A small window, pinned above everything else, showing one note while the user works in their IDE or terminal.
It is the difference between an application you go to and one that is simply there. Today, following a procedure means alt-tab, find the note, alt-tab back, apply a step, and start over — which is enough friction that people copy the procedure into a text editor instead.
It redeems a feature that is already built
Todo-list notes only earn their keep while you are doing the thing — a deployment ticked off step by step. In a full-size window that has to be summoned, a checklist is barely worth the trouble; pinned above a terminal, it becomes the tool. The feature shipped without the workflow that makes it useful.
The ticking already works from a card without opening it — the .card-items layer over the card button, transparent to clicks except on the checkboxes. A compact view can reuse that idea rather than invent one.
What has to be decided
- Which note does it show? The selected one, a deliberately pinned one, or the last opened? "Send this note to the compact window" is probably its own gesture, not a side effect of selection.
- How do you come back, and does the full window stay open behind it or is it the same window resized? The second is simpler and means the two cannot be used together.
- What happens to dialogs. A modal inside a 320 px window makes no sense. Either compact mode refuses to open them, or asking for one restores the full size first.
DialogStack already knows when something is open.
- What the tray does with it.
closeToTray and minimizeToTray hide the window; whether the compact window follows the same rules or is the thing that survives is a real choice.
Cost and traps
core:window:allow-set-always-on-top is not in src-tauri/capabilities/default.json — it has to be added. Window sizing is desktop.rs territory, next to the tray.- Two geometries to remember, not one. This interacts directly with the window-state issue: whatever persists the main window's size must not overwrite it with the compact one's, and vice versa.
- Compact means genuinely compact: the density variables and the card-size setting are about the canvas and do not apply to a single-note view, which needs its own minimal layout rather than a shrunken copy of the editor.
Done when: a checklist or a runbook can sit above the terminal it is about, ticked as it is followed, without ever alt-tabbing.
A small window, pinned above everything else, showing one note while the user works in their IDE or terminal.
It is the difference between an application you go to and one that is simply there. Today, following a procedure means alt-tab, find the note, alt-tab back, apply a step, and start over — which is enough friction that people copy the procedure into a text editor instead.
It redeems a feature that is already built
Todo-list notes only earn their keep while you are doing the thing — a deployment ticked off step by step. In a full-size window that has to be summoned, a checklist is barely worth the trouble; pinned above a terminal, it becomes the tool. The feature shipped without the workflow that makes it useful.
The ticking already works from a card without opening it — the
.card-itemslayer over the card button, transparent to clicks except on the checkboxes. A compact view can reuse that idea rather than invent one.What has to be decided
DialogStackalready knows when something is open.closeToTrayandminimizeToTrayhide the window; whether the compact window follows the same rules or is the thing that survives is a real choice.Cost and traps
core:window:allow-set-always-on-topis not insrc-tauri/capabilities/default.json— it has to be added. Window sizing isdesktop.rsterritory, next to the tray.Done when: a checklist or a runbook can sit above the terminal it is about, ticked as it is followed, without ever alt-tabbing.