feedback: Option to go back to the dedicated chat window instead of sidebar

[endolith]

Version

v1.28.0

Areas for Improvement

• [X] UI/UX
• [ ] Onboarding
• [ ] Docs
• [ ] Chat
• [ ] Commands
• [ ] Context
• [ ] Response Quality
• [ ] Other

What needs to be improved? Please describe how this affects the user experience and include a screenshot.

"Cody for VS Code v1.28: Introducing the unified Cody sidebar" changed the chat functionality so it's no longer in a dedicated pane on the right side of the IDE, but now is in the sidebar on the left, which is unusably narrow and annoying to use:

Codieum uses the sidebar too, which is why I ditched it and went back to Cody, but now Cody has done the same thing.

The sidebar can be resized, but then it's resized for every other use of the sidebar, too, which is not desirable. File explorer should be narrow, extensions list should be narrow, etc.

Describe the solution you'd like to see

There should be an option to always open new chats in a dedicated pane, like it used to do.

Describe any alternatives that could be considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[jdorfman]

Hey @endolith you can do that by clicking the following:

LMK if that works or not

[endolith]

@jdorfman Yes I've been clicking that, but I still need to do it each time. Conversations always start in the sidebar, which is not desirable.

[jdorfman]

@endolith noted. I will make sure the product team sees this in the weekly community feedback report (next Monday).

[jiri-bajer]

As a temporary workaround it is at least possible to configure a keyboard shortcut for moving the chat into editor panel: Cody: Move Chat to Editor Panel (cody,chat.moveToEditor). The left sidebar really is too thin and isn't a good place for the chat. The UI of the sidebar is IMO considerably worse than before and screen estate is wasted by help and actions which can be short-cutted.

[endolith]

(I can't even see the "Open in Editor" button when the file pane is narrow:)