- With no `?arg=`, DevDesk reattaches the session you used last in this browser (or the most recently active one). The fzf picker, listing running (●), dormant (○) and new (+) sessions, is under the session chip's menu.
- **Session chip** (header): click to switch sessions; its dot shows Claude's state.
- **+ New** in the Sessions panel takes any name plus an optional project folder.
- **Own git worktree:** for a git project, tick **own git worktree** (or `devdesk new NAME PROJECT --worktree`). The session gets its own checkout in `$ROOT/.worktrees/PROJECT--NAME` on branch `devdesk/NAME`, so two Claudes on one repo never edit the same files. Ending it removes the worktree only if nothing is uncommitted, and the branch only if it's merged.
- **Rename / end:** the ✎ and × buttons on each session in the panel. Renaming keeps the session, its running Claude and its recorded conversation. Ending stops Claude; the conversation stays in Claude's history.
- **Windows:** each session has a `claude` window (0) and a `shell` window (1).
- **Conversation tracking:** a Claude `SessionStart` hook records each session's conversation ID in `/var/lib/devdesk/registry.json`. After a reboot the session resumes *that* conversation, even when other Claude instances, such as code-server, use the same directory.
- **Session status:** Claude hooks (`devdesk-state-hook`) mark each session **working**, **waiting on you** (with Claude's message) or **idle**. Claude's idle reminder a minute after a turn ends doesn't count as waiting. While Claude works, the session chip and the tab title show how long the turn has run (`⏳ 3m`).
- **Session buttons:** ⧉ copies Claude's whole last reply as Markdown. ⇲ **Compact** appears when the context is 80 % full and Claude is idle, and sends `/compact`.
- A "… needs you" chip jumps to other sessions that are waiting, and a desktop notification fires when one starts waiting.
- The **🔔 inbox** lists what needs you (waiting sessions, firing Grafana alerts) and what happened while you were away (a background session finished or started waiting, CI passed or failed); its badge counts them.
- **Answer from the inbox:** a session waiting on a permission shows the exact command/file and **Allow / Deny** (the key is pressed only if that prompt is still on screen); other waits and finished sessions offer **Peek & reply**: the last exchange and a reply box.
- **Matrix "Claude needs you":** when a session has waited on a real request (a permission prompt or a question) for `DEVDESK_MATRIX_DELAY` seconds (60) and no DevDesk tab has been in view for about 2 minutes, `devdesk-notify-matrix` posts what Claude asks ("alpha: Claude wants to run Bash (Restart nginx)", the command, a link). The post goes to the hookshot webhook URL in `/etc/devdesk/matrix-webhook` (mode 600; no file = off). Each session posts at most once per `DEVDESK_MATRIX_QUIET` seconds (600).
- **Ops Alerts panel:** firing and pending Grafana alert rules, each with a link to the rule and the Proxmox guest or node it's about, e.g. `→ CT 110 draupnir · monitor-02 · stopped`.
- **Ask Claude** starts Claude in a new session (`alert-<name>`) with the investigation already sent. The prompt has the rule, its query, summary and labels, and where it runs: the CT/VM id, the node it's on right now, and the `ssh <node> pct exec <id> --` line. Clicking it again just opens that session.
- Guests are matched by the alert's `instance` IP (or host name), else by name in the job or alert ("by name"). Aggregate rules with no labels (`count(up == 0)`) get a hint to run the inner query instead.
- **`devdesk guests [ID|IP|NAME]`** lists Proxmox CTs/VMs with the node each runs on now, status, HA state and IPs. Claude is told to use it before acting, because HA guests move. Stopped guests keep the IP they had when last seen running.
- Configure `DEVDESK_GRAFANA_URL`, plus a Viewer token in `DEVDESK_GRAFANA_TOKEN_FILE`. For the guest lookup, set `DEVDESK_PVE_NODES` to a few Proxmox nodes reachable by root SSH key. VM IPs need the QEMU guest agent.
- **Repo / CI panel:** branch, ahead/behind, uncommitted changes, HEAD's Gitea CI status and open PRs for the session's folder. The first changed files are listed; click one for its diff against HEAD. When CI fails, **Ask Claude to fix CI** types a prompt to read the failed job's log.
- **Mouse:** right-click menus (new file/folder, rename, delete, cut/copy/paste, duplicate, copy path, download, @Claude), Ctrl/Shift+click to select several, drag to move (Ctrl+drag copies). Drop files or whole folders from the desktop to upload them (up to 25 MB each), or drag a file onto the terminal to type `@path`.
- **Keyboard:** F2 renames in place, Delete trashes, Ctrl+C/X/V copy and paste files.
- **Safety:** delete goes to a 7-day trash with **Undo**; nothing is overwritten unless you choose Replace.
- **Editor:** tabs (a click opens a preview tab, a double-click keeps it; right-click for close variants; drag to reorder), **Go to file** (Ctrl+P in the pane), and **Search in files** (Ctrl+Shift+F: match case, whole word, regex). A status bar shows line/column, cursors, indentation, line endings and language. Multiple cursors (Alt+click), column select (Alt+drag), auto-closing brackets, Ctrl+G to go to a line.
- **Markdown preview:** GitHub-style headings with anchors and an outline, syntax-coloured code with Copy, callouts, task lists, front matter, images, and links that open files in DevDesk. **Split** shows the source and a live preview side by side.
