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Cascade IDE — main window layout (v1)

Layout reference for MCP, onboarding, and agents. Source of truth: Views/MainWindow.axaml and related views (DocumentsDockView, MfdShellView).

UI mode: the product ships one mode id in UiModes/index.toml — Flight (PFD · Forward · MFD polygon). There is no menu switch for legacy Focus / Balanced / Power presets. Family UiModeFamily.Flight and capabilities come from mode TOML; see ADR 0010, ui-modes-overview-v1.md, ADR 0021.

1. Overall structure

Window: root Grid → DockPanel with Menu on top, then MainGrid (single work-area grid).

Default size: 1000×600. Resize via window edges and splitters between PFD / Forward / MFD columns.

Overlays: CommandPalette (ZIndex 5000), optional zone geometry / highlight overlays.

2. Menu (Menu, DockPanel.Top)

Current items (see code):

  • File: open solution / folder / file, export Markdown, exit.
  • Debug: F5/start, startup project, attach, stop, step over/into/out.
  • View: command palette; visibility toggles for PFD (explorer / map per layout), build output (MFD page), MFD column, terminal (MFD page), Git (MFD page), instrumentation dock; Theme submenu; UI language; Markdown preview in MFD; preview in separate window.
  • Settings: AI and chat parameters.
  • Help: about.

MCP banner: McpBannerView in MainGrid row 0 (not in the menu) when the IDE runs as an MCP server.

3. MainGrid grid

Rows: three — Auto, Auto, *.

Row Content
0 McpBannerView (when IsMcpServerMode)
1 TaskCockpitView — task strip, CascadeChord, quick actions (per capabilities)
2 Three attention zones: PFD · Forward · MFD (below)

Columns: 220, 4, *, 4, 340 (base widths; PFD/MFD may collapse per bindings).

Col Content
0 PFD — AttentionZoneContainer Zone="Pfd": solution explorer and/or workspace navigation map, optional tool mount.
1 GridSplitter
2 Forward — AttentionZoneContainer Zone="Forward": DocumentsDockView (Avalonia Dock — document tabs, editor).
3 GridSplitter
4 MFD — AttentionZoneContainer Zone="Mfd": MfdShellView (secondary contour: top band + page stack).

Zone geometry debug overlay: SkiaZoneGeometryOverlayPfd / Forward / Mfd. Agent highlight: AgentHighlightLayer over the full MainGrid.

UiModeBloomOverlay — decorative bloom from chrome TOML.

4. Forward zone (DocumentsDockView)

  • HUD (ADR 0021 §9): banner strip above the dock when non-empty.
  • Dock manager: DockControl — factory/layout from ViewModel. Long logs (build, tests, terminal) use MFD pages, not a bottom dock row in the main grid.

MCP control names should match Name in XAML where possible (DocumentsDockView and document factory).

5. MFD zone (MfdShellView + MfdShellPageStack)

Top to bottom inside the MFD column:

  1. WorkspaceChromeBandView — EICAS / IDE Health style band (visibility from TOML/VM).
  2. MfdContourStackHost — hosts MfdShellPageStack: one active page (CurrentMfdShellPage), e.g. Workspace Health, explorer in MFD, related files, Markdown preview, chat, AI settings, terminal, build log, Problems, Git, events, tests, hypotheses, debug stack, …

Page switching is via VM/commands/menu — there is no separate full-width bottom tab bar on the main window.

Terminal on the MFD page is a stub (single command → output), not a full integrated shell — see mfd-terminal-stub-vs-integrated-shell-v1.md (Russian body).

6. Key controls and MCP

Zone / meaning Name / note
Window root RootWindow
Grid MainGrid
Chat (MFD page) inside ChatMfdPageView / stack
Chat input ChatInputBox (on chat page)
Terminal input TerminalInputBox (TerminalMfdPageView)
Agent highlight AgentHighlightOverlay on AgentHighlightLayer

ide_set_panel_size and similar follow the current MCP contract; geometry uses three column splitters and workspace.toml / capabilities.

7. Highlight overlay

AgentHighlightLayer (Canvas, ZIndex 1000) over the grid; AgentHighlightOverlay frames a target control (ide_highlight_control). IsHitTestVisible=false so clicks pass through.

8. Historical context (not current layout)

Older mockups with a bottom panel (Terminal / Build tabs in one BottomPanelView) and Focus / Balanced / Power presets are legacy. Current Flight is PFD | Forward | MFD in one grid; long streams are MFD pages. See concept-to-implementation-map-v1.md and concept-generated/ — concept PNGs are not guaranteed to match code.

Document version: 2.0 (English). Matches MainWindow.axaml and UiModes/index.toml (Flight only). Update this file when layout changes.