chat: preserve conversation drafts and attachments when returning Home

docs/changes/unreleased/1431-attachment-home.md

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+kind: fixed
+title: Conversation drafts and attachments stay with their conversation
+pr: 1431
+surface: [chat, docs]
+invalidates:
+  - "Unsent conversation attachments remained on the shared tray when Home opened. Home now owns a separate tray and opens with a clean slate. The conversation keeps its unsent prompt, cursor and attachments when you leave and return; starting a conversation from Home carries only what was added there. Files and queued messages are untouched."
+  - "Conversation chips could be clicked to remove them but showed no action mark. They now show a remove mark through the shared glyph vocabulary."
+---

docs/design/icons/DESIGN.md

@@ -118,6 +118,15 @@ The gutter says what family a step is and NEVER how it went: `test` draws a
 flask and never a checkmark, because the family is the act of checking and not
 its verdict.
 
+### Attachment action
+
+| Meaning | Slot | Plain | Nerd font | ASCII |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| remove an unsent attachment | `GRemove` | `×` | nf-fa-times_circle | `x` |
+
+The dim action mark is distinct from the failed-work mark. It is drawn only where
+a click can remove the attachment, and is resolved explicitly through the vocabulary.
+
 ### File kinds (chips, and the gutter beside a call that made or opened one)
 
 | Kind | Slot | Plain | Nerd font | ASCII |

internal/manual/chat/attaching-files.md

@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ at all.
 
 **The tray lights `start` even with nothing typed.** A file on the tray *is* a message, so
 `enter` starts a new conversation and sends it — and the pictures go with you into that
-conversation, because the tray belongs to you rather than to the screen. The same is true
+conversation, because home's tray is that conversation's first message. The same is true
 of `ctrl+enter`: an errand carries what was dropped into it.
 
 **The list underneath keeps working.** Home's box is a search over every project on the
@@ -458,9 +458,14 @@ browser on local home, and it is aimed at which folder the next conversation ope
 "Choosing a folder"); `/folder` on home opens a conversation first and browses there. Over
 `--host`, both say why this machine's folder cannot be that far conversation's folder.
 
-**The tray survives the walk.** Attach a file on home, go into a conversation, come back: it
-is still there. Home's tray row cannot be clicked; a chip comes off on a conversation's own
-tray, where the `✕` is.
+**Returning to Home keeps your unsent prompt and attachments in their conversation.**
+Reopen that conversation to find the same words, cursor position and picture tokens.
+They never appear on Home or in another conversation. Home starts with an empty box
+and tray; only words and files you add there go into the new conversation. Queued
+messages keep their own attachments. If the current draft has no conversation identity
+to save it under, starting another says `finish or clear the draft in the current chat before starting another`.
+Home's tray row cannot be clicked; on a conversation's tray, click the
+chip or its remove mark (`×`, or `x` in ASCII mode).
 
 A few refusals come from the far machine instead and arrive with `engine:` in front of
 them — the file arrived with no usable name, or with a name that was really a path:
@@ -509,7 +514,8 @@ and were told the file is not there, that is what happened.
 Three ways, all the same as for a picture:
 
 - **`backspace` over an empty message box** removes the last thing on the tray.
-- **Click a chip** and it comes off.
+- **Click a chip or its remove mark** on a conversation's tray and it comes off.
+  Its mark is `×` in plain mode, a circled cross with a rich font, and `x` in ASCII mode.
 - **Send the message** — the tray empties into it.
 
 Removing a picture also takes its `[image #n]` token out of your sentence and counts the

internal/manual/chat/home.md

@@ -1374,11 +1374,14 @@ lands on home's tray. Choosing `/attach` on the `/` list with `enter` opens it a
 conversation's folder — the same decision `/project` makes — and updates the project
 path at the right end of the keys row.
 
