Tab strip redesign: seven directions, which ones would you use?

[Ark0N]

The tab strip is the part of Codeman I look at most and like least. With 18 sessions open it wraps into three rows, every tab has a different width, and the only way to tell which case a tab belongs to is the suffix in its name. It reads as scattered.

So I mocked up seven directions. They are HTML mockups built on the real stylesheet (same font, radii, colours, badge and dot sizes), not builds, and the session and case names are made up. Two states are invented so all three colours show up: w4-webshop is red (a question pending) and w75-api-gateway is yellow (waiting for input).

Rate them however you like: 1 to 5, keep or kill, or "A but with C's ordering". Hybrids are welcome, that is the whole point.

Today

18 tabs, three rows, nothing for the eye to line up on.

A · Clusters (group by case)

Tabs grouped by the case they run in. The suffix in w1-webshop is redundant inside its group, so the tabs shrink to w1, w3, w4, and 18 tabs read as 7 things. The group colour is the session palette that already exists.

Tradeoff: one-off sessions get nothing out of it, and a case with 8 workers is still a long row. Groups also change size as sessions come and go.

B · Ledger (aligned columns)

The same flat list, laid on a column grid so the rows line up. Status is a 3px bar on the left instead of a dot, mono type, and a mode tag only where the mode is not Claude. The smallest change of the set.

Tradeoff: a long name widens its whole column, and it is still a list of 18 with no grouping.

C · Triage (rows are states)

The strip answers "who wants me?" the way the home screens already do: needs-you first, then working, then idle dimmed. It would reuse the ordering the phone overview and the desktop home rail use today.

Tradeoff: tabs move between rows on their own, so muscle memory for position is gone. The Alt+N badges stay where they are.

D · Focus strip (one row, ever)

The active tab plus the four most recent stay visible. Everything else sits behind a "+13 more" button that opens a grouped, searchable list with state and duration per row. The strip never grows past one row however many sessions you have.

Tradeoff: a session you are not looking at is one click further away, and the red dot on the +N button has to carry the alerts for everything hidden.

E · Mission control (sessions leave the header)

A left column with case groups, per-session state duration, and the last line of output for each session, so you can see what every worker is doing without switching. The header keeps only the counts and the stats.

Tradeoff: costs about 280px of terminal width. It overlaps the sidebar layout that already exists (App Settings, Appearance, Tabs), so it would replace that rather than sit next to it.

F · Segments (fused pills)

Each case becomes one segmented control and its workers are the segments. The densest option: 18 sessions in about a row and a half, with the case named once.

Tradeoff: names shrink to ids, the gear and close buttons only fit on the active segment, and a very long case name pushes its segments off the row.

G · The right side of the header

Independent of the tab choice, it combines with any of the above. Compact: one system pill with tiny sparklines plus two plan-usage rings, which hands the tabs about 120px back. Tiles: label over value with a bar underneath, no icons.

What I want from you

• Which two or three would you actually use day to day?
• Anything here that would get in your way?
• If you run Codeman with many sessions, how many tabs do you usually have open? That number changes which of these make sense at all.

My guess is that whatever wins lands as a layout option next to the existing sidebar and rail, so nobody's current strip changes under them.