ADR 0085: Make the work panel shortcut a toggle

• Status: Accepted for implementation
• Date: 2026-08-14
• Deciders: PI-Desktop core
• Amends: ADR 0068, D207
• Amended by: ADR 0195 (the viewport-fixed toggle is the pointer equivalent; the header chevron is no longer a collapse control)
• Related: 01-ui-ia · 08-component-spec §5 · 09-interaction-patterns §1 · E2E-056

Context

ADR 0068 made Cmd/Ctrl + J an open-only action and rejected a toggle on the grounds that the panel header already owns collapse and that a toggle risks hiding the panel while the user is trying to reveal it. In use the asymmetry reads as a broken shortcut instead of a safeguard: the same chord that reveals the panel does nothing on the second press, so a keyboard-first user has to move to the header control to put the panel away. Every other shell surface bound to a chord (Cmd/Ctrl + B for the sidebar) toggles.

The accidental-hide risk 0068 guarded against is small because the shortcut is symmetric and immediately reversible: the retained context, tabs, active resource, and committed width all survive a collapse, so an unintended press is undone by pressing again.

Decision

1. openWorkPanel becomes a toggle. When the visible panel is open, the shortcut collapses it through the same path as the header collapse control; when it is closed, the shortcut reveals the active session's retained context at its committed width without creating a resource tab.
2. Collapsing via the shortcut retains the session's context exactly as the header control does — tabs, active resource, Browser resource, and committed width are preserved, so a second press restores the previous surface.
3. The shortcut id stays openWorkPanel so existing user keybinding overrides keep working; only the Settings → Shortcuts label changes to describe toggling.
4. The no-active-session and Settings no-op contexts from 0068 are unchanged, as are artifact-driven resource creation, session ownership, and background-event isolation. No host protocol, IPC channel, or native application-menu command is added.

Consequences

• One chord both reveals and puts away the work panel, matching the sidebar.
• The header collapse control remains for pointer users and is now one of two equivalent entry points to the same store action.
• ADR 0068's "Make Cmd/Ctrl + J a toggle" rejected alternative no longer holds; 0068's remaining clauses stay in force.

Alternatives considered

Keep open-only and add a separate close chord

Rejected. A second binding spends scarce chord space on the inverse of an existing one and still leaves the first chord feeling inert.

Toggle only when the panel has no tabs

Rejected. Behavior that depends on invisible tab state is less predictable than a plain toggle, and the retained context makes collapsing a populated panel non-destructive anyway.

References

• docs/adr/0068-work-panel-keyboard-entry.md
• docs/spec/04-ux/01-ui-ia.md
• docs/spec/04-ux/08-component-spec.md
• docs/spec/04-ux/09-interaction-patterns.md
• docs/spec/08-meta/decisions-log.md (D128, D142, D207, D221)