[Feature]: Multiple Spaces for organizing projects and threads (Arc/Zen-style)

[dafzthomas]

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
• I am describing a concrete problem or use case, not just a vague idea.

Area

apps/desktop

Problem or use case

When working across many projects (work, side projects, open-source contributions, experiments), the sidebar becomes a long flat list of projects and threads with no way to separate them by context. Switching between a work project and a side project means scrolling through an undifferentiated list, which slows navigation and adds cognitive overhead — especially once you have 10+ projects open.

Proposed solution

Introduce Spaces — named, switchable groups that each contain their own set of projects and threads. Similar to how Arc Browser and Zen Browser handle this:

• A Space switcher in the sidebar (e.g. vertical icon strip or tabs at the top) to move between spaces like "Work", "Side Projects", "OSS", etc.
• Each Space shows only its own projects and threads, keeping the sidebar clean and focused.
• Users can create, rename, reorder, and delete Spaces.
• Projects can be moved or assigned to a Space (drag-and-drop or right-click context menu).
• A keyboard shortcut to cycle between Spaces (e.g. Cmd+1/Cmd+2 or Ctrl+1/Ctrl+2).
• New projects default to the currently active Space.

Why this matters

Power users and professional developers often juggle many projects across different contexts (employer work, freelance, personal). Without a way to group them, the sidebar becomes cluttered and hard to navigate. Spaces would let users maintain focus within a context and switch cleanly between them — a UX pattern that Arc and Zen have proven works well for exactly this kind of multi-context workflow.

Smallest useful scope

Named Spaces that each hold their own project list, with a simple switcher in the sidebar to move between them. No need for per-Space theming, profiles, or separate provider configs in a first pass — just scoped project/thread visibility.

Alternatives considered

• Collapsible folders/groups in the sidebar — lighter weight but doesn't provide the same clean context-switching UX; the sidebar still shows everything at once.
• Multiple windows — related issue [Feature]: Pull a project into a new window #2267 covers pulling a project into a new window, which helps but doesn't solve the organizational problem within a single window.
• Manual naming conventions — prefixing project names with context (e.g. [Work] my-app) is fragile and doesn't scale.

Risks or tradeoffs

• Adds state management complexity (persisting Space assignments, active Space, ordering).
• Need to decide what happens to unassigned/new projects — a sensible default (e.g. a "Default" space or the active space) keeps onboarding simple.
• Should consider whether threads are Space-scoped or project-scoped (projects already imply a grouping for their threads, so Space-scoping projects likely suffices).

Examples or references

• Arc Browser Spaces — vertical Space switcher on the left edge, each Space has its own tabs, bookmarks, and pinned sites.
• Zen Browser Workspaces — similar concept with workspace switching.
• VS Code's multi-root workspaces and JetBrains' project groups solve a related problem in IDEs.

Contribution

• I would be open to helping implement this.

[jacqueslctz]

As a backend dev, I typically have tickets spanning across multiple micro-services to be considered feature complete. So having the ability to better group my sessions would be amazing. Currently I use Warp with colour coded tabs to help with this.

[denny64]

+1 Would love this!!

[bzbetty]

Love it, although I'd want the option to see multiple workspaces at once.

[mackinleysmith]

I think in the sidebar v2 world this is even more relevant than before. I would imagine a large swath of T3 Code's userbase is on company provided computers and having a hard separation of work vs personal projects is imperative. The inbox view of things is amazing but would synchronize and display work front-and-center that I don't want on my company computer.

[troabrea]

This will be great! Much needed

[nhangeland]

+1

[ChristianEllehammer]

+1

[zachback64]

A smaller version of this that I've been using in a local build: plain nested folders for projects in the sidebar. All folders stay visible at once (the "see multiple workspaces at once" case above), and you collapse the ones you don't care about right now.

• Right-click a project, then Move to folder, then pick a folder or create one.
• Folders can nest (Services / Docs), collapse, be renamed, reordered, and deleted. Deleting a folder moves its contents up one level.
• Organization only. Nothing about projects, threads, or agents changes.

Move to folder	Nested folders

Demo projects only. Full-resolution video

Two honest limits: I built it on the per-project (legacy) sidebar, and folder state lives in local UI storage, so it doesn't sync to other devices or mobile. A real version would need the folder list in synced settings and a decision on how it fits Sidebar V2.

If a smallest useful scope would help, I'd suggest: one level of named folders, assigned from the project context menu, stored in synced settings, shown on web and desktop first. Happy to open a small PR for that if you want it.

