fix(web): leaving the home page while the app loads no longer bounces you to a new draft

[shivamhwp]

Problem

If you leave the home page while the app is still loading, the app can pull you back to a new draft thread a moment later.

A user hit this through the Nightly "Get the beta app" popup. The popup shows during startup. Tapping it opened Settings → General, then the app jumped to a new draft, so the button seemed to go nowhere. Any navigation away from the home page during startup can hit this, not just the popup.

Closes: no issue filed. Reported by a Nightly user on X.

Change

On startup the home page waits for threads to load, then opens a draft for your latest project. The router switches to the new address as soon as you navigate, but the home page stays on screen until the next page finishes loading. If threads finish loading inside that gap, the home page starts the draft. useNewThreadHandler remembers the address at that moment, which is already Settings. Its "did the route change?" check then compares Settings to Settings, sees no change, and replaces Settings with the draft.

The home page now starts the draft only if the router is still on /. One file: apps/web/src/routes/_chat.index.tsx.

Scope and approval

A small fix for an obvious bug: the app overrides a navigation the user just chose. It touches one check in one route and changes nothing else.

Verification

Web dev server set up as Nightly, phone-size Chromium window (390×844), CPU slowed 6×, real data copied into the worktree. A yellow label at the bottom shows the current URL. The test taps "Get the beta app" 0.8 s after the popup appears.

To make the timing repeatable, the recording holds back the Settings → General page code for 5 s, like a slow network. Without that delay I caught the same jump unaided on the dev server, with a stack trace pointing at useHandleNewThread.ts, but it only happens some of the time.

Before: Settings opens, then the app jumps to /draft/…	After: stays on Settings and scrolls to the Mobile app row

Router log, same setup, two runs each way:

• Before: tap → /settings/general#nightly-mobile-beta → /draft/… about 1.5–2 s later, in both runs.
• After: tap → /settings/general#nightly-mobile-beta → /settings/general once the scroll lands, in both runs.
• With nothing tapped, startup still leaves the home page on its own, as before.

Also checked:

• Typecheck passes for apps/web.
• Lint adds no new warnings. The remaining exhaustive-effect-dependencies warning on startState.retryRequest was already there.

Not checked:

• A packaged desktop build. The dev desktop app on a virtual display took the user to the right place in my runs.
• Safari on a real iPhone.

Claude Opus 5.5 via Claude Code, running in T3 Code.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved at 6c639c3

Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — This is a small, self-contained fix to prevent startup draft creation from overriding navigation away from the home page. Existing home-page behavior remains unchanged when the user stays on /, with no broader API, schema, infrastructure, or configuration impact.

^{You can add or adjust custom eligibility rules. Learn more.}

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Review was skipped as selected files did not have any reviewable changes.

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.config.ts
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: ee75dde2-370b-43ff-9140-19df4f4db61e

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 6c639c3 and 8130a7b.

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

Use the checkbox below for a quick retry:

• 🔍 Trigger review

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.config.ts
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: b216bb0d-7751-4897-9e68-ba59b785a6d5

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5753207 and 6c639c3.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• apps/web/src/routes/_chat.index.tsx

Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 9 remain after this review.

📝 Walkthrough

The index route now checks the current pathname before starting a draft. If navigation has moved away from /, the effect returns without starting one.

Changes: Index draft guard

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Check the current pathname apps/web/src/routes/_chat.index.tsx	IndexDraftLanding uses useRouter and useEffectEvent to read the current pathname. The effect skips draft creation when the pathname is not /.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Suggested reviewers: juliusmarminge

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 6c639

The guard preserves navigation away from the home page during startup. No identified issue remains that should block merging.

Pre-merge checks | 4

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check		The title clearly and concisely describes the startup navigation race and the fix that prevents users from being redirected to a new draft.
Description check		The description includes complete Problem, Change, Scope and approval, and Verification sections. It explains reproduction, implementation, evidence, test results, limitations, and the agent used.
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create a new PR

• Autofix · Keep fixing CodeRabbit findings and required CI, and resolving merge conflicts

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}