Sidebar: option for a divider line or gap between machine groups in the machines panel

[udaysy007]

With several machines attached, the machines panel shows every machine's spaces as one continuous list. The machine headers are bold, but with 5 or 6 machines and 2 to 4 spaces each, the groups run into one another and it takes a second to see where one machine ends and the next starts.

Request: a config option to separate machine groups in the expanded desktop sidebar. Either of these would do:

• ui.sidebar.spaces.machine_gap = 1 : blank rows between machine groups only (not between spaces inside a group), or
• ui.sidebar.spaces.machine_divider = true : a thin horizontal rule between groups, drawn with the same colour as the existing rule between the spaces and agents sections (surface_dim).

What exists today: ui.sidebar.spaces.row_gap spaces every top-level space (and is currently broken across machines, tracked in #3738 / #3740). That is spacing per space rather than per machine, so even once fixed it does not give the grouped look. Row layouts (rows) are per space too, so there is no way to draw a rule at group boundaries from config.

Version: herdr 0.9.0, macOS, Ghostty, 6 machines (local + 5 SSH).

[shanegriffiths]

+1 from a two-machine setup, and a small update now 0.9.1 is out.

Version: herdr 0.9.1 · macOS 26 · Ghostty · Local + 1 SSH machine

row_gap for spaces is fixed in 0.9.1 (#3738 / #3780), so unrelated spaces get their blank row back. The machine header does not: Forge still sits directly under the last Local space, so the two groups read as one list.

  ○ tab-kit
    dev ↑4

  ○ MaidByMel
    dev ↑4
▼ Forge
  ○ dorsetplans
    main

Even with two machines that header-with-no-gap is the one seam the eye has to hunt for. machine_gap = 1 (a blank row above each machine header, none between spaces inside a group) would cover it here. The sidebar config today only has the agents and spaces tables with rows / rows_by_agent / row_gap, so there is nothing to reach for from config.

[penly-zhang]

+1 on machine_gap. Reproduced on 0.9.3, macOS, Local + 1 SSH machine.

Adding the code location so it's clear this is not a config gap but a hardcoded zero:
src/client/shell/endpoint_sidebar.rs builds the gap map and returns 0 for every
row that is not a same-machine Space pair, so machine headers never get a gap:

  ) if endpoint == next_endpoint => u16::from(!entry.indented) * config.spaces.row_gap,
  _ => 0,

#3740 also states machine boundaries "remain packed" intentionally, so this needs a
decision rather than a fix. Minimal shape: ui.sidebar.machines.row_gap, default 0,
applied as one blank row before each machine header except the first. spaces.row_gap
keeps its current per-space meaning inside a machine, and existing layouts render
unchanged at the default.

[felixggj]

+1, with one more case for the same option: the gap below a machine header, not only above it.

Version: client herdr 0.9.1, server 0.9.5 · macOS · Ghostty · Local + 1 SSH machine · ui.sidebar.spaces.row_gap = 1

With row_gap = 1, the spaces inside a group are spaced, but each machine header sits directly on its first space. The header then reads like part of that space's entry:

▼ Local
  ○ [1] breakpointcrm
    dev

  · [2] felix-gomez.c…
    main
  …
  ○ [7] contabo-vps
    dev
▼ haddock
  · bp
    dev

So the gap is missing on both sides of the header: above it (this thread) and below it (here).

What I tried from config: a leading empty row in ui.sidebar.spaces.rows with row_gap = 0, to get one blank line before every space. That would also have put one under each header. The config applies without diagnostics, but it is a workaround: rows is per space, so it cannot target headers, and it gives no gap above the next header.

Request: let the machine_gap proposed above apply to both sides of the header. For example:

• ui.sidebar.spaces.machine_gap = 1: blank rows before each machine header (except the first) and after it, or
• two keys, machine_gap_before / machine_gap_after, if maintainers prefer them separate.

The default stays 0, so nobody's current layout changes.