006 · On par with Genie Code

A specification and implementation plan for making EdgeGenie's shell as usable as Databricks Genie Code, and in three specific ways better: the conversation sits beside the document it is about, the model is one control away at every width, and nothing the user does in the browser is lost on a reload.

Status: implemented (phases P1–P5, P7 and P8; P6 persistence is specified, not built — see 09). 8 November 2026. The implementation corrected three claims in the first draft; they are listed in 11 §corrections. Scope: apps/coding-agent/web (shell, assistant dock, files list, model control) and apps/coding-agent/api (conversation-scoped bindings, cell scope, durable session store). Relation to earlier specs: builds on 001 · Perfect shell (geometry, zones, persistence discipline), 003 · Dev UX/UI (the editing surface and its gap assessment) and 005 · Every model, one picker (the catalogue, resolver and picker component). It replaces none of them; it finishes three things they each deferred. Audience: product, full-stack, database, UX/UI, front-end, Databricks platform.

The one-paragraph version

Genie Code's defining interaction is not its model and not its answers: it is that the assistant is a pane, not a tab. Open a notebook in Databricks and the conversation stays docked to the right of it, already aware of the file you are looking at, and accepting input without you leaving the code. EdgeGenie has the same parts and the wrong composition. The conversation is a tab in the centre pane (view === CHAT), so opening a file to look at it unmounts the conversation; the right column is an inspector that only reports session facts, with no composer; and the model control lives in the top bar and is hidden by CSS below 1100 px (styles.css:210-213). The result is an app whose best feature — an agent that reads, writes, runs and proves — is unavailable exactly when the user is looking at the thing they want changed.

This spec re-composes the shell around a single new object, the assistant dock: a conversation surface bound to a focus ({ document, cell }), docked in the right column at wide widths, a drawer at narrow ones, reachable from the keyboard at every width, and able to start a session from nothing. Around it: a Files pane that also lists (Databricks offers tree and list), a model control that is identical in the composer and the top bar, and a durable store so the dock's contents survive the reload that a deployed app performs on every redeploy.

Why this document exists

Three requests, one theme:

What is wrong today, in one table

Every row is verified against the code in this repository. The full audit with consequences is 01.

The design in one picture

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flowchart LR
    subgraph USER["What the user is looking at"]
        DOC["open document<br/>notebook · file · table"]:::blue
        CELL["a cell inside it"]:::blue
    end
    subgraph CORE["Domain (pure)"]
        FOCUS["Focus<br/>{ docId, cellId }"]:::yellow
        DOCK["DockState<br/>idle · draft · running · asking · failed"]:::yellow
        BIND["Binding<br/>prompt context from focus"]:::yellow
        PICK["Model choice<br/>next turn only"]:::yellow
    end
    subgraph SHELL["Shell layout"]
        RAIL["rail<br/>Files · Catalog · Sessions"]:::purple
        CENTRE["centre<br/>the document"]:::purple
        DOCKUI["assistant dock<br/>column or drawer"]:::purple
    end
    subgraph API["Server"]
        SES["session + turn"]:::green
        EVT["event stream (SSE)"]:::green
        DB["Lakebase<br/>sessions · turns · bindings"]:::orange
    end
    DOC --> FOCUS
    CELL --> FOCUS
    FOCUS --> BIND
    FOCUS --> DOCKUI
    BIND --> DOCK
    DOCK --> SES
    PICK --> SES
    SES --> EVT
    EVT --> DOCKUI
    SES --> DB
    DB --> SES
    RAIL --> DOC
    DOCKUI --> DOC
    classDef blue fill:#E8F0FE,stroke:#A8C0E8,color:#1F2937
    classDef yellow fill:#FFF8E1,stroke:#F2D98D,color:#1F2937
    classDef green fill:#E6F4EA,stroke:#A8D5B5,color:#1F2937
    classDef orange fill:#FFEDE0,stroke:#F5C29C,color:#1F2937
    classDef purple fill:#EFE7FB,stroke:#C9B6EC,color:#1F2937

Three sentences carry the whole design:

1. The document and the conversation are two surfaces of one binding. Changing focus changes what the next prompt is about, and never closes the conversation.
2. The dock is a zone, not a tab. Wide: a column beside the document. Narrow: a drawer over it, opened by ⌘J, never by itself.
3. A control either works or is not shown. No dead buttons: a run affordance that cannot run is removed until it can, and a model chip that is hidden at a width is a bug.

Scope

In scope

• The assistant dock: focus binding, four states, docked/drawer behaviour, ⌘J, start-from-nothing.
• Cell scope: "ask about this cell" and "use this cell in the conversation", end to end.
• Files as tree and list, with breadcrumbs, the columns that decide what to open, and a Create affordance — parity with the Databricks workspace browser.
• Exactly one model control, present at every width, in two places, with a visible next-turn pin.
• Durable conversation state in Lakebase, so a reload (and a redeploy) does not erase a session.
• The measured comparison against Genie Code, with before/after numbers.

Out of scope, and why

Reading map

Cross-reference matrix

A change in a row means re-reading the columns marked ●. This matrix is what keeps thirteen documents from drifting apart.

The five sentences this spec must satisfy

If any of these is false in the deployed app, the design failed and this document is amended before more code is written.

1. Opening a document never hides the conversation, at any width, in either direction.
2. The dock states what it is about — the document, and the cell if one is chosen — and the prompt sent carries that, so the agent updates the right object.
3. The current model is visible and changeable at every width, from the composer and the top bar, with the same control, and a switch applies to the next turn only.
4. No control in the shell is inert. Every button either does what it says or is not rendered.
5. A reload keeps the conversation. Closing the tab and coming back shows the turns, the bindings and the model the session is pinned to.

Verification

Four checks keep this spec set honest. The first three run in CI; the fourth is the evidence.

cd apps/coding-agent/web
npm run verify:spec-006     # links + anchors, ASCII box alignment, wireframe generator check
npm run verify:spec-mermaid # every mermaid block parses (needs a scratch mermaid install)
npm run e2e:assistant       # the eleven scenes in 12-e2e-plan.md, screenshots to specs/006-databricks/e2e

Provenance of the claims in this spec

The Databricks behaviours in 01 are [observed] from the Genie Code screens under specs/001-perfect-shell/e2e and the screenshots attached to the request. Their implementation details (DOM, routes) are not claimed.