- 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.
- **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.
- 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.
- **Matrix "Claude needs you":** when a session has waited for `DEVDESK_MATRIX_DELAY` seconds (30) and no browser tab or SSH client is attached to it, `devdesk-notify-matrix` posts one message per wait, with a link, to the hookshot webhook URL in `/etc/devdesk/matrix-webhook` (mode 600; no file = off).
- **Repo / CI panel:** branch, ahead/behind, uncommitted changes, HEAD's Gitea CI status and open PRs for the session's folder. When CI fails, **Ask Claude to fix CI** types a prompt to read the failed job's log.
- **Files** (Ctrl+Shift+E), laid out like VS Code: an explorer tree (git colours, gitignored entries dimmed) and an editor with tabs (a click opens a preview tab, a double-click keeps it), **Go to file** (Ctrl+P in the pane), markdown previews (sanitized, with relative images), images, and a Changes view of uncommitted files with line counts, a **C** badge on files Claude edited, and diffs against HEAD. **@Claude** types `@path` into the prompt. Tabs and open folders are remembered per session. 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.
- **Context:** a Claude `statusLine` command (`devdesk-statusline`) snapshots each session's model, context-window use and cost to `/var/lib/devdesk/context/<session>.json`. The Sessions panel shows it as a bar (cost in the tooltip), and Claude's own footer shows a one-line summary.
- **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).
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_REMOTE_CONTROL=1`.
-`/etc/devdesk/env` holds the packaged defaults; don't edit it. Its keys:
-`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`
- 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).
