backnotprop/plannotator v0.28.54

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What's New in v0.28.54

TL;DR

• New: A comment box that keeps unsent comments as Drafts
• New: Choose how your list looks: Minimal, Balanced or Detailed
• New: Update an older linked machine from this Inbox
• Changed: Reply drafts float in a corner with Ask AI
• New: Shift+R refreshes the list, a thread or the Board

The Inbox gets a new comment box that keeps your unsent comments in view, a dialog to choose how your list looks, and an Update button for a linked machine that runs an older Plannotator. Reply drafts now float in a corner with Ask AI, All files in a review has a file tree, and Shift+R refreshes the Inbox. 24 PRs, all from @backnotprop. Seven of them are groundwork for code review in the Inbox and Shape boards, which stay off in this release.

Plannotator Inbox

A new comment box, with drafts you can see

When you select words in a message, a Markdown or code file, an HTML page or a diagram part, a small card now opens by the words. The quoted words are on top, then the field, then one row: tools at the left, the bin, and a Comment button at the right end. "Comment" is now the button's word everywhere in the Inbox, in place of Save and Add. The chevron at the top right closes the card and keeps your words. Expand grows the card in place, and Escape shrinks it before it closes it. On a phone, or when there is no room beside the words, the card sits at the bottom of the view.

Close a card with words in it, and those words keep a pale highlight with a small Draft badge under their end. Click the badge or the words to open the card again. Drafts come back when their document shows again, for example after you visit another thread, or close a file and open it again. Every draft on that document comes back, not only the last one. A reload still drops drafts. On an HTML page, a closed card keeps its words but shows no highlight or badge yet.

In full screen (an image, a video or an HTML page), the card is 600 px wide. Its Comment and Reply tabs sit in a tray at the top, with the hide-tools chevron at the tray's end. On the Comment tab, the row has the file's tools, the bin and Comment. On the Reply tab, it has Send, the paperclip and the mic, what goes with the reply, Open in thread and the bin. If you hide the tools while a comment in the card isn't saved, a red dot sits on the corner control. The comment box on HTML pages no longer has a picture button, because pictures were never taken there.

On a phone in full screen, Send is the word "Send" at the right end of the row, and there is no bin. From 360 px wide up, the row is one row. Below 360 px, the chips for what goes with the reply move to their own row above the paperclip, the mic and the link, so every button keeps a 44 px tap target. While you dictate in this card on a phone narrower than 430 px, the word "Listening" is not shown. The level, the clock and Cancel stay, and a screen reader still hears the status. #2846

Choose how your list looks

The one-time list dialog is now Choose how your list looks, with three looks: Minimal, Balanced and Detailed, each with a small sketch. A short demo plays on an example Inbox window as the dialog opens. A key or a click skips to its end, and with reduced motion the end shows at once. Nothing is picked when it opens, and your current look is marked "Current". Pick a look and a card shows your own threads in it. Done saves the whole look, as a preset in Settings → Rows does. Keep as it is and Escape save nothing, and "Customize rows" in the text opens Settings → Rows. On a phone the dialog is a sheet at the bottom of the screen, with the three looks side by side.

The dialog shows once, when your list has five threads or more. People who saw the earlier list dialog see this one once too, and new installs get it. It keeps the usual spacing between one-time dialogs.

The presets in Settings → Rows change with it. Minimal is now a two-line row with the thread name first, no preview and no unread dot. Detailed no longer has the subject pill, and it shows each repository's logo on project marks. The logo is read from your disk, and nothing is asked of GitHub. Balanced is unchanged. If you picked the old Minimal or Detailed, your rows stay exactly as they were, and Settings → Rows now calls that look "Custom".

Rows with First line set to "Thread name" and Subject preview set to "None" are now two lines instead of three. Line 1 has the thread name and the time. Line 2 has the agent and the project, then the pin, badges, snooze time and counts at its right end. This applies to the rows beside an open thread and to rows on a phone, unless Time position is "Under the preview". Every other combination looks as before. #2886, #2882

Update a linked machine from the Inbox

If you have linked the Inboxes on two computers and the other one runs an older Plannotator, Update now shows beside it in the sidebar's Machines and on its row in Settings. It opens a small dialog that follows that machine: Update now, then Updating, Restarting and Updated. The other machine asks GitHub for the newest release itself and installs it with the same checksum check and log as plannotator update. Then it restarts its Inbox, even if someone is typing there. This Inbox never sends it a version or a download link.

