[trinity-ability]

Closes #3672. Implements abilityai/trinity-enterprise#892 (private tracker; closing keywords don't cross repos, so close it manually at release).

#3672 — the Workspace sidebar holds its layout while it loads

Cause. The roster, the chat list and the asks feed land at different times, and each one re-laid the list:

• agent rows re-sorted and grew a subtitle when the chats arrived;
• an agent with an ask was appended past the top-5 limit when the asks arrived;
• the chat groups popped in;
• the Projects link appeared after the roster and pushed the search box and both lists down.

Fix.

• sidebarSettled (pure, portalUtils.js) is true once bootstrap has read the roster and the chats (success or failure) and the asks feed has a verdict (loaded, 404/403, or failed). It is keyed on state, never a timer, and can't hang. Portal.vue latches it as sidebarReady and resets it only when the session ends, so a background refresh never brings the skeleton back.
• Until then, both sidebar sections show skeleton rows (new PortalSkeleton variants sidebar-agents / sidebar-chats). A platform session also holds the Projects link's 36px slot (sidebar-link).
• Once settled, both sections render in one pass inside one .ws-fade-in: a 180ms opacity fade, off under prefers-reduced-motion.
• An empty chat list keeps a stable empty state: "No chats yet — open an agent above, or start a new chat."

Measured with Playwright, cold /workspace load, 3 runs each, fast and with roster, chats and asks delayed by different amounts:

	Cumulative layout shift
Before (dev)	0.008
After	0.0003

The remaining 0.0003 is in the Inbox pane header, not the sidebar. Layout-shift entries only count existing elements that move, not content that pops in, so the "before" number understates the jump people actually see.

ent#892 — rail tabs reordered; Asks always present

• The order is now Info · Canvas · Files · Projects · Asks · Work · Loops (RAIL_TAB_ORDER), and its comment states the new reason.
• Asks is always present (operator ruling 2026-10-13). ent#836's presence rule and asksTabPresent are removed, and tabPassesDoor no longer has a presence check.
• The registry entry now declares an empty state: "No asks", "Nothing from agent is waiting on you…", and an Open the Inbox button that goes to the agent's asks in the Inbox.
• PortalRailAsks owns all four states via railAsksView: a skeleton before a verdict, LoadFailed for a failed first read, the empty state, and the rows. The "needs you" mark still appears only when an ask is waiting.
• Work is still the default tab, and a remembered tab still wins. ⌥. walks the new visual order.

Behaviour notes for the reviewer

• Client fallback tab. An outside client can't see Work, so the rail opens on the first tab it can show. That is now Info instead of Canvas.
• Open-rail overflow. With the rail open on a desktop width, only Info, Canvas and Files fit; Projects, Asks, Work and Loops go under "More". So the default tab (Work) and waiting asks only show as a dot on "More". The overflow behaviour is existing; this order makes it hit these tabs. Worth a look if Asks should sit earlier.

Tests

• New: portalSidebarCalmLoad.mount.spec.js (11 tests; mounted, jsdom).
• Extended: portalRailAsks.spec.js and portalRailAsks.mount.spec.js (always present, order, empty copy, ⌥. walk, the verdict, the empty / skeleton / failed states mounted).
• Order pins in portalRail.spec.js updated as the issue asks. Two source-text pins (portalRosterRow.spec.js, portalSidebarSearch.spec.js) now point at the new sidebar gate.
• Mutation check: with PortalSidebar.vue reverted, 5 of the 11 new sidebar tests go red. With portalRail.js reverted, 5 of 14 portalRailAsks.spec.js tests go red. Both files were restored byte-identical.
• npm run test:unit: 5772 passed. vite build OK.
• Raw-colour ratchet: PortalSidebar.vue's gray count dropped 35 → 29; its baseline entry was lowered by hand so the bug(ci): the raw-colour ratchet is documented as enforced but nothing runs it, and the tree has drifted past its baseline #2605 re-freeze record stays intact.

Verification

• /verify-local --skip-agent --skip-unit:

  Stage	Result
  build + import smoke	pass
  boot + health	pass
  test preflight	pass
  integration	68 passed, 1 failed

  The one failure is integration/test_circuit_breaker.py:395, a timing assertion (expected a ≥0.4s gap, measured 0.19s) on a host running several other test jobs. This PR changes no backend code.

• Backend unit suite not verified. On the first attempt it froze at 97% on a backend test, so it was skipped on the rerun.

• Production frontend image served against the local dev stack and checked by eye:

  • the cold-load filmstrip;
  • an agent page with asks waiting (the asks feed was substituted in the browser, because a real Workspace ask needs a roster share);
  • an agent and a room with no asks;
  • both themes, and 390px phone width.

Docs

• requirements/core-agent.md: the order line, plus a new AC-11 for ent#892.
• feature-flows/workspace-rail.md: an ent#892 section.
• feature-flows/workspace-sidebar-ia.md: a first-load section for Workspace: the sidebar's agent and chat lists jump as they load — hold the layout and fade content in #3672.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[vybe]

merge-train: pushed four mechanical commits to this branch (head 83da10a), per the operator's ruling on the train review:

• 460f024: drops the Projects-link placeholder hold. On every install not entitled to projects (all OSS installs), the 36px placeholder appeared and then vanished, so the sidebar jumped up. The link now renders only once the roster says projectsAvailable, and entitled installs accept a late pop-in.
• 7279319: no false "No chats yet". When the first sessions read fails, the sidebar shows an InlineError with a retry (store.sessionsFailed) instead of the empty state.
• d2d5807: the Asks tab shows a stale InlineError when view.stale is set, matching Canvas, Files and Loops. Also merges the two portalUtils imports into one.
• 83da10a: new portalSidebarLatch.mount.spec.js mounts Portal.vue and pins the latch and the sign-out reset. Under :settled="true", 3 of 4 tests go red.
  Frontend suite: 356 files / 5784 tests green, ratchets unchanged.

[vybe]

merge-train: batch validated on train/20261013-2303 (#3685)