[mattheworiordan]

would imagine a large swath of T3 Code's userbase is on company provided computers and having a hard separation of work vs personal projects is imperative

Yes, this is exactly my flow. I have separate Claude Work and Claude Personal setups, and creating a clear separation is pretty critical.

A smaller version of this that I've been using in a local build: plain nested folders for projects in the sidebar

@zachback64 this is largely what I was hoping for. Exactly like Claude Desktop offers, you can assign conversations to groups. See screenshot below.

The only downside to this approach is how you can easily see what your most recent conversations are, they got lost in the groups. Personally I think that the folder (group) view is hugely powerful, allows me to work on project based work, as opposed to force myself to work based on git repos/underlying folders which does not actually represent what is going on in my work.

I think what would be a game changer on top of this (missing from Claude desktop) is just an overview page, showing recents, things waitin gon my input, etc. so that I navigate with Groups, but can check in to see what I've forgotten about etc.

[nguyenphutrong]

Hey! I built a version of this in my fork and wanted to check with you before opening a PR.

How it works:

• Dots at the bottom of the sidebar switch between Spaces (or Ctrl+1–9). The grid icon shows everything.
• Projects belong to a Space and their threads follow along. You can also move a single thread on its own.
• There's an overview where you drag projects between Spaces, and create, rename, or delete them.
• Each Space can have its own theme, or just use the app theme.
• Spaces are saved per device, not synced.

It touches web, desktop, and mobile, plus a small server change so thread search can be limited to the current Space. It's a fairly big diff, so I'm happy to split it (web/desktop first, mobile later) or drop parts like the themes.

Is this a direction you'd take? If so, I'll clean it up and open a PR.

[nguyenphutrong]

I went ahead and opened this as a draft so you can see the code: #22655

It's up to date with main as of today. A few things worth flagging:

• On Windows and Linux, thread jumps move from Ctrl+1–9 to Ctrl+Alt+1–9 so Spaces can use Ctrl+1–9. macOS keeps Cmd+1–9. A one-time migration updates untouched saved defaults and leaves custom bindings alone.
• The only server change is an optional thread-id filter on thread search, so results are limited to the current Space before the result limit applies.
• Spaces stay per device, stored in client settings, with no sync.

The offer to split still stands (web/desktop first, mobile later), and I can drop per-Space themes or the overview if you'd rather keep it smaller. Does this direction work for you? If it does, I'll reshape the PR to whatever scope you prefer.

[stevebaxter]

This would be really useful. I have a Claude subscription I use for personal stuff. For work we use a private GPU cluster accessed through OpenCode. It is absolutely essential that work data can never go to the Claude servers, I need a clear and complete separation between the two.

So for me this would need to go a bit further - switching "spaces" would switch the full configuration, threads, history etc.

[pedrozimmermannsoares]

+1. T3 Code is now my main app for agent work, and the sidebar is the one part that slows me down. I run two Claude accounts (work and personal) across 9 projects. Today the only way to tell them apart is a name prefix and the 16px icon color.

Named project groups in the new sidebar would solve this without switching back to the legacy sidebar, which loses the newer features. A color per group or per project (#6705) would make the split readable at a glance.

[ertugrulsagdic]

+1 would love this. my case is mostly about environments, i have a few of them in t3code and switching between them is painful right now

an arc like switcher where each space can be an environment or a custom group would solve it for me. the dots + ctrl+1-9 version @nguyenphutrong built looks great. a vertical grouping where i can see all of them at once and collapse the ones i dont need would also work

[dvddvd300]

+1. I'd like tags on projects rather than exclusive Spaces. One project could be tagged work + app and another personal + app. Then I can filter the sidebar by a tag to see only those projects' threads, e.g. every app project whether it's work or personal. Clearing the filter shows everything again.

Exclusive Spaces cover "work vs personal," but not groupings that cut across them, like "all my apps." Filtering by a tag would also cover the multi-select filter case in #10500, since picking a tag is the same as selecting several projects at once.

[dafzthomas]

Thanks for all the input. To clarify what I've had in mind since opening this: it's closer to switching orgs or accounts than to folders or tags. Space A is my personal account with my personal projects, and Space B is the account I use for business A, with its own projects, threads and history. Switching Spaces switches the whole context.

That's the same split @stevebaxter and @pedrozimmermannsoares describe. When work and personal run on different accounts or providers, a filter isn't enough, because the separation has to be real.

