feat: add command palette

[Noojuno]

What Changed

NOTE: This PR contains the changes from #1103, with some style/UX changes and general refactoring.

• Add a layout-scoped command palette opened with mod+k.
• Support searching commands, projects, and threads.
• Support starting new threads, opening settings, jumping to threads, and adding projects from the palette.
• Add a sidebar trigger with the shortcut label.
• Add the filesystem.browse WebSocket request and wire it through the web NativeApi.
• Extract shared helpers for thread actions, project creation from a path, and cross-platform path handling.

Why

• Navigation and creation actions are currently spread across the sidebar and route-specific UI.
• A command palette makes those actions faster to reach and keeps them in one place.
• Project path search and filesystem browsing make the palette useful for both existing and new projects.
• Shared helpers keep this behavior centralized instead of duplicating logic across the UI.
• The closed-state optimization avoids unnecessary work when the palette is not visible.

UI Changes

• New command palette dialog with searchable grouped results.
• mod+k opens the palette.
• Typing filters commands, projects, and threads.
• Path-like queries browse the filesystem to add or select a project.
• New sidebar trigger opens the palette.

Search

Screen.Recording.2026-03-20.at.3.21.09.PM.mov

Creating a thread

Screen.Recording.2026-03-20.at.3.21.27.PM.mov

Screen.Recording.2026-03-20.at.3.25.15.PM.mov

Adding a project

Screen.Recording.2026-03-20.at.3.26.28.PM.mov

Screenshots

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why
• I included before/after screenshots for any UI changes
• I included a video for animation/interaction changes

Note

Add command palette with filesystem browsing, project search, and thread navigation

• Adds a CommandPalette component (bound to mod+k) that lets users search commands, projects, and threads; open submenus; browse filesystem paths; and start new threads or navigate to existing ones.
• Introduces useCommandPaletteStore (Zustand) to track palette open/close state and wires the commandPalette.toggle keybinding through the global shortcut system in ChatRouteGlobalShortcuts.
• Adds a filesystem.browse WebSocket method on the server that returns directory-only suggestions for a partial path, supporting home expansion, cwd-relative resolution, and platform path validation.
• Adds addProjectFromPath orchestration util in projectAdd.ts that resolves paths, finds existing projects, and creates new ones with thread navigation.
• Introduces formatRelativeTime in relativeTime.ts for long/short human-readable relative timestamps, now used in thread rows and command palette results.
• Behavioral Change: while the palette is open, ChatView and ChatRouteGlobalShortcuts suppress all other global keyboard shortcuts.

^{Macroscope summarized ed2a32c.}

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Auto reviews are disabled on this repository. Please check the settings in the CodeRabbit UI or the .coderabbit.yaml file in this repository. To trigger a single review, invoke the @coderabbitai review command.

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Repository UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 8ed6d31f-0230-47b0-a6cb-0bc22d6f846e

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

Use the checkbox below for a quick retry:

• 🔍 Trigger review

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

📝 Coding Plan

• Generate coding plan for human review comments

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

[UtkarshUsername]

While adding a project, there's an "Add" badge on the right. Other commands don't have such a badge, so it's inconsistent. Consider removing it.

[Noojuno]

While adding a project, there's an "Add" badge on the right. Other commands don't have such a badge, so it's inconsistent. Consider removing it.

This is an intentional decision to allow for mouse support when adding a project (it is a button not a badge)

[UtkarshUsername]

Oh ok