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Integration of old duo-ui based siderail

Tomas Bulvarequested to merge
tbulva-duo-rail-old-layout into master

What does this MR do and why?

part of solving: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/570523

This merge request introduces a new "duo side rail" feature for GitLab's AI chat interface. The changes add a feature flag to control when this new sidebar layout is shown to users, and completely restructure the chat interface from a complex single-component design to a simpler layout with separate sidebar navigation.

The main changes include:

  • Adding a feature flag that can be enabled for specific users to see the new sidebar design
  • Replacing the existing complex chat component (which handled workflows, message history, model selection, and real-time communication) with a much simpler layout component
  • The new design uses a sidebar with navigation options like "Current Chat", "New Chat", "History", and "Sessions"
  • Removing hundreds of lines of complex code related to workflow management, WebSocket connections, and message handling
  • Simplifying the interface to focus on basic layout and navigation rather than chat functionality

This appears to be a major redesign that moves from a feature-heavy chat interface to a cleaner, more organized sidebar-based layout. The feature flag allows GitLab to gradually roll out this new design to users while keeping the old version available as a fallback.

References

Screenshots or screen recordings

Screen_Recording_2025-09-12_at_16.19.51

How to set up and validate locally

Turn on feature flag duo_side_rail Open the side rails Click around, chat works, agentic chat works, sessions work

MR acceptance checklist

Evaluate this MR against the MR acceptance checklist. It helps you analyze changes to reduce risks in quality, performance, reliability, security, and maintainability.

Edited by Jannik Lehmann

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