signed/docs/inbox-plan.md

Inbox (home screen) implementation plan

Ported from GitWorkshop's home screen, the Dashboard rendered at route / for a logged-in user.

Correction to the first draft. The first draft assumed the inbox was the /notifications page. It is not. GitWorkshop's Index route (src/pages/Index.tsx) renders <Dashboard /> when an account is active, and that home screen is the inbox.

1. What the GitWorkshop home screen is

Index.tsx:

if (account) return <Dashboard />;
return <LandingPage />;

Dashboard.tsx layout:

• Desktop: two columns.
  • Left column: GreetingHeader, NotificationsPanel, RecentActivitySection.
  • Right column: MyRepositoriesPanel, AccessiblePrivateRepositoriesPanel, FollowedReposPanel.
• Mobile: a single column in a different order.

The panel that gives the screen its inbox identity is NotificationsPanel:

• heading Notifications with a bell icon and an unread count badge,
• a Mark all read action and a View all link to /notifications,
• a compact list of the first 5 non-archived notification items,
• the empty state reads "Your inbox is empty" (with an Inbox icon).

So in GitWorkshop's vocabulary, "inbox" is the non-archived activity directed at you, surfaced inline on the home screen. The home screen also shows your own recent activity and your repositories.

Data hooks:

Section	Hook	What it loads
Notifications (inbox)	useNotifications()	Notification model: grouped thread activity directed at you, read/archived state
Continue where you left off	useUserActivity(pubkey)	Git activity authored by you: kinds 1621/1617/1618/1111 (git K)/1624/1630-1633, newest first, limit 50
My repositories	useUserRepositories(pubkey)	Kind 30617 announcements authored by you
Followed repositories	useUserFollowedRepos(pubkey)	Repos you follow
Accessible private repositories	useAccessiblePrivateRepositories()	Private repos from CI/services

2. Scope for Signed

Priority	Section	Notes
P0	Inbox panel	Activity directed at you, grouped by thread root; unread badge; mark all read; top N + show all
P0	My repositories	Reuse RepoListStore::announcements_of(me); search filter; existing New-repo dialog
P0	Continue where you left off	Your own recent git activity, newest first
P1	Unread / Archived sub-views	Open as bottom-dock panels, not tabs inside the inbox panel
P1	Click-through	Open the repo panel at the relevant PR/issue
P2 (defer)	Standalone notifications page, NIP-65 relay discovery, pagination	Web-app concerns
Out of scope	Greeting header, followed repositories, private repositories, pinned repositories	Not needed in Signed

Notes:

• There is no greeting header. The screen starts with the inbox panel.
• Unread and Archived are separate panels opened in the bottom dock, not tabs in the inbox panel.

3. The Signed screen

InboxView is a center panel, opened by the sidebar's existing Inbox nav item (currently a placeholder that opens Explore). It is one scrollable two-column flex row:

+--------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Inbox   (3 unread)     [Unread] [Archived] [Mark all read]              |
|  [avatar] issue opened on you/repo   2m                                 |
|  [avatar] commented on "Fix parser"  1h                                 |
|  [avatar] PR update on you/repo      3h                                 |
|  [Show all]                                                             |
|                                                                         |
| Continue where you left off                                             |
|  [icon] "Fix parser bug"   you/repo   opened 3d                         |
|  [icon] "Add retry"        you/repo   PR     5d                         |
+--------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
|  bottom dock: Unread or Archived list (opened by the header buttons)    |
+--------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+

The right column is My repositories, mirroring the sidebar's signed-in repo list:

| My repositories       |
| [search]        [New] |
|  repo row             |
|  repo row             |

4. Data layer

4.1 signed_core: pure logic

filters.rs (extend, next to activity/comments_for):

/// Kinds that notify a user when they tag them directly.
pub const NOTIFICATION_KINDS: [Kind; 9] = [
    Kind::GitIssue,
    Kind::GitPullRequest,
    Kind::GitPatch,
    Kind::GitPullRequestUpdate,
    COVER_NOTE_KIND,
    Kind::GitStatusOpen,
    Kind::GitStatusApplied,
    Kind::GitStatusClosed,
    Kind::GitStatusDraft,
];

