Sidebar

The sidebar displays workspace information and agent status in real time. Each workspace shows its current state, including agent activity, git branch, directory, and listening ports.

Sidebar Sections

Each workspace row in the sidebar contains up to 8 sections:

1. Workspace Name

The workspace title, editable via the command palette or seance ctl rename-workspace.

2. Notifications

Unread notifications for the workspace. Click to view details.

3. Status Metadata Pills

Agent status indicators showing what's running in the workspace:

Status	Meaning	Icon
Running	Agent is processing a prompt or running a tool	camera-flash-symbolic
Idle	Agent finished its turn, waiting for input	pause-symbolic
Needs input	Agent is waiting for permission or user input	bell-outline-symbolic

Multiple agents can have independent status in the same workspace. Pills are sorted by priority and can be expanded/collapsed when there are more than 3 entries.

4. Latest Log Entry

The most recent log message from agents in the workspace. Logs are cleared when the workspace is closed.

5. Progress Bar

A progress indicator when agents report task completion percentage. Shows a labeled progress bar with percentage.

6. Git Branch + Directory

Shows the current git branch and working directory of the focused pane:

• Git branch — detected from shell integration or by walking up to .git/HEAD
• Directory — the pane's current working directory
• Dirty indicator — shows if there are uncommitted changes

7. Listening Ports

TCP ports listening inside the workspace's panes. Detected via /proc/net/tcp on Linux, attributed to panes via SEANCE_PANEL_ID environment variable.

Ports are scanned every 10 seconds. Standard ports (22, 53, 631, 5353) are excluded from display.

8. Column Indicator Dots

Visual indicator showing the number and position of columns in the workspace.

Status Updates

Agent status updates come from two sources:

1. Agent Hooks

When an agent fires a lifecycle event, the plugin/hook calls seance ctl <agent>-hook <event>, which updates the workspace metadata:

# Agent starts working
seance ctl opencode-hook prompt-submit

# Agent finishes
seance ctl opencode-hook stop

# Agent needs permission
seance ctl opencode-hook notification

2. Shell Integration

The shell integration script reports git branch and dirty status automatically when you change directories or run git commands.

Notifications

When an agent needs your attention — a permission request, a question, or a completed task — Séance sends a desktop notification. Clicking the notification focuses the relevant terminal.

Notifications are:

• Focus-suppressed — don't steal focus when your terminal is active
• Tracked — unread count shown in the sidebar
• Clickable — click to jump to the relevant pane

Configuration

Sidebar behavior can be configured in ~/.config/seance/config.toml:

# Show agent status pills
show_status = true

# Show git branch and directory
show_branch = true

# Show listening ports
show_ports = true

# Show log entries
show_logs = true

# Show progress bars
show_progress = true

Or via the Settings UI: Settings → Sidebar.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Focus sidebar	Ctrl+Shift+S
Navigate up/down	Up/Down or Ctrl+P/Ctrl+N
Select workspace	Enter
Close workspace	Delete or Ctrl+Shift+W