- **Changes view:** uncommitted files with line counts, a **C** badge on files Claude edited, and diffs against HEAD. **@Claude** types `@path` into the prompt.
- **Remembered and contained:** tabs and open folders are remembered per session, and paths can't leave the session folder.
- **Editing:** text files are editable; ● marks unsaved tabs; Ctrl+S (or Save) writes atomically and keeps the file's mode and owner. If the file changed on disk since you opened it (Claude edited it), saving asks: Compare (a diff of disk vs yours), Overwrite or Cancel; a change on disk while you edit shows a banner instead of replacing your text. Unsaved edits are kept as drafts in the browser, so a reload or a session switch doesn't lose them. + creates a file (folders as needed). The editor bundle (`/usr/share/devdesk/assets/editor.js`) loads over ttyd the first time and is cached by the browser.
- **Paths are links:** a file path Claude prints (`web/src/files.js`, `notes.md:12`) opens in Files when clicked, at that line if given.
- **Ops guard:** `devdesk-guard` (a PreToolUse hook) makes Claude ask before destructive commands (`pct destroy`, `zfs destroy`, Ceph pool/OSD removal, `rm -r /…`, `git push --force`, `reboot`…), even in auto mode. `DEVDESK_GUARD=0` turns it off; `/etc/devdesk/guard.local` adds rules (`regex<TAB>reason`). Bash commands are logged per session, and sessions are tagged with the hosts they touch (ssh targets, CT/VM ids).
- **Search past conversations** (⋯ menu, palette): full text over every Claude conversation on the host; **Resume** it in a new session or **Fork** it.
- **Plan usage:** the 5-hour and weekly windows as meters in the footer, with when each resets (`↻ 14:30`). If the pace so far would use a window up before it resets, the meter shows `⚠ full ~13:50` instead. A toast warns at 90 %, and Matrix gets one message per window when you're away (`DEVDESK_USAGE_WARN`). Sessions also get a **PR** chip when their branch has a pull request.
- **Settings** (⋯ → Settings…): theme, terminal text size and interface size (per browser), desktop notifications, and **Remote Control per session**. With Remote Control on, a session also shows in the Claude app and at claude.ai/code, and Anthropic stores its transcript to sync devices (30 days, or 5 years if "Help improve Claude" is on). It's **off for new sessions** unless you change the default. Each running session has its own switch, which restarts that Claude on the same conversation when it's idle. Sessions that sync show an **RC** tag.
- **Delete a conversation:** Search past conversations → **Delete…** removes its local transcript (`~/.claude/projects`) for good; a copy synced by Remote Control is deleted at claude.ai/code.
- **Quiet phone at the desk:** while a tab shows a session, Remote Control holds back phone pushes for it (client-presence marker, expires ~2 min after you leave).
- **Context:** a Claude `statusLine` command (`devdesk-statusline`) snapshots each session's model, context-window use, plan usage and cost to `/var/lib/devdesk/context/<session>.json`. The Sessions panel shows it as a bar and Claude's own footer shows a one-line summary. On a Pro/Max plan that summary shows 5-hour plan usage; the dollar figure Claude reports there is an API-price estimate, not a bill, so it appears only for API-key billing.
- **Light mode:** the terminal switches palettes with the page. DevDesk starts Claude with its `dark-ansi` theme so Claude draws with the terminal's 16 colours, and the light palette maps bright white to ink; tmux and the status line use ANSI colours too. A session picks up Claude's theme the next time Claude starts in it (`/exit`, then ⏎ resumes the same conversation).
| Drag | Selects text; it stays highlighted and is copied when you let go. Double-click selects a word, triple-click a line. Clicks on the tmux status line still go to tmux. |
| Ctrl+C | Copies the selection when there is one; otherwise interrupts as usual |
The **☀/◐** button switches light and dark mode (saved per browser, shared with the other web_template apps' `lt_theme` preference). Text size, desktop notifications (with a mute), the keyboard shortcuts sheet and fullscreen are in the **⋯** menu; everything is also in the command palette. In Chromium, fullscreen also captures Ctrl+W/Ctrl+T, which browsers otherwise keep for themselves.
- **Put your changes in `/etc/devdesk/env.local`.** It's read after the packaged `env` and never shipped, so `apt upgrade` never asks about it. Example: `DEVDESK_GUARD=0`.
-`DEVDESK_GITEA_URL` / `DEVDESK_GITEA_ALIASES` for the Repo/CI panel. Public repos need no token; for private ones put a `read:repository` token in `/etc/devdesk/gitea-token`
-`DEVDESK_REMOTE_CONTROL=1`: the Remote Control default for new sessions until one is chosen in Settings (which then wins; each session can also choose its own)
-`DEVDESK_PUBLIC_URL`, `DEVDESK_MATRIX_WEBHOOK_FILE`, `DEVDESK_MATRIX_DELAY`, `DEVDESK_MATRIX_QUIET` and `DEVDESK_USAGE_WARN` for the Matrix notifications
- A `v*` tag also publishes to `https://code.lotusguild.org/api/packages/LotusGuild/debian`, creates a release, and auto-deploys to CT 126. A signed webhook runs `devdesk-deploy`, which upgrades the package; see [docs/DEPLOY.md](docs/DEPLOY.md).