-**The tray belongs to you, not to a conversation.** It survives walking into a conversation
-and back out to home, and the chips you put on it here are the chips the next conversation
-starts with. Home's tray is a reading and not a target: a chip comes off on the row above a
-conversation's own box, where the `x` is. At phone width home draws no tray row at all; the
-files are still there, and the conversation you open shows them.
+**Home's tray belongs to the conversation home starts next.** The chips you put on it here
+are the chips that conversation starts with, and nothing else rides along: an unsent draft
+or attachment in another conversation stays there and comes back when you reopen it. Leave
+home without starting anything and its tray is emptied — home opens clean on every visit.
+Home's tray is a reading and not a target: a chip comes off on the row above a
+conversation's own box, at its remove mark (`×`, or `x` in ASCII mode). At phone width
+home draws no tray row at all; the files are still there, and the conversation you start
+from home carries them.
 
 ## Change the model before starting — /model on home, the seam above the box
 

internal/manual/chat/keys.md

@@ -1400,12 +1400,15 @@ answers every picture question here, whether you attached the file or not.
 Attaching is for a picture you are handing over as part of what you are saying.
 
 **The tray.** Attached pictures sit in a one-row tray directly above the message box,
-one dim chip each, drawn as `▣ #1 name.png` — `*` in place of the square on an ASCII
-terminal. The number is the picture's place in the message and the number `[image #1]`
+one dim chip each, drawn as `▣ #1 name.png ×` — `*` in place of the square and
+`x` for removal on an ASCII terminal. The number is the picture's place in the message and the number `[image #1]`
 in your sentence refers to. The message box stays the sentence. `backspace` over an
 empty box drops the last chip, and clicking a chip removes that one — and takes its
 `[image #n]` out of your sentence, counting the ones behind it down so the numbers
-stay true.
+stay true. Returning to Home preserves your unsent prompt, cursor and attachments in
+that conversation. Reopening it restores them. Home starts with an empty box and tray;
+a new conversation receives only what you type or attach there. Queued messages keep
+their own attachments.
 
 ## Dragging or pasting a screenshot in
 

internal/tui2/tokens/glyph.go

@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ const (
 	// the distinction the one-glyph-one-meaning gate exists to keep.
 	GlyphAssumed = "≈"
 
+	// GlyphRemove offers to detach an unsent attachment; it reports no failure.
+	GlyphRemove = "×"
+
 	// Disclosure and navigation.
 	GlyphCollapsed = "▸"
 	GlyphExpanded  = "▾"
@@ -442,6 +445,7 @@ func Glyphs() []GlyphInfo {
 		{"Working", GlyphWorking, '◐', true},
 		{"Settled", GlyphSettled, '✓', false},
 		{"Failed", GlyphFailed, '✕', false},
+		{"Remove", GlyphRemove, '×', true},
 		{"Stopped", GlyphStopped, '■', true},
 		{"Paused", GlyphPaused, '=', false},
 		{"NeedsHuman", GlyphNeedsHuman, '?', false},

internal/tui2/tokens/glyphset.go

@@ -189,6 +189,8 @@ const (
 	// was sent: the ring of them behind /drafts and the ↑ walk's dim end
 	// (internal/tui3's draftring.go, draftpage.go).
 	GDraftUnsent
+	// GRemove is an action on an attachment, not a work state.
+	GRemove
 	// GPinned marks a crew seat a person pinned, which the router does not move
 	// (internal/tui3's crew.go).
 	GPinned

internal/tui2/tokens/glyphset_test.go

@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ func TestVocabularyIsCompleteAndFallsBackToFiveSeventeen(t *testing.T) {
 // because a painted cell that is exactly one of these is plausible CONTENT and
 // a mechanism that rewrote it would be a mechanism that can lie (12.7 D.3).
 var typedPlainSides = map[string]string{
+	GlyphRemove:            "the multiplication sign, which is ordinary mathematical content",
 	GlyphActionCommunicate: "the guillemet, which is a quotation mark in half of Europe",
 }
 