/// Comments on our issues/PRs/patches.
pub fn notification_comments(me: PublicKey) -> Filter {
    Filter::new()
        .kind(Kind::Comment)
        .custom_tags(SingleLetterTag::UPPERCASE_P, [me.to_hex()])
        .custom_tags(SingleLetterTag::UPPERCASE_K, ["1621", "1617", "1618"])
}

/// Activity directed at us: comments on our roots, and git events tagging us.
pub fn notifications(me: PublicKey) -> Vec<Filter> {
    vec![
        notification_comments(me),
        Filter::new().kinds(NOTIFICATION_KINDS).pubkey(me),
    ]
}

/// Git activity authored by `me`, for "Continue where you left off".
pub fn authored_activity(me: PublicKey) -> Filter {
    Filter::new()
        .kinds([ACTIVITY_KINDS.as_slice(), &[COVER_NOTE_KIND]].concat())
        .author(me)
}

ACTIVITY_KINDS already exists in this file. All builders use existing SDK APIs (Filter::kind/kinds/pubkey/custom_tags, SingleLetterTag::{UPPERCASE_P, UPPERCASE_K}).

Comments authored by me are not all git comments, so the activity query needs a post-filter: keep kind 1111 only when its uppercase K tag is a git root kind (1621/1617/1618/30617), matching gitworkshop's isGitComment.

inbox.rs (new file):

pub struct InboxItem {
    pub root: EventId,
    pub root_kind: Option<Kind>,
    pub address: Option<RepoAddr>,
    /// Events in the group, newest first.
    pub events: Vec<Event>,
    /// Unread event ids, oldest first.
    pub unread_ids: Vec<EventId>,
    pub archived: bool,
}

/// The thread root of a notification event, or `None` if it isn't git-related.
pub fn notification_root(
    event: &Event,
    lookup: &impl Fn(EventId) -> Option<Event>,
) -> Option<EventId>;

/// Group notification events by root, newest activity first, self excluded.
pub fn group(
    events: impl IntoIterator<Item = Event>,
    me: PublicKey,
    state: &InboxReadState,
    lookup: &impl Fn(EventId) -> Option<Event>,
) -> Vec<InboxItem>;

Root resolution, ported from getNotificationRootId:

• issue (1621) / PR (1618): itself
• patch (1617): its e parent patch, else itself
• NIP-22 comment (1111): uppercase E root pointer (SDK nip22::extract_root)
• PR update (1619): uppercase E
• statuses (1630-1633) / cover note (1624): NIP-10 root e
• self-authored events are excluded

Read/archive state, the compact high-water-mark model:

#[derive(Clone, Debug, Default, Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct InboxReadState {
    #[serde(default)] pub read_before: Timestamp,
    #[serde(default)] pub read_ids: HashSet<EventId>,
    #[serde(default)] pub archived_before: Timestamp,
    #[serde(default)] pub archived_ids: HashSet<EventId>,
}

impl InboxReadState {
    pub fn is_read(&self, event: &Event) -> bool;
    pub fn is_archived(&self, event: &Event) -> bool;
    pub fn mark_read(&mut self, event: &Event);
    pub fn mark_all_read(&mut self, all: &[Event], me: PublicKey);
    /// Move the cutoff to `min(oldest unread - 1, now - 3 days)` and prune ids.
    pub fn advance_read(&mut self, all: &[Event], me: PublicKey);
    pub fn advance_archived(&mut self, all: &[Event], me: PublicKey);
}

activity_subject in model.rs already gives an issue/PR title from the subject tag or first line; reuse it for the home screen rows.

4.2 Persistence: NIP-78 in the local database, never published

Read state is a normal NIP-78 (kind 30078, Kind::ApplicationSpecificData) addressable event written to LMDB only. It is never broadcast to a relay, so the read state stays on this device.

It is signed with a random keypair, never the user's signer. The event is local application storage, so its author carries no identity; this avoids a signing round-trip and does not depend on the signer type. The d tag identifies the owning user, so state does not leak across identities when the signed-in key changes.

