembered after users change the setting.
  • Thread list sorting, grouping, navigation, and beta controls now consistently reflect the resolved feature state.

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved handling of existing settings so previous saved preferences continue to work correctly.

[coderabbitai]

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 47.06% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly captures the main change: enabling sidebar v2 by default on nightly/dev builds.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description follows the template well, covering what changed, why, notes, and checklist items.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch t3code/nightly-v2-sidebar-default

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[macroscopeapp]

🟡 Medium src/settings.ts:123

Existing users who explicitly enabled sidebar v2 have persisted sidebarV2Enabled: true but no sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser field. After this change, the missing field decodes to false, so those users are silently switched back to v1. The decoding default for sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser should infer true when sidebarV2Enabled is already true in the persisted record, rather than unconditionally defaulting to false.

🚀 Reply "fix it for me" or copy this AI Prompt for your agent:

In file @packages/contracts/src/settings.ts around line 123:

Existing users who explicitly enabled sidebar v2 have persisted `sidebarV2Enabled: true` but no `sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser` field. After this change, the missing field decodes to `false`, so those users are silently switched back to v1. The decoding default for `sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser` should infer `true` when `sidebarV2Enabled` is already `true` in the persisted record, rather than unconditionally defaulting to `false`.

[t3dotgg]

Confirmed and fixed in 6713291 — this was a real regression.

Rather than inferring in the schema decoder, the inference lives in resolveSidebarV2Enabled (apps/web/src/branding.logic.ts): a stored enabled: true counts as an explicit choice even without the companion flag, since true was never the schema default and can only come from the Settings → Beta toggle. Keeping it in the resolver rather than the decoder means the raw persisted values stay untouched and the rule is covered by pure tests.

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 1 potential issue.

^{❌ Bugbot Autofix is OFF. To automatically fix reported issues with cloud agents, enable autofix in the Cursor dashboard.}

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 08d8f88. Configure here.}

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved

This PR defaults sidebar v2 on for nightly/dev builds while keeping production unchanged. The logic correctly preserves existing user opt-ins via the configuredByUser || enabled check. Well-tested with comprehensive coverage for edge cases including legacy settings migration.

^{You can customize Macroscope's approvability policy. Learn more.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

apps/web/src/hooks/useSettings.ts (1)

223-237: 📐 Maintainability & Code Quality | 🔵 Trivial | ⚡ Quick win

Add focused tests for the resolved hook precedence.

The resolver and schema are tested separately, but not useSidebarV2Enabled() itself. Add cases for configured false, configured true, and unconfigured nightly/production values; this is the shared behavior consumed by the sidebar, settings, and shortcut paths.

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

In `@apps/web/src/hooks/useSettings.ts` around lines 223 - 237, Add focused tests
for useSidebarV2Enabled covering configured users with sidebarV2Enabled set to
false and true, plus unconfigured users resolving the nightly default and
production default. Mock or provide useClientSettings inputs and APP_STAGE_LABEL
as needed, and assert the hook prioritizes the explicit configured value while
using resolveSidebarV2Default for unconfigured values.

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@apps/mobile/src/features/threads/use-thread-list-v2-enabled.ts`:
- Around line 18-23: Update the preference handling in the thread-list v2
enablement flow so loading or failed mobilePreferencesAtom results do not pass
undefined as an unresolved choice to resolveThreadListV2Enabled. Keep
successfully loaded undefined distinct from unavailable preferences, and fail
closed or otherwise preserve readiness until preferences load, while retaining
explicit persisted true/false overrides over appVariant defaults.

In `@packages/contracts/src/settings.ts`:
- Line 613: Add focused decoder coverage for sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser in the
ClientSettingsPatch tests by decoding { sidebarV2Enabled: false,
sidebarV2ConfiguredByUser: true } through decodeClientSettingsPatch and
asserting the field is preserved, covering the persistence path used by
BetaSettingsPanel.

---

Nitpick comments:
In `@apps/web/src/hooks/useSettings.ts`:
- Around line 223-237: Add focused tests for useSidebarV2Enabled covering
configured users with sidebarV2Enabled set to false and true, plus unconfigured
users resolving the nightly default and production default. Mock or provide
useClientSettings inputs and APP_STAGE_LABEL as needed, and assert the hook
prioritizes the explicit configured value while using resolveSidebarV2Default
for unconfigured values.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Repository UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 69426b69-76e5-4cbe-a68e-b5a301b95db3

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 38cfc25 and 08d8f88.

📒 Files selected for processing (17)

• apps/desktop/src/settings/DesktopClientSettings.test.ts
• apps/mobile/src/features/home/HomeHeader.tsx
• apps/mobile/src/features/home/HomeScreen.tsx
• apps/mobile/src/features/settings/SettingsRouteScreen.tsx
• apps/mobile/src/features/threads/ThreadNavigationSidebar.tsx
• apps/mobile/src/features/threads/threadListV2.test.ts
• apps/mobile/src/features/threads/threadListV2.ts
• apps/mobile/src/features/threads/use-thread-list-v2-enabled.ts
• apps/mobile/src/persistence/mobile-preferences.ts
• apps/web/src/branding.logic.ts
• apps/web/src/branding.test.ts
• apps/web/src/components/AppSidebarLayout.tsx
• apps/web/src/components/settings/BetaSettingsPanel.tsx
• apps/web/src/hooks/useSettings.ts
• apps/web/src/routes/_chat.tsx
• packages/contracts/src/settings.test.ts
• packages/contracts/src/settings.ts