If the install fails, the dialog says so and shows where the log is, the install command and Try again. An install that reports no error but leaves the old version is shown as failed too. A machine too old to update this way gets the commands to run there by hand: plannotator update && plannotator inbox restart, the same with ~/.local/bin/plannotator for an SSH shell that skips your PATH, and a PowerShell line for Windows. A machine that is asleep, one that hasn't come back after its restart, and one that is already up to date each get their own line.

Snooze on a thread from an older machine is no longer hidden. It reads "Update Mini" (with that machine's name) and opens the same dialog. A tailnet guest's page offers no updates. #2652, #2659

Reply drafts float in a corner with Ask AI

Type a reply of 8 characters or more, or add a file, then leave the thread or close the box with its down arrow or Escape. The draft now floats. One corner button sits at the right end of the thread's bottom bar, level with Send. Hover it to see a row for each floating draft, plus this thread's Ask AI chat while Ask is minimized. A row opens its own small window. A draft's window has "Reply to " as its header, a peek at the agent's last words, and the reply box. ⌘↵ sends the reply to the message it answers. When the reply needs the thread (picked options, comments, a chosen recipient, several agents, a hand-off or an ended session), the window offers "Open to send" instead.

A draft stops floating when it is sent or discarded, after a day, or when you press ×. It stays in Drafts either way. On a phone, the corner button is a round button in the bottom row, and the list opens as a sheet. In full screen, floating drafts are hidden.

Ask AI's window is now easy to tell apart. Its header reads "✦ Ask AI · ", its background has a light tint of your theme's accent, and its box ends in one small ↵ button. Enter sends in Ask. #2874

A file tree in All files

In the full-window review of a guided review, All files now has a file tree on the left, like the one on GitHub: folders that fold, each file's change letter and its line counts. Click a file to go to it, and the "1 of N" menu in the top bar names it. On a phone there is no tree beside the diff. A Files button in the bar opens it as a sheet instead, and picking a file or pressing Escape closes the sheet. Walkthrough has no list, as before. #2753

A tip for starting agents

The first time you open a plain New message where To can start an agent, a small card beside To says "You can now start agents" and "Choose an agent in To and the folder it works in. A pasted path or git URL works too." It shows once, and never if you have already started an agent from the Inbox. It leaves on Got it, Escape, opening To, Send or closing the box. In a narrower window it sits under To, and on a phone it also leaves when you tap a field. Focus never moves to it. #2908

Shift+R refreshes the Inbox

Shift+R runs the same refresh as the ↻ above the list, with its spin. It works from the list and from inside a thread, and it reads the open thread again too. On the Board it runs the Board's Refresh. Pages with no refresh, such as Drafts and Settings, ignore it. Plain R is still Reply, and ⌘⇧R or Ctrl+Shift+R still reloads the page. Like other single keys, it does nothing while you type or while a dialog or menu is open, and it is off when Single-key shortcuts is off in Settings → General. It is listed in the ? map, and the ↻ tooltip reads "Refresh" with the keys ⇧ R. #2911

Settings: "Delete from Inbox", and Decision data in Activity

In Settings → Storage, the delete button on every project and thread row now reads Delete from Inbox. The line above the list says: "Deleting removes a thread or project's messages and files from the Inbox. Your code is never touched. Delete asks twice and can't be undone." What Delete does is unchanged.

Decision data is now part of Settings → Activity, under the hour-by-hour chart, with the Ask box between the chart and the decision numbers. The separate Decision data section is gone, on a computer and on a phone, and an old link to it opens Activity. The decision numbers are still counted only while Activity is shown. #2910

Bro mode is marked Experimental

Bro mode's one-time card now has an Experimental chip. In Settings, the Bro mode row moved from the main list in Settings → Capabilities to its Experimental group, under Decision mode. The card and the row both say: "Applies to new agent sessions. In open Claude Code sessions, run /reload-plugins plannotator." The card's credit now spells Dillon Mulroy's handle correctly and links to his post, and its repository link goes to the Bro skill. #2920

One-time dialogs reach people who keep a thread open

Some one-time dialogs waited for you to go back to the list. If you keep a thread open beside the list and move from thread to thread, you never did, so they never showed. Now 20 seconds without input also counts as that moment, while the tab is visible and focused, no field has focus and nothing is open. This applies to the List view, Board, Checklist and Bro mode dialogs and the list look dialog, in every layout. The other rules stay the same: at most one dialog a day, never on the load right after one, and three days' wait after Not now. #2916

Links to other repositories' issues and PRs

An agent that coordinates work in other repositories and reports to your Inbox wrote bare refs such as #123. Each one linked into the agent's own repository, because a bare #123 links to the repository where the agent's session started. The Inbox tool now tells agents this plainly. For another repository's issue or PR, they write owner/repo#123 or the full URL in every mention, also when they pass on another agent's report. In trials with fresh agents on the same relay tasks, messages with a wrong link went from 7 of 16 to 1 of 12.

