Error instead of silently failing when browsing an unreachable environment

[colonelpanic8]

What Changed

The add-project browser (⌘K → Add project → Local folder) resolves paths on the selected environment's filesystem via filesystemEnvironment.browse, but never read that query's error. This adds an explicit availability check and fails closed instead of failing silently.

• New pure resolveBrowseAvailability in CommandPalette.logic.ts maps the environment's connection phase (available / offline / connecting / reconnecting / error / connected) onto an Available | Unavailable { message } verdict, carrying the underlying reason when there is one. It is keyed on reachability only — a browse failure on a reachable host means the path does not exist yet (the server returns read_directory_failed for a missing parent), which is exactly the Create & Add case, so it must not gate submission.
• The browse RPC is no longer issued at all unless the environment is connected.
• canSubmitBrowsePath is false when unavailable, which disables the Enter path, the submit button, and the clone-destination step (they share it). This also withholds the "create this folder and add it as a project" affordance, so the UI can never offer to create a directory on a host it failed to inspect.
• The reason renders in the results empty state instead of a blank list.
• handleAddProjectForEnvironment refuses with an explicit toast when the target environment is not connected, reusing the same verdict so the toast states the reason rather than a bare status word. This is the layer that covers the desktop folder-picker entry point, which bypasses the browse UI entirely.
• ChatComposer's @-path mention search dropped its error the same way, so an unreachable environment rendered "No matching files or folders." That reads as a definitive answer to a question we never got to ask; it now surfaces the actual failure.

Why

Browsing resolves paths on a machine that may not be reachable, so "no entries" and "could not ask" are very different answers that looked identical.

Reproduced against a paired remote environment that was then killed: the palette rendered an empty Directories group indistinguishable from an empty directory, showed no reason anywhere, and left the Add button enabled. Pressing Enter did nothing at all — no toast, no error, no state change. The failure was entirely invisible.

FileBrowserPanel and FilePreviewPanel already render .error for project file reads, so the add-project browser and the composer path search were the outliers rather than the convention.

UI Changes

Both captures are the same flow — Add project → the remote environment → Local folder → ~/ — against a paired remote whose backend was killed.

Before	After

Before: empty list, no reason, Add enabled, Enter silently does nothing.
After: Reconnecting to railbird-sf. Reason: Failed to fetch remote environment endpoint http://127.0.0.1:47319/.well-known/t3/environment (HttpClientError: Transport error ...), Add disabled.

Verified live in the web app against two t3 serve instances: the second was paired as a remote environment, confirmed Connected, then killed to produce the unreachable state.

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why
• I included before/after screenshots for any UI changes
• No animation/interaction change, so no video

Validation:

• vp test run apps/web/src/components/CommandPalette.logic.test.ts (14 tests, 9 new)
• vp run --filter @t3tools/web typecheck (no errors in changed files)
• vp lint on all four changed files (no new findings)
• vp fmt --check on all four changed files

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Note

Low Risk
UI and client-side guardrails around filesystem browse/add flows; no auth or data-model changes, with behavior covered by new unit tests.

Overview
Unreachable environments no longer look like empty folders when adding projects or searching @ paths.

Adds resolveBrowseAvailability to map environment connection phase (and optional connection error text) to Available vs Unavailable messages. Browse stays available when connected even if directory read fails (so “create folder & add” still works).

In the command palette add-project browse flow, the filesystem browse RPC runs only when the target environment is connected; otherwise the results area shows the availability message, directory lists are hidden, and Add / Create & Add / clone destination submission is disabled. handleAddProjectForEnvironment (including the native folder picker) shows an error toast with the same message instead of attempting the add.

ChatComposer @ path search now shows the workspace lookup error in the empty menu state instead of “No matching files or folders.”

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 429e392. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Show error instead of silently failing when browsing an unreachable environment

• Adds resolveBrowseAvailability in CommandPalette.logic.ts that returns an Available/Unavailable verdict with a user-facing message based on the environment's connection phase and error reason.
• The command palette skips filesystem browse queries, hides browse lists, and disables path submission when the selected environment is not connected.
• Adding a project via handleAddProjectForEnvironment now shows a toast error with a specific availability message instead of attempting an operation that will fail.
• The chat composer's path search menu surfaces the actual error message instead of the generic "No matching files or folders."

^{Macroscope summarized 429e392.}

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Review follow-up (429e392)

Bugbot caught two issues on the first commit; both are fixed.

Browse errors blocked folder creation (high). Real regression, and my fault for unit-testing that branch instead of exercising it. WorkspaceEntries.browse only swallows EACCES/EPERM to an empty listing — ENOENT propagates as read_directory_failed. Treating that as Unavailable made canSubmitBrowsePath false, so Create & Add could never create a folder that did not already exist. Availability is now keyed on connection phase alone. Verified end to end: on a connected environment ~/brand-new-folder-xyz/ shows an enabled Create & Add, and Enter creates the directory and adds the project. Regression test added pinning connected + browse error to Available.

Toast used status, not reason (medium). connectionStatusText renders the bare phase word, so the refusal really did read "Failed to add project — Available". The guard now reuses the availability verdict and reads " isn't connected."

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[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 2 potential issues.

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 93f2a23. Configure here.}

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved

This is a well-scoped UX improvement that adds proper error messages when browsing an unreachable environment. The changes are self-contained with comprehensive test coverage, involving pure logic additions and UI error display without modifying core business logic.

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