feat(desktop): remember recently used sites in the Browser panel

[chrisdeeming]

Closes #4746

What Changed

Adds a Recently used group to the Browser panel splash, above the existing Local servers list. URLs opened in the panel are remembered per project and persist across restarts.

History is recorded after successful URL-bar navigation, local-server opens, terminal links, and chat preview links. Each row shows the page title when available, the URL, relative visit time, and a remove action.

Local servers is unchanged.

Why

The splash only knew about listening localhost ports, so it surfaced things that are not web servers while missing custom domains such as app.test and main.app.local. Reopening a site after a restart also meant typing the URL again.

Recording sites that were actually opened handles custom domains without broadening port discovery and keeps the list relevant to each project.

History is stored in localStorage with the existing Zustand persistence pattern. There is no server involvement and no new dependency.

UI Changes

Before	After

Roadmap

I've reduced the scope of this PR down so it is no longer XXL. If merged, I have a further (smaller) submission which is to add favicons to the "Recently used" section and browser tabs.

I would also like to do more work here. The Local servers section displaying servers that do not serve web content doesn't make a lot of sense. It currently displays things for me such as localhost:1025 which is a MailHog SMTP server and localhost:3306 which is a MySQL server.

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why
• I included before/after screenshots for the UI change
• I included a video for animation/interaction changes

Built with Claude and GPT-5.6 through T3 Code.

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Note

Low Risk
Client-only localStorage history with URL normalization and caps; no server, auth, or payment changes. Moderate UI surface area but bounded persistence logic with tests.

Overview
Adds a persisted Zustand store (browserHistoryStore) that keeps per-project recent URLs (title, last visited) in localStorage, keyed by the same logical project grouping as the sidebar. ChatView registers the active thread to that key after client settings hydrate.

The Browser panel empty state gains a Recently used section (PreviewRecentUrlCard) above Local servers, with open, relative time, and remove. Visits are recorded after successful navigation from the URL bar, discovered local servers (using pre-resolution requestedUrl so WSL/remote hosts don’t pollute history), terminal preview links, and chat markdown preview opens. Page titles are applied only to existing entries after successful load. Loopback aliases (localhost, 127.0.0.1, environment host) dedupe to one row; persisted data is sanitized on migrate/merge.

normalizeHostname and isLocalLoopbackHost are exported from browserTargetResolver for reuse in the store.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 868bea0. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

[!NOTE]

Add recently used site history to the Browser panel

• Introduces useBrowserHistoryStore, a persisted Zustand store that tracks per-project browser history entries (URL, title, last-visited time), keyed by a logical project grouping consistent with the sidebar.
• Visits are recorded when users submit a URL, open a discovered local server, or open a link from the terminal or chat markdown; titles are updated after successful navigation.
• The Browser panel empty state now renders a 'Recently used' section via the new PreviewRecentUrlCard component, with relative timestamps and a remove action.
• Local and loopback host aliases are canonicalized to a single history entry, and requestedUrl is preserved on discovered servers so the pre-resolution URL is recorded in history.
• Persisted state is sanitized and migrated on every rehydrate: malformed entries are dropped, lists are capped, and excess projects are evicted.

^{Macroscope summarized 868bea0.}

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[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Needs human review

This PR introduces a new feature (browser history tracking with UI) that adds new user-facing behavior, new state management, and new components. New features of this scope warrant human review to validate the intended behavior and integration points.

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[chrisdeeming]

Just a note on the size, the entire feature itself is ~900 lines. There is, I feel, a somewhat generous test coverage. I am, however, assured they are "load-bearing" 🙄

Happy to trim those down. I have been through them and most of them are defensible to be fair. At the very least, I'd recommend reviewing the non-test code if you'd like to avoid some of the noise.

Acting on review feedback now.

[macroscopeapp]

One finding: favicon dedupe state is held in a module-level global inside the PreviewManager service module rather than in the service's own state, with a test-only reset export to compensate. Everything else in the Effect-facing changes matches the conventions (namespace effect/* imports, Effect.fn operations, PreviewOperationError with structured operation/tabId/webContentsId plus preserved cause, runFork derived from the captured context).

^{Posted via Macroscope — Effect Service Conventions}

[macroscopeapp]

Reviewed the new favicon capture/store code against the Effect service conventions. The layer-scoped capturedFaviconsRef (previously a module global) now looks correct, and the new modules use subpath namespace imports and the existing PreviewOperationError shape. Two smaller items below.

^{Posted via Macroscope — Effect Service Conventions}

[chrisdeeming]

I'm going to call this finished at this point, outside of keeping the branch up-to-date with upstream.

Note for reviewers

This PR originally had a wider scope, but I decided to split it into two in order to make reviewing easier.

This PR focuses on the browser history portion only so it gives us an appropriately scoped "Recently used" section on the browser panel splash screen.

A future PR will add a bit of visual polish in the shape of favicon storage and display, with a sneak peek available below.

I have some more improvements in mind too.

[cursor]

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