internal/tui2/tokens/nerdfont.go

@@ -69,6 +69,12 @@ var vocabulary = []GlyphBinding{
 		ASCII:     "x",
 		UsualTint: Coral, NFAmbiguous: true, AutoUpgrade: true,
 	},
+	{
+		ID: GRemove, Name: "Remove", Meaning: "detach an unsent attachment",
+		Plain: GlyphRemove, NerdFont: "\uF057", NFName: "nf-fa-times_circle",
+		// Multiplication signs in prose must remain text; the tray resolves this slot explicitly.
+		ASCII: "x", UsualTint: TextTertiary, PlainAmbiguous: true, NFAmbiguous: true, AutoUpgrade: false,
+	},
 	{
 		ID: GStopped, Name: "Stopped", Meaning: "stopped by the person",
 		// THE ICON IS THE TRANSPORT STOP and the plain side is the filled

internal/tui2/tokens/testdata/nerdfont_glyphnames.json

@@ -143,6 +143,9 @@
  "nf-fa-terminal": {
   "code": "f120"
  },
+ "nf-fa-times_circle": {
+  "code": "f057"
+ },
  "nf-fa-times_circle_o": {
   "code": "f05c"
  },

internal/tui3/attach.go

@@ -216,7 +216,8 @@ func (a *app) attachFile(path string) bool {
 }
 
 func (a *app) attachChip(held chip) bool {
-	if !attachChipTo(&a.chips, held) {
+	_, tray := a.keyboardBox()
+	if !attachChipTo(tray, held) {
 		return false
 	}
 	a.touch()
@@ -598,6 +599,16 @@ func chipLabels(chips []chip, pal palette) []string {
 	return out
 }
 
+// removableChipLabels adds the action only where a press can remove a chip.
+// Drawing and hit-testing share these labels so the remove mark is clickable.
+func removableChipLabels(chips []chip, pal palette) []string {
+	labels := chipLabels(chips, pal)
+	for i := range labels {
+		labels[i] += " " + pal.glyph(tokens.GRemove)
+	}
+	return labels
+}
+
 // chipStrip is the tray as one row, dim: the attachments are a fact about the
 // message being written, not a thing being said, and the surface says what it
 // is doing in the same voice it says everything else about itself.
@@ -619,7 +630,7 @@ func (a *app) chipStrip(width int) string {
 	// one place on the surface those are kept.
 	places := a.placeTrayCells()
 	skills := a.skillTrayCells()
-	labels := chipLabels(a.chips, a.pal)
+	labels := removableChipLabels(a.chips, a.pal)
 	if len(cells) == 0 && len(places) == 0 && len(skills) == 0 && len(labels) == 0 {
 		return ""
 	}
@@ -821,7 +832,7 @@ func (a *app) chipTrayTarget(x, y int) (int, bool) {
 		}
 		column -= placeTrayWidth(places)
 	}
-	i := chipAt(chipLabels(a.chips, a.pal), column)
+	i := chipAt(removableChipLabels(a.chips, a.pal), column)
 	if i < 0 {
 		return 0, false
 	}

internal/tui3/attach_test.go

@@ -87,7 +87,8 @@ func tab() tea.KeyPressMsg { return tea.KeyPressMsg{Code: tea.KeyTab} }
 
 func chipNames(a *app) []string {
 	out := make([]string, 0, len(a.chips))
-	for _, c := range a.chips {
+	_, tray := a.keyboardBox()
+	for _, c := range *tray {
 		out = append(out, c.name())
 	}
 	return out
@@ -195,7 +196,7 @@ func TestAClickOnAChipTakesThatChipOff(t *testing.T) {
 	// (attach.go's [app.chipTrayTarget] says the whole of it).
 	y := trayRow(a)
 	// The second chip starts after the first label and the gap between them.
-	x := len(inputPad) + ansi.StringWidth(chipLabels(a.chips, a.pal)[0]) + len(chipGap) + 1
+	x := len(inputPad) + ansi.StringWidth(removableChipLabels(a.chips, a.pal)[0]) + len(chipGap) + 1
 