/// d tag identifying the inbox read/archive state event of `me`.
fn inbox_state_d_tag(me: PublicKey) -> String {
    format!("signed-inbox-state:{me}")
}

/// Newest stored read state for `me`, with the id of the event it came from.
async fn load_state(
    client: &Client,
    me: PublicKey,
) -> Result<Option<(InboxReadState, EventId)>> {
    // No author filter: the signing key is random per session.
    let filter = Filter::new()
        .kind(Kind::ApplicationSpecificData)
        .identifier(inbox_state_d_tag(me));
    let events = client.database().query(filter).await?;
    let Some(event) = events.into_iter().max_by_key(|e| e.created_at) else {
        return Ok(None);
    };
    Ok(serde_json::from_str(&event.content)
        .ok()
        .map(|state| (state, event.id)))
}

/// Sign with the random `keys` and store locally.
async fn save_state(
    client: &Client,
    keys: &Keys,
    me: PublicKey,
    state: &InboxReadState,
) -> Result<EventId> {
    let event = EventBuilder::new(Kind::ApplicationSpecificData, serde_json::to_string(state)?)
        .tags([Tag::identifier(inbox_state_d_tag(me))])
        .finalize(keys)?; // synchronous: random keys, no user signer
    // Local-only: no `send_event`, no broadcast. The event lives in LMDB.
    client.database().save_event(&event).await?;
    Ok(event.id)
}

Kind 30078 is addressable, so saves signed by the same keys replace the previous event. Because keys is random per session, the first save of a session creates a new coordinate; the store then deletes the event it loaded (its id is kept from load_state) so exactly one state event remains. NostrDatabase::{save_event, query} and Client::database() are existing SDK APIs.

4.3 signed_state: one InboxStore

One store backs the whole screen, modelled on RepoListStore (repos.rs):

pub struct InboxStore {
    /// Activity directed at the user, grouped by thread root, newest first.
    pub notifications: Arc<Vec<InboxItem>>,
    /// The user's own recent git activity, newest first.
    pub activity: Arc<Vec<Event>>,
    /// Unread notification count (non-archived).
    pub unread_count: usize,
    state: InboxReadState,
    user: Option<PublicKey>,
    /// Random keypair signing the local NIP-78 storage event.
    keys: Keys,
    /// Event id of the loaded state event, pruned on the next save.
    loaded_state: Option<EventId>,
    refresh: RefreshGate,
    _subscription: Subscription,
}

Lifespan: idle until a signer exists. The store is created in signed_state::init like the other stores, but it does nothing until the user has a signer. It is never wired from the desktop crate, and signed_state::init gains no parameters.

• new schedules cx.defer, like the other stores. The deferred bootstrap checks Backend::current_user():
  • signer already present (session restored before the store was created): activate now;
  • no signer: do nothing, wait for the event.
• BackendEvent::SignerChanged: activate.
• BackendEvent::SignerRequired (logout / no credential): clear user, notifications, activity, unread_count.
• BackendEvent::NostrUpdate(updates): refresh when any update kind is in NOTIFICATION_KINDS, is Kind::Comment, or is a deletion.
• BackendEvent::Synced: refresh.
• BackendEvent::Published: refresh.

Activation (only on signer):

fn activate(&mut self, me: PublicKey, cx: &mut Context<Self>) {
    self.user = Some(me);
    // Load the NIP-78 state from LMDB, then subscribe and refresh.
    // All run on background tasks; only plain data crosses back.
    self.load_state(me, cx);
    self.subscribe_remote(cx);
    self.refresh(cx);
}

Loading uses the random keys only for signing on save; reading the state event needs no signer at all. Activation itself is still gated on the signer because the fetch filters need the user's pubkey.

Fetch (reuses Backend::subscribe_bootstrap / connect_repo_relays):

fn subscribe_remote(&mut self, cx: &mut Context<Self>) {
    let Some(me) = self.user else { return };
    let backend = Backend::global(cx);
    backend.update(cx, |backend, cx| {
        backend.subscribe_bootstrap(filters::notifications(me), cx);
        backend.subscribe_bootstrap(vec![filters::authored_activity(me)], cx);
    });
    // Relays of the user's own repos, so their activity there is found too.
    let relays = own_repo_relays(me, cx);
    backend.update(cx, |backend, cx| {
        backend.connect_repo_relays(relays.clone(), filters::notifications(me), cx);
        backend.connect_repo_relays(relays, vec![filters::authored_activity(me)], cx);
    });
}

own_repo_relays reads RepoListStore::global(cx).read(cx).announcements_of(&me) and unions their relays. (NIP-65 outbox relay discovery is deferred; Signed does not fetch kind 10002 yet.)

