[terminal chat] suggestion to make UI more beginner-friendly

[WhatsACloud]

Description of the new feature

I believe the AI Terminal Chat feature is convenient to use with keybindings, but quite inconvenient to use when only using the mouse.

user pain points

1. click on the main terminal window = terminal chat disappears and you can't alt+tab to get it back = must open command palette -> press terminal chat again = inconvenience
2. cannot shift the terminal chat window around like a normal window = blocks the main terminal view = less convenient to reference Terminal Chat while doing something in the shell = inconvenience

Now obviously for power users that set keybinds for everything, the above pain points would be non-existent. But for newer users used to using the mouse to click? Might be a different story.

Therefore, I propose the following suggestion: terminal chat as a sidebar instead (like Leo AI in Brave Browser; can toggle it with a GUI button), or like a separate tab (that way we can have the separate window too). We could have a setting enabling users to toggle between either this beginner-friendly mode or the mode we have right now.

Potential issues with this feature

1. Potential to be useless - I don't know how many Windows Terminal users use the mouse more than they set keybinds or actions. Might be few, but also might be many.

Final conclusion: if this feature were to be implemented, it should probably be done as a "cherry on top" feature.

Proposed technical implementation details

No response

[PankajBhojwani]

Thank you for this suggestion! We were already wondering if we should put Terminal Chat in a side pane (similar to the snippets pane) so this is useful feedback for us to experiment with that