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The review window's content panes each `exec` a process (editor, git difftool, review agent) so the pane dies when that process exits. Quitting Vim with `:q` (or the difftool exiting) used to leave the window showing a dead/empty pane with no way back short of reloading the whole task. Recover on the normal poll cadence, split by which loop can observe the death: - Mid content pane (Vim/difftool): the review panel's own loop detects a dead middle pane via `review_ui::mid_content_pane_dead` and falls the view back to Chat through the existing `ShowChat` path (`recover_to_chat` mirrors the Chat switch click), so recovery converges with the manual path. - Nav/panel pane: the panel is run-once and can't rebuild itself, so the dashboard sidebar loop (`App::poll_review_panes` -> `review_panel_pane_dead`) rebuilds it — `poll_active_window` only fires on a window *change*, so this catches a panel that dies while its window is already current. - `ensure_editor_pane`/`ensure_diff_pane` now treat a stashed-but-dead pane id as absent (`pane_alive_anywhere`), so re-selecting a view rebuilds the pane fresh instead of swapping in a corpse. - `show_review_view` handles a dead current-mid: a killed mid pane collapses the window to just its panel, so there's nothing to swap against — join the target beside the panel instead (the clamp hook re-clamps the width). Decisions made without asking (spec was prescriptive): - Chat/agent-pane death while Chat is the mid view is left to the existing workspace supervisor (window-level auto-restart), not duplicated here — the review UI's reuse guards just avoid trusting stale ids. Reviving a crashed agent is a workspace-lifecycle concern, not review-window layout. - Recovery is gated to the *active* review window (`review_window_active`) so a Back-to-dashboard (FocusDashboard) or the quit teardown never triggers a rebuild, per the "distinguish teardown from in-place death" requirement. - Dead-mid recovery uses `join-pane` (verified against tmux 3.7b: a dead swapped-in pane strands chat in its stash window and collapses the review window) rather than a full teardown+respawn, to preserve the panel and avoid a dashboard flicker. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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jlong
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jlong/tui-reload-review-window-panes-when-they-exit-vim-diff-chat-nav-defaulting-the-mid-view-back-to-chat
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August 15, 2026 23:54
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Task
The review window is composed of panes (a navigation sidebar plus a "mid" view that can be Chat / Diff / Edit-in-Vim / Browser). Each content pane runs an
exec'd process (exec $EDITOR,exec git difftool, …) so the pane dies when that process exits. Today, when a pane's process quits, the review window is left with a dead/empty pane instead of recovering — the user has to leave and reload the whole task.We want the review window to detect any of its panes exiting and recover automatically, so quitting a tool never leaves a broken window.
Current Behavior
:qout of Vim → the editor pane is now dead/empty. Nothing switches the view or rebuilds the pane; the review window is left in a broken state.git difftoolexits, the chat pane's process exits, or the navigation pane dies, the window is left with a dead pane and no recovery.Expected Behavior
:q, difftool exits): detect the dead pane and switch the mid view back to Review chat (the default view). The window is never left showing a dead pane.exec'd process), not try to re-focus the dead one. The existing reuse guard should treat a dead pane as absent so the view is recreated on demand.Technical Details
crates/shelbi-orchestrator/src/review_ui.rs, keyed by tmux session vars (MID_KEY,PANEL_KEY,EDITOR_KEY,DIFF_KEY,CHAT_KEY,TASK_KEY). Theensure_*_panehelpers already reuse an existing pane id viaread_session_var; extend that so a dead pane id (tmux reports the pane no longer alive) is treated as absent and recreated, rather than reused.pane_alive); the sidebar/review loop already runs a poll tick (poll_review_load, and nowpoll_active_window) where apoll_review_panes(or equivalent) check fits.crates/shelbi-tui/src/review_panel.rs,ActiveView/PanelEffect). Falling back to Chat on a dead mid pane should reuse the existing view-switch path (PanelEffect::ShowChat/ the Chatactivate_row) so it converges with the click path, mirroring the window-switch convergence just shipped.FocusDashboard) from an in-place pane death so recovery only fires while the review window is still the active context.Acceptance Criteria
:q) in the review window auto-switches the mid view to Review chat; no dead/empty pane remains.Auto-opened by Shelbi — review at: /Users/jlong/.shelbi/projects/shelbi/tasks/tui-reload-review-window-panes-when-they-exit-vim-diff-chat-nav-defaulting-the-mid-view-back-to-chat.md