Refresh (mirrors RepoListStore::run_refresh):

• cx.background_spawn: query the notification filters and the activity filter from client.database().
• Query filters::deletions(), build Deletions, skip deleted events.
• Build HashMap<EventId, Event> for root walking; group the notification events with inbox::group.
• Filter the activity events: keep issues/PRs/patches/statuses/cover notes, and comments only when their K tag is a git kind; sort newest first; take the top N.
• Cross back to the main thread: set notifications, activity, unread_count, cx.notify(), refresh.finish().

Actions: mark_read(root), mark_all_read(), plus advance_read after marking to bound the read_ids set. After each change, sign with the random keys and save the NIP-78 event to LMDB, then delete the previously loaded copy (see 4.2).

My repositories needs no new store: RepoListStore already holds every announcement and exposes announcements_of(user).

4.4 Cargo.toml

• signed_core: add serde.workspace for the InboxReadState derives.
• signed_state: add serde_json.workspace for the NIP-78 content.

5. UI

5.1 InboxView center panel

New crates/workspace/src/views/inbox.rs, a BasePanel + Panel + Render, like RepoListView. One scrollable two-column flex row.

• Inbox column: header with the unread count badge and actions Unread, Archived, Mark all read; then the non-archived notification items (top 5, with a Show all toggle expanding inline). Rows show the actor avatar, a kind badge, the subject, the repo name, a relative time, and an unread dot. Empty state: "You're all caught up." with IconName::Inbox.
• Continue where you left off: InboxStore::activity, top 15, each row a kind icon, subject, repo name, and relative time.
• My repositories: RepoListStore::announcements_of(me) with a small search InputState (same pattern as RepoListView) and a New button opening the existing create_repo_dialog. Rows open open_repo_panel.

No greeting header.

5.2 Unread / Archived as bottom-dock panels

Add a bottom-panel helper next to add_center_panel in crates/dock/src/lib.rs:

/// Add an already-wrapped panel handle to the bottom dock of `area`.
pub fn add_bottom_panel(
    area: &mut DockArea,
    panel: Arc<dyn PanelView>,
    window: &mut Window,
    cx: &mut Context<DockArea>,
) {
    area.add_panel_view(panel, DockPlacement::Bottom, None, window, cx);
}

The workspace already supports a bottom dock and prunes it when empty (workspace.rs). Then:

• New InboxFilterView panel taking a mode InboxFilter::Unread | InboxFilter::Archived and the InboxStore. It renders the matching subset of InboxStore::notifications as a list.
• The Unread and Archived header buttons in InboxView call add_bottom_panel with the requested mode. InboxView keeps filter_view: Option<WeakEntity<InboxFilterView>>; when it already exists, update its mode and focus instead of adding a duplicate.

5.3 Sidebar

In views/sidebar/mod.rs:

• Add inbox: Option<WeakEntity<InboxView>> (mirrors explore).

• Add fn open_inbox(&mut self, window, cx) that focuses the existing panel or adds a center panel.

• Point the existing nav item at it and add an unread suffix:

  NavItem::new("inbox", "Inbox", Icon::new(IconName::Inbox).small())
      .when(unread > 0, |this| this.suffix(...badge...))
      .on_click(cx.listener(|this, _ev, window, cx| this.open_inbox(window, cx))),
  

• cx.observe the InboxStore so the badge updates.

5.4 Click-through (P1)

Reuse the single RepoStore that RepoDetailView already creates instead of making a second one:

1. In repo_detail/mod.rs, add:

   pub(crate) enum RepoItem {
       Issue(EventId),
       PullRequest(EventId),
       Patch(EventId),
   }
   
   impl RepoDetailView {
       pub(crate) fn open_item(
           &mut self,
           item: RepoItem,
           window: &mut Window,
           cx: &mut Context<Self>,
       ) { /* open IssueDetailView / PullRequestDetailView in the dock */ }
   }
   

2. open_repo_panel already returns Entity<RepoDetailView>; the caller invokes detail.update_in(window, cx, |detail, window, cx| detail.open_item(...)).

3. InboxView resolves item.address to an Announcement from RepoListStore, opens the repo panel, then calls open_item with the root id and kind.

