Mark a session as unread/read from the sidebar (inverse of session seen)

[Serginyo90]

When an agent finishes or asks something, I jump to the session, and the unseen badge clears — but often I can't deal with it right away and want to leave a reminder to come back, the way chat apps let you mark a conversation as unread again.

Proposal

• Session row context menu gets one state-dependent item: Mark as Unread when the badge is clear (sets the unseen badge to 1), Mark as Read when it shows (clears it — the GUI twin of the existing agtermctl session seen from Add a headless "ack" command to clear a session's unseen-notification badge without visiting it #148). Works on the multi-selection like the other batch row actions.
• Control API stays in sync following the session flag shape: session seen [on|off|toggle], with bare session seen unchanged (= on), and the existing unseen tree field as the read-back.
• Ephemeral like the badge today (doesn't survive restart); visiting the session clears it as usual. The workspace roll-up and the Dock badge keep working unchanged.

Open questions

• session seen off vs a separate session unseen command?
• Should a manual unread mark persist across restarts? I'd say no, to stay consistent with the ephemeral badge.
• Context menu only, or also menu bar / ⌃⇧P palette?

Happy to implement this and send a PR (tests, agent-skill docs, README/site included) if the idea fits.

[umputun]

the unread badge is the OSC-9/777 / notify layer - it's the "there's a new notification here" signal, so it's ephemeral and clears on visit by design. That's the wrong tool for "remind me to come back": you'd be re-raising a notification-unread flag that clears again the next time you glance at the session.

for a reminder that survives the visit, that's what agterm's per-session status is for. Out of the box it's wired to your agents' activity (the status hooks you install via Help), but it's not limited to that - it's a plain per-session status you fully drive from the CLI, so setting it yourself as a follow-up marker is a first-class use:

• agtermctl session status blocked (or completed) sets the status glyph on the row AND drops the session into the attention set - ⌃⌥↑/↓ nav, the bell popover, the ⌃⇧I palette. --autoReset is opt-in, so by default it does NOT clear when you visit the session. That's exactly the "I looked but still can't deal with it" case the badge can't cover.
• session flag on (or right-click → Flag) is the durable version: a hand-picked working set with its own sidebar view, persists across restart.

both are one keybind away as custom commands, so "mark this session for follow-up" is already scriptable today, and unlike the badge it sticks. If you literally want the badge itself, agtermctl notify --target <id> re-raises it (with banners off in Settings it's badge-only) - but I'd reach for status or flag, they're built for this.

so I'm going to pass on the GUI mark-unread action. The reminder use case is already covered by status and flag, and the badge is deliberately the ephemeral notification layer.

[Serginyo90]

Thanks for the detailed answer — makes sense, and you're right that the badge should stay the ephemeral notification layer.

session status blocked without --auto-reset is exactly the "looked but can't deal with it yet" marker I was after: it survives visiting the session, and typing in it clears it, which matches the "read" semantics nicely. I've wired it up as a custom keymap command, together with the scripted non-idle dashboard from #237 — both cover my use case well. Closing this.