The optional rules note the Inbox adds to your agents' instructions files gets the same rule in one line, as note version 9. An older note you haven't edited is replaced at the next Inbox start. A note you edited is left as it is. #2917

Smaller changes

• The line and faint shadow above a thread's bottom bar now show only while thread text scrolls under it. Actions sit at the left (Reply, or Send and Edit draft, then the reaction tray and an ended session's two buttons), and the open questions and the checklist at the right end. The Tab order matches. #2860
• Rest the pointer on a list group's header, such as Waiting on you, for half a second, and a chevron fades in at its right end. It points right when the group is closed and down when it is open. Keyboard focus shows it at once, and a touch never shows it. #2919
• The tooltip on a thread's name in its top bar now opens under the name, not far to the right of a short one. #2918
• New message no longer has the "From this thread" row of thumbnails. Every other way to reuse a file stays: the paperclip-plus button on each attachment, "New message with this" on an archived thread, pasting a picture copied from the Inbox, and the phone viewer's toolbar. #2915

Not yet on

This release also carries more work on code review in the Inbox and on Shape boards. Both stay off by default, and their switches stay hidden until a later release. The work covers: notes from an agent pinned to the lines of a review; on a PR's page, a Details panel with the description, reviewers, checks and comments, a comments panel that starts closed, and the diff controls in the bar; and Shape boards drawn in one technical style, with fixes from a real run. With Code review on, the review bar of a PR between 768 and 959 px wide lets the PR's title shrink to 5rem and drops the title's separator below 800 px, so the Walkthrough / All files switch always stays. #2865, #2672, #2871, #2732, #2735, #2823, #2901

Install / Update

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://plannotator.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows:

irm https://plannotator.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Claude Code Plugin: The install script above also updates the plugin when claude is on your PATH. Otherwise, in a terminal:

claude plugin marketplace update plannotator
claude plugin update plannotator@plannotator

Then restart Claude Code. Inside Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace update plannotator, then open /plugin → Installed → plannotator → Update now.

Pi:

pi update npm:@plannotator/pi-extension

OpenCode: Re-run the install script above. It also clears the OpenCode 2 plugin cache.

What's Changed

• Update a linked machine from the Inbox: server by @backnotprop in #2652
• Update a linked machine from the Inbox: window by @backnotprop in #2659
• PR view: the PR's description at the head of its diff by @backnotprop in #2672
• PR page: diff display controls in the bar by @backnotprop in #2732
• Details in the Inbox's full review of a PR, and the PR title opens Details by @backnotprop in #2735
• Review: the PR page's file tree in All files by @backnotprop in #2753
• Shape: boards draw in Sharp (technical) only by @backnotprop in #2823
• Inbox: the new comment box (round 3) with visible drafts by @backnotprop in #2846
• Inbox: the bottom bar's line shows only while text scrolls under it (B1) by @backnotprop in #2860
• Context notes in the Inbox's code review (take Line) by @backnotprop in #2865
• Inbox PR view: comments panel closed at first, with a Comments button at every width by @backnotprop in #2871
• Inbox: floating reply drafts share the corner with Ask AI by @backnotprop in #2874
• Rows: title first with no preview is two lines by @backnotprop in #2882
• Inbox: Choose how your list looks (three looks, round 7b) by @backnotprop in #2886
• Shape: file a board under the folder it runs in; board under the claim, a pan sign, Follow tags in free space by @backnotprop in #2901
• Inbox: one-time Launch tip beside compose's To by @backnotprop in #2908
• Settings: clearer delete words, Activity and Decision data together by @backnotprop in #2910
• Inbox: Shift+R refreshes the Inbox by @backnotprop in #2911
• Inbox: drop the 'From this thread' row from New message by @backnotprop in #2915
• Inbox: one-time dialogs reach people who keep a thread open by @backnotprop in #2916
• Inbox tool: other repos' issues and PRs get owner/repo refs, even when relaying by @backnotprop in #2917
• Inbox: title tooltips open under the words by @backnotprop in #2918
• Inbox: group headers show a chevron after a short hover by @backnotprop in #2919
• Inbox: mark Bro mode Experimental by @backnotprop in #2920

Community

• @UberMouse asked in #2588 for context notes: an agent's notes on the lines of a diff that are not the reviewer's comments, so they are never counted, sent back or posted. #2865 builds them into the Inbox's code review, which stays off in this release. The issue stays open for plannotator review.

Full Changelog: v0.28.53...v0.28.54