Patches have no detail view in Signed (they are only consumed inside PullRequestDetailView), so a patch-root click opens the repo panel. Note as a known limitation.

6. File-by-file change list

File	Change
crates/signed_core/Cargo.toml	add serde
crates/signed_core/src/filters.rs	NOTIFICATION_KINDS, notification_comments, notifications, authored_activity
crates/signed_core/src/inbox.rs	new: InboxItem, notification_root, group, InboxReadState, tests
crates/signed_core/src/lib.rs	mod inbox; and re-exports
crates/signed_state/Cargo.toml	add serde_json
crates/signed_state/src/inbox.rs	new: InboxStore, global, signer-gated activation, NIP-78 load/save, actions
crates/signed_state/src/lib.rs	mod inbox;, set global in init
crates/dock/src/lib.rs	add_bottom_panel helper
crates/workspace/src/views/inbox.rs	new: InboxView home panel and InboxFilterView
crates/workspace/src/views/mod.rs	mod inbox; pub use inbox::InboxView;
crates/workspace/src/views/sidebar/mod.rs	inbox field, open_inbox, nav wiring and badge
crates/workspace/src/views/repo_detail/mod.rs	RepoItem, RepoDetailView::open_item (P1)

No changes to desktop or signed_nostr. signed_state::init gains no parameters; the store bootstraps itself via cx.defer once a signer is present.

7. Phasing

1. Phase 0 - pure logic: signed_core filters and inbox.rs plus tests. DONE. Implemented as filters::{NOTIFICATION_KINDS, notification_comments, notifications, authored_activity, is_git_activity} and inbox::{InboxItem, notification_root, group, InboxReadState}. Two deviations from the sketch: the cutoff methods take an explicit now: Timestamp so the pure logic stays deterministic and testable, and authored_activity results must pass through is_git_activity before display (comments on non-git roots are matched by the filter). cargo test -p signed_core passes (62 tests).
2. Phase 1 - store: InboxStore with signer-gated activation, both queries, unread count, and NIP-78 load/save to LMDB, global install.
3. Phase 2 - screen: InboxView (inbox + activity + my repositories), sidebar nav and badge.
4. Phase 3 - sub-views: add_bottom_panel and InboxFilterView for Unread / Archived.
5. Phase 4 - click-through: open_item and announcement lookup.
6. Phase 5 (optional): standalone notifications page, NIP-65 relays, pagination, patch detail view.

Each phase compiles and is usable on its own.

8. Validation

• cargo test -p signed_core: root resolution, grouping, read-state cutoff, serde round-trip.
• cargo test -p signed_state: NIP-78 content round-trip (serde_json), if a non-GPUI path is factored out.
• cargo check --workspace after each phase.
• Manual: log in with a repo-owning identity; confirm the inbox panel populates from another identity's issue/comment, the activity list shows your own items, the repositories panel matches the sidebar, and that no kind-30078 event is broadcast (watch the relays / Published events). Restart to confirm the read state is read back from LMDB.

9. SDK APIs used (verified in the pinned 5c669a4 checkout)

• Kind::{Comment, GitIssue, GitPullRequest, GitPatch, GitPullRequestUpdate, GitStatusOpen/Applied/Closed/Draft, ApplicationSpecificData, EventDeletion, RequestToVanish}
• Filter::{kind, kinds, pubkey, pubkeys, custom_tags, limit, since, events, coordinate, identifier}
  • Non-obvious: Filter::pubkey/pubkeys set the lowercase p tag, not authors. Use Filter::author/authors for authorship. The notifications filter relies on this.
• SingleLetterTag::{LOWERCASE_P, LOWERCASE_E, UPPERCASE_P, UPPERCASE_K, UPPERCASE_E}
• nostr::nips::nip22::{extract_root, extract_parent, CommentTarget}: NIP-22 root/parent pointers
• Tags::{event_ids, public_keys, coordinates, identifier, hashtags} iterators
• Client::{database, subscribe, sync, notifications, send_event, add_relay}; NostrDatabase::{save_event, query}; NostrLmdb, NostrGossipMemory
• EventBuilder::{new, tags, finalize}, Tag::identifier, Keys::generate
• Timestamp, EventId (hex serde), PublicKey, Coordinate