wardethan2000-eng makes project chat work around the lawyer

Users can now shape the workspace around the documents and conversation that matter most.

chat-uiworkflow

This fork turns project chat from a fixed screen into a personal working surface. Users can resize and rearrange the main areas, with controls that track the pointer more reliably than standard browser drag-and-drop.

Reorderable panes let users put files, documents and chat in the order that suits the matter.
Resizable panes let users give more room to a long document or an active conversation.
Saved preferences carry the layout between sessions and devices for signed-in users, while local storage keeps it responsive and usable offline.

There is one practical caveat: where the same user changes their layout on multiple devices, the most recent change wins. That is probably acceptable for personal preferences, but worth testing before treating it as collaborative workspace state.

So what Teams whose lawyers spend significant time in project chat should care because a calmer, user-shaped workspace can remove small but persistent friction from document review.

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Spotted something wrong? Or know the PR text has fresher detail than the writeup above?

Commits in this thread

3 commits from wardethan2000-eng/mike, oldest first. Source extracted verbatim from the harvested git log.

SHA	Subject	Author	Date
`af360a9d`	feat: let each person arrange the project chat panels	Ethan Ward	2026-08-19	↗ GitHub
commit body The chat is now the main space in a project conversation. The matter's files sit in a rail that stays out of the way until it is asked for, and a document only takes up room once one is opened. Anyone can drag a panel's handle onto another panel to swap the two around, and drag the gaps between them to resize. The arrangement is remembered on their own machine, and "Reset panel layout" in the actions menu puts it back. The chat keeps a comfortable reading width when its panel is wide.
`655ed77a`	fix: make the panel handle follow the mouse	Ethan Ward	2026-08-19	↗ GitHub
Moving a panel used the browser's own drag-and-drop, which does not start reliably from inside a scrolling panel. The handle now follows the mouse directly, and the panel you are over is highlighted before you let go.
`fcddcd02`	feat: remember the panel arrangement against the person, not the browser	Ethan Ward	2026-08-19	↗ GitHub
commit body How someone has arranged the panels in a project conversation now follows them to any computer they sign in from. It is saved against their account a moment after they stop moving things, and a copy is kept in the browser so the panels are drawn in the right places immediately on load. Adds a small general store for personal display settings (a user_ui_preferences table, and GET/PATCH /user/ui-preferences), so later settings of this kind can reuse it. If the save fails, the browser's own copy still stands.

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