 	drive(t, a, tea.MouseClickMsg{X: x, Y: y, Button: tea.MouseLeft})
 	drive(t, a, tea.MouseReleaseMsg{X: x, Y: y, Button: tea.MouseLeft})

internal/tui3/attachment_home_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+package tui3
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	tea "charm.land/bubbletea/v2"
+	"github.com/charmbracelet/x/ansi"
+)
+
+func TestReturningHomeKeepsUnsentConversationAttachments(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, door := range []string{"double space", "home", "other place"} {
+		t.Run(door, func(t *testing.T) {
+			lab := newHomeLab(t)
+			now := lab.pin(time.Date(2026, time.September, 28, 12, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC))
+			mine := lab.session("-alpha", "aaaa000000000001", "here", lab.workspace("alpha"), now)
+			a := lab.app(mine)
+			a.chips = []chip{{path: "one.png"}, {path: "notes.txt", file: true}, {path: "two.png"}}
+			a.input.setText("compare [image #1] with [image #2]")
+			a.input.cursor = 4
+			a.parks = []parked{{text: "already queued", chips: []chip{{path: "queued.png"}}}}
+			wantDraft, wantCursor := a.input.String(), a.input.cursor
+			switch door {
+			case "double space":
+				a.input.setText("")
+				wantDraft, wantCursor = "", 0
+				drive(t, a, key(" "), key(" "))
+			case "home":
+				a.openHome()
+			case "other place":
+				a.showPage(pageTasks)
+				a.openHome()
+			}
+			if !a.at(pageHome) || len(a.home.chips) != 0 || a.home.box.String() != "" || a.home.carrying {
+				t.Fatal("Home inherited a conversation draft")
+			}
+			if strings.Contains(homeText(a), "one.png") {
+				t.Fatal("Home drew the conversation's tray")
+			}
+			a.home.chips = []chip{{path: "attached-on-home.png"}}
+			a.home.box.setText("a different request")
+			drive(t, a, key("esc"))
+			if a.input.String() != wantDraft || a.input.cursor != wantCursor || len(a.chips) != 3 || a.chips[0].path != "one.png" {
+				t.Fatalf("conversation draft changed: %q, cursor %d, chips %+v", a.input.String(), a.input.cursor, a.chips)
+			}
+			if len(a.parks) != 1 || len(a.parks[0].chips) != 1 {
+				t.Fatal("navigation changed a queued message")
+			}
+			a.openHome()
+			if a.home.box.String() != "" || len(a.home.chips) != 0 {
+				t.Fatal("returning Home did not start clean")
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestStartingFromHomeKeepsThePreviousConversationsDraft(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, fresh := range []bool{false, true} {
+		for _, target := range []string{"same project", "other project", "project row"} {
+			t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("fresh=%t/%s", fresh, target), func(t *testing.T) {
+				lab := newStartLab(t)
+				a := lab.app()
+				a.open = func(string, string) (Conversation, error) {
+					t.Fatal("a held conversation was reopened instead of restored")
+					return Conversation{}, nil
+				}
+				if fresh {
+					a.turn = 0
+				}
+				old := a.file
+				a.input.setText("unfinished [image #1]")
+				a.input.cursor = 3
+				a.chips = []chip{{path: "old.png"}, {path: "old.txt", file: true}}
+				a.openHome()
+				a.home.chips = []chip{{path: "new.txt", file: true}}
+				if target == "project row" {
+					a.homeStartInProject("/tmp/another-project")
+				} else {
+					if target == "other project" {
+						a.target.where = "/tmp/another-project"
+					}
+					if _, ok := a.homeOpenAtTarget(); !ok {
+						t.Fatal("Home did not open the new conversation")
+					}
+				}
+				if a.input.String() != "" || len(a.chips) != 1 || a.chips[0].path != "new.txt" {
+					t.Fatalf("new conversation inherited the old draft: %q %+v", a.input.String(), a.chips)
+				}
+				a.input.setText("second conversation's draft")
+				a.openHome()
+				if _, refusal := a.openSession(Session{File: old}); refusal != "" {
+					t.Fatal(refusal)
+				}
+				a.closeHome()
+				if a.input.String() != "unfinished [image #1]" || a.input.cursor != 3 || len(a.chips) != 2 || a.chips[0].path != "old.png" {
+					t.Fatalf("return lost the old draft: %q, cursor %d, chips %+v", a.input.String(), a.input.cursor, a.chips)
+				}
+			})
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestHomeCreationRefusalKeepsBothDrafts(t *testing.T) {
+	lab := newStartLab(t)
+	a := lab.app()
+	a.input.setText("unsent conversation prompt")
+	a.chips = []chip{{path: "old.png"}}
+	a.openHome()
+	a.home.box.setText("new conversation prompt")
+	a.home.chips = []chip{{path: "new.png"}}
+	lab.refuse = errors.New("cannot start")
+	if _, started := a.homeOpenAtTarget(); started {
+		t.Fatal("creation unexpectedly succeeded")
+	}
+	if !a.at(pageHome) || a.home.box.String() != "new conversation prompt" || len(a.home.chips) != 1 {
+		t.Fatal("refusal lost Home's draft")
+	}
+	a.closeHome()
+	if a.input.String() != "unsent conversation prompt" || len(a.chips) != 1 || a.chips[0].path != "old.png" {
+		t.Fatal("refusal lost the conversation's draft")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAttachmentRemoveMarkIsVisibleAndClickable(t *testing.T) {
+	a, _, dir := attachLab(t, map[string]int{"one.png": 12, "two.png": 12})
+	a.attach(dir + "/one.png")
+	a.attach(dir + "/two.png")
+	a.input.setText("compare [image #1] with [image #2]")
+	labels := removableChipLabels(a.chips, a.pal)
+	if !strings.HasSuffix(labels[0], " ×") {
+		t.Fatalf("missing remove mark: %q", labels[0])
+	}
+	x := len(inputPad) + ansi.StringWidth(labels[0]) - 1
+	y := trayRow(a)
+	drive(t, a, tea.MouseClickMsg{X: x, Y: y, Button: tea.MouseLeft}, tea.MouseReleaseMsg{X: x, Y: y, Button: tea.MouseLeft})
+	if len(a.chips) != 1 || a.chips[0].name() != "two.png" || a.input.String() != "compare with [image #1]" {
+		t.Fatalf("remove did not update the tray and draft: %+v %q", a.chips, a.input.String())
+	}
+}

