Re-think the Chat view welcome

[isidorn]

When a user opens a new Chat view in agent mode they see the following:

I think this view is a testiment to how we evolved the feature (it was first chat then agent). We need to re-think this as the future will be agentic first and only. Some comments on the current look:

1. There is no need for the Copilot Frog icon. I think we can survive without any icon at all. AI is key to the experience, no need to have a special simbol for it
2. "Edit with Copilot" is completely not important. It is agent, not "copilot". We should not push the Copilot brand
3. Explanation paragraph - hopefully not needed, users just start and figure it out. It's not like we have an explanation in the editor how to use it
4. "Powered by AI mistakes are possible" - I can discuss with CELA / Responsible AI folk that we put this somewhere else (make it smaller)
5. "Internal user..." only internal users see this, not important
6. @ and # are not important in agent mode. Agent figures out all by itself, and we have "@ Add Context" affordance already for this

Thus looking at the current content, I can not say any of it is useful.

Zed shows and empty view and at the bottom recent chat sessions.

Cursor similar, but they start with the input at the top, recent sessions at bottom, and then once chat starts they move input to the bottom.
Windsurf similar, but they show the input in middle, and recent sessions at bottom, once chat starts the move input to the bottom.

ChatGPT mac app just shows an empty space (lol, but I like it).

How can we improve the Agent welcome experience? Industry seems to be aligning on the pattern it seems, should we follow?

fyi @roblourens @kkbrooks @bpasero @pierceboggan

[kkbrooks]

Notion's AI welcome state:

[jo-oikawa]

BTW @eli-w-king and I spoke about this yesterday, Eli is going to drive this as an extension of the welcome UX work to make sure it fits into a cohesive story!