roadmap.md

V12Code Roadmap

Product name: V12Code

V12Code is our version of V12Code. The first releases focus on making long-running agent work visible, keeping the chat uncluttered, and making conversations easy to branch and revise.

Product rules

• Never hide running work.
• Do not show fake progress percentages. Show the real state, elapsed time, and latest activity.
• Keep the main chat focused on the conversation.
• Make destructive history changes explicit and recoverable.
• Keep event rendering fast and bounded during long sessions.
• Preserve state across navigation, reconnects, and session restarts.

Release 1: Visible agent activity

Chats with attached agents must show when work is still running, even when the chat is not open.

Scope

• Show a compact activity indicator on each running chat in the sidebar.
• Show the current state in the open chat: queued, running, waiting for input, failed, or complete.
• Include elapsed time and the latest useful activity when available.
• Keep the state correct when switching chats, reconnecting, or reopening V12Code.
• Clear stale running states after the server confirms that no work remains.
• Use an indeterminate animation when the provider does not report measurable progress.

Done when

• A user can always tell which chats still have active agents.
• Background work remains visible without opening each chat.
• Reconnects do not create stuck or duplicate activity indicators.

Release 2: Compact task HUD

Replace the large right-side plan/task panel with a floating component in the top-right of the chat, similar to Codex.

Scope

• Show a small floating task button with completed and total task counts.
• Expand it into a popover with the current plan and task list.
• Support task completion, removal, and reordering without opening a permanent sidebar.
• Keep the HUD usable on narrow screens without covering messages or the composer.
• Preserve keyboard navigation and screen-reader labels.

Done when

• The task list no longer consumes a fixed column.
• Opening and closing the HUD does not resize the chat.
• Task updates stream into the HUD without stealing focus.

Release 3: Chat forking

Allow a conversation to branch from any user request or assistant response.

Scope

• Add Fork chat from here to message actions.
• Copy history only through the selected message.
• Create a new chat with a clear link back to its parent.
• Leave the original chat unchanged.
• Carry forward the correct workspace, provider, model, and relevant session settings.
• Define reliable behavior when the source chat is still running.

Done when

• A fork can continue independently without changing the source chat.
• Reloading either branch preserves its parent/child relationship.
• Fork creation is atomic: users never receive a half-created branch.

Release 4: Edit and rerun

Allow a user request to be edited and run again from that point in history.

Scope

• Add Edit and rerun to user-message actions.
• Restore the edited request to the composer with its attachments and context.
• Remove later history from the active branch only after confirmation.
• Create a recovery branch before replacing history so the old path is not lost.
• Stop or safely detach active work that belongs to the replaced history.
• Run the edited request with the exact conversation state that existed before the original request.

Done when

• The new run cannot see messages or tool results from the reverted future.
• The old history remains recoverable through its branch.
• Failed reruns do not corrupt either history.

Dependency: build this on the same branch/history model used by chat forking.

Release 5: Rich activity cards

Make tool calls, file changes, and command runs easier to understand at a glance.

Scope

• Use distinct cards for commands, file reads, file edits, searches, web activity, and other tools.
• Show running, succeeded, failed, canceled, and waiting states consistently.
• For commands, show the command, working directory, duration, exit code, and bounded live output.
• For file changes, show paths, change type, and addition/deletion counts with an expandable diff.
• Group noisy repeated activity while keeping full details available on demand.
• Add copy actions for commands, paths, output, and errors.
• Keep large outputs virtualized or truncated so long sessions stay responsive.

Done when

• Users can identify what happened without expanding every event.
• Failures show the useful error and the action that caused it.
• Heavy tool streams do not make scrolling or input laggy.

Release 6: Selection to task

Allow selected conversation text to become a contextual task, like Codex.

Scope

• Show Add to tasks when text is selected in a message.
• Open a small editor for the user's task text before saving.
• Store the quoted selection, source message, chat, author, and timestamp as context.
• Link the task back to the source and scroll to the quoted text when opened.
• Keep task context intact across chat forks and history edits.
• Support keyboard use and touch selection where the platform allows it.

Done when

• A task contains both the user's instruction and the selected source context.
• The source can be reopened even after navigating away or restarting V12Code.
• Adding a task does not alter or duplicate the selected message.

Dependency: uses the compact task HUD from Release 2 and stable message identities from the branch/history work.

Later backlog

• Scroll to the bottom after submitting a new message.
• Limit each project list to its ten most recent chats, with a way to reveal older chats.
• Archive chats.
• Put new projects first.
• Sort projects by latest chat activity.
• Queue messages behind an active run.

Completion gate

Every release must include tests for reconnects, partial streams, and failure recovery. Before a release is considered complete:

vp check
vp run typecheck

Run vp run lint:mobile as well when the release changes native mobile code.