@dvddvd300, tags make sense for groupings that cut across contexts, like "all my apps", but I'd see them as a separate feature (#10500 fits there) rather than a replacement for Spaces.

@nguyenphutrong, your draft in #22655 already covers the switcher and per-Space projects and threads. Scoping provider config per Space could come later as a follow-up, rather than making that PR bigger.

[blazejkustra]

I use T3 Code for both work and personal projects, and I want the two kept apart. Right now they share one list, so personal threads sit next to work threads, and I don't want to see one while I'm doing the other.

I saw #22655 was closed, so I tried a much smaller take to see how little this could need:

• Pick a profile in the sidebar to see only its threads.
• New threads join the active profile.
• Move a thread between profiles from the thread menu.

Here's how it looks:

My accounts don't need separating, so this covers what I need, but it won't help anyone who needs providers and history split per context. Is a small version like this worth having as a first step, or would you rather wait for full Spaces?

[nimobeeren]

I would also like to separate providers by space, as I use a personal OpenCode Go for my side projects and a corporate LLM gateway for work.

Theming per space would also be nice to quickly see what space you're in.

I'm currently using a weird launcher setup with two T3 Code instances running in parallel on my machine. It sucks and nobody should use it, but here it is: https://github.com/nimobeeren/t3code-instance-switcher. The worst part is having a fake HOME for each instance to give them separate Electron states, which breaks things in unexpected ways.

[IsaiahCalvo]

Would maintainers be open to approving a small contribution for named project sections, with the same organization available on desktop and iPhone?

I use T3 Code on Windows, Mac, and iPhone. I need to organize my project folders into sections such as Active Customer Projects, Completed Customer Projects, Internal Projects, and Personal Projects. The existing project view organizes conversations inside each project; I also need to organize the project folders themselves.

The smallest useful scope for me would be:

• One level of named, collapsible sections containing project folders.
• Create, rename, and reorder sections, and move/reorder projects within them.
• Share section membership and ordering across devices connected to the same environment, including the native iPhone app.
• Preserve projects and conversations when a section is removed.
• Keep the current layout as the default, with sections optional.

The folder prototype above and #22655 already demonstrate possible approaches. I understand #22655 was closed for missing prior approval, so I'm asking about direction and scope before proposing another PR.

Would this smaller scope be acceptable? I'd be open to contributing within an agreed scope.

[thanakijwanavit]

+1, this would help me a lot. I run T3 across about a dozen machines and several unrelated workstreams: a team of seven agent threads for one product, plus research and infra projects. Right now the only way to tell them apart is colour/emoji icons and title prefixes like Villa · ….

What I'd want is the simple version: named groups that I manage by hand, each holding projects (on any environment). I should be able to collapse a group or switch to it to see only its projects, and running threads should keep running whatever is shown. It should not change how agents run. A group colour or icon would be a nice extra.

I'd also like groups to be settable from the MCP/CLI project tools (t3 project, the project update tool), so agents can file new projects into the right group.

[Qard]

I would like this specifically to be able to connect to my work machine with T3Connect without intermingling access between my work accounts and my personal accounts. It'd be especially valuable if it could be done in a way that the remote control access to a work machine could be revoked by the company, because then that could be provide a strong security boundary for disabling access when employees leave the company. The company probably doesn't want me to retain access to the machine even after they've remotely reset the password, which currently would be the case because T3Connect still works when the screen locks.

[encku]

+1. My use case: I work on buybuddy projects, or other scoped projects, and personal projects at the same time, and I need each scope kept apart.

Setup:

• One account, two machines on T3 Connect (a VDS and a home server).
• Projects from several scopes: work, clients, and personal.
• Today the only separation is a name prefix and the icon color.

What I need:

• Named groups that I manage by hand, by scope: for example "Work", "Clients", "Personal", "Open source", "Experiments".
• One project belongs to one group. Its threads follow the project.
• A group can hold projects on any environment. The same repo on two machines stays in one group.
• A switcher that shows one group, plus a view that shows all groups at once.
• The same groups on desktop, web, and mobile.

Nice to have, but not required for a first version:

• A default environment and provider per group.
• A color or theme per group, so I can see which group is active.

I agree with the comments above that a small first version is enough: named project groups in the sidebar, set by hand. Account-level separation (a different provider login per group) can come later.

There is already an implementation of Spaces in #22655. It was closed only because it had no prior maintainer approval. Would maintainers approve this direction and scope, so that a contribution like #22655 can be reopened or reshaped?

[onderay]

Would love to see this supported