internal/tui3/chatstart.go

@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ import (
 // creation before detaching it when doing so would strand its unsent words.
 const startDraftUnownedWord = "finish or clear the draft in the current chat before starting another"
 
-// startKeepsLeaving is `+`'s one amendment to what a create may CLOSE.
+// startKeepsLeaving keeps the draft behind either new-conversation surface.
 //
 // A FRESH CONVERSATION HOLDING AN UNSENT SENTENCE IS KEPT. /new's exception ends
 // a fresh and empty conversation because nothing is in it and the draft goes with
@@ -74,11 +74,11 @@ const startDraftUnownedWord = "finish or clear the draft in the current chat bef
 // exists to prevent. Kept, the words stay in their own conversation and come back
 // by pressing its tab.
 //
-// IT IS ASKED OF THE START PAGE ONLY. Every other caller of the door is standing
-// in the conversation it is about to leave, where carrying the box forward is the
-// promise rather than the leak.
+// HOME MAKES THE SAME PROMISE. Its new conversation starts with its own box and
+// tray, while the conversation behind it keeps the draft somebody left there.
+// /new inside a conversation still carries the draft forward.
 func (a *app) startKeepsLeaving() bool {
-	if !a.startingChat() || a.mainComposer().empty() {
+	if (!a.startingChat() && !a.at(pageHome)) || a.mainComposer().empty() {
 		return false
 	}
 	return a.agent != nil && a.convKey(a.file) != ""