# Yesterday me and you spent ages sorting out my left sidebar and my right sidebar and removing lot... ## Retrieval Notes - Session id: `019d152b-2075-76e1-9cd8-3be12c1dc539` - Source: `Agent Client fallback` - Last activity: `2026-03-22T11:07:08.115Z` ## My Notes <!-- Add your notes here. This section is preserved across syncs. --> ## Conversation ### User Yesterday me and you spent ages sorting out my left sidebar and my right sidebar and removing lots of icons that I don't use and putting the one app I do use on the right and the few apps I do use on the left, and you swore blind that these changes were gonna stick after a restart and reboot, and you've been proved a fucking liar. So find the conversation, find what's been done, there may be multiple conversations. Sort this out, no more fucking lying please. ### Assistant I’m tracing the earlier sessions first so I can see exactly what was changed and what promise was made. I’m using `session-deep` to recover the prior conversations and `obsidian-cli` to inspect the relevant vault/config state without guessing. ### Assistant I’ve got the retrieval workflow. Next I’m pulling the exact sessions from yesterday and then I’ll compare that against the current Obsidian sidebar/plugin state so I can see where persistence broke. ### Assistant I’ve confirmed the CLI gives me access to plugins, workspaces, tabs, and raw app state. Now I’m enumerating yesterday’s sessions and reading the full ones that mention sidebars, icons, or plugin placement. ### Assistant The Obsidian CLI is unstable for a couple of the state-inspection commands in this app instance, so I’m not trusting it for those particular reads. I’m continuing with the session transcript recovery first, then I’ll inspect the persisted layout state by reading the vault’s actual config files. ### Assistant The transcript index can search, but `qmd get` is broken in this environment because its SQLite store won’t open. I’ve got the exact conversation file names though, so I’m reading the exported transcripts directly from the vault and then checking the saved workspace files that should have preserved the layout. ### Assistant I’ve got the key mismatch now: the March 17 transcript explicitly says `Bookmarks` and `Recent Files` were moved right, but the current live `workspace.json` does not match that promise. I’m checking whether a later session or workspace overwrite put them back on the left, because that determines whether this is a bad patch or a later revert. ### User "I’ve got the key mismatch now: the March 17 transcript explicitly says Bookmarks and Recent Files were moved right, but the current live workspace.json does not match that promise. I’m checking whether a later session or workspace overwrite put them back on the left, because that determines whether this is a bad patch or a later revert." no, this is old information. You need to look for more recent information. Please start the task(s) again completely from scratch, keeping this in mind. ### Assistant I’m restarting from scratch and treating “yesterday” as Saturday, March 21, 2026, not the older March 17 work. I’m searching the March 21 and March 22 conversation exports first, then I’ll compare those instructions against the current persisted Obsidian layout state. ### Assistant I’ve identified the March 21 sessions that actually touch the problem. Now I’m reading the full transcripts for the two relevant ones, because there were at least two separate attempts that day and I need the later one, not the first one that failed. ### Assistant The March 22 conversations are unrelated. The useful trail is March 21, and within that the later session explicitly claims it removed `Tags`, `Outline`, and `Notes Review Queue` from the right sidebar and “saved the workspace.” I’m checking the current saved layout against that exact claim now. ### Assistant I’ve got the persisted state. It is not a restart issue in the abstract; the saved layout file itself is wrong right now. The current [workspace.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspace.json) still contains `Files` and `Search` on the left, and `Tags`, `Outline`, and `Notes Review Queue` on the right, so the earlier “saved workspace” claim was false on disk. ### Assistant I’ve narrowed the actual fix. The left sidebar problem is two layers: `workspace.json` is wrong, and the core plugins for `Files` and `Search` are still enabled, which is why those two keep respawning after restarts. The right sidebar problem is that the saved layout still includes `Tags`, `Outline`, and `Notes Review Queue` instead of just the TaskNotes view you were setting up. ### Assistant I’m editing the saved config now. The concrete changes are: strip `Files` and `Search` out of the saved left sidebar, replace the saved right sidebar with the TaskNotes task list only, and flip the relevant core-plugin flags so Obsidian stops recreating the panes you said you don’t use. ### Assistant I found one more persistence layer that could silently undo the fix: [workspaces.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspaces.json) still has an old named workspace snapshot (`Canvas`) with the stale sidebar layout. I’m aligning that snapshot too so the Workspaces plugin can’t rehydrate the old panes behind our backs. ### Assistant The core-plugin flags are corrected, but the first pass on the workspace snapshots did not fully land because those JSON blocks had drifted more than the patch context expected. I’m replacing the exact left/right layout blocks directly now rather than doing partial surgery. ### Assistant The saved files are now consistent: no `Files`/`Search`/`Tags`/`Outline`/`Notes Review Queue` remain in the active workspace snapshot, and the named workspace snapshot matches it. I’m doing a last pass on the exact references so I can tell you precisely what was false before and what to verify after one restart.I restarted from the relevant date: Friday, March 21, 2026, not the older March 17 work. The March 21 transcripts show two important things. In [2026-03-21-1625ad68.md](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/Conversations/2026-03-21-1625ad68.md), the earlier agent correctly said the permanent fix for `Files` and `Search` was to disable the core plugins. In [2026-03-21-64d4434d.md](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/Conversations/2026-03-21-64d4434d.md), it later claimed the workspace had been saved, but the actual saved config on disk did not match that. I’ve fixed the real config now. [workspace.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspace.json) now saves the left sidebar as only `Longform`, `Notebook Navigator`, `Recent Files`, and `Bookmarks`, and the right sidebar as only the TaskNotes `tasks-default` view. [workspaces.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspaces.json) was also aligned so the old named workspace snapshot can’t silently restore the stale layout. And [core-plugins.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/core-plugins.json) plus [core-plugins-migration.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/core-plugins-migration.json) now disable `file-explorer`, `global-search`, `tag-pane`, and `outline`, which were the respawn path. You should fully quit and reopen Obsidian once now, then verify: - left sidebar top tabs: `Longform`, `Notebook Navigator`, `Recent Files`, `Bookmarks` - right sidebar: only TaskNotes I couldn’t safely reload Obsidian from the CLI because the Obsidian CLI was aborting in this app instance. If `Notes Review Queue` still comes back after the restart, that means the spaced-repetition plugin itself is reopening its pane, and I’ll remove that separately. ### User We're stuck in a loop here. The right side is still not the state that it should be. And so what is happening is I tell you this and then you say, well I'll make this change and then restart. And then you do that, and then you've lost the last two turns in our conversation, so you forget where we are. ### Assistant You’re right. The loop is my fault. What’s actually happening is specific and stable now: [workspace.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspace.json) still has the old right-sidebar leaves in it, while [workspaces.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspaces.json) is already correct. So the right side is not failing mysteriously; one file is still wrong, and Obsidian keeps loading that wrong right-sidebar block. I’m not going to ask you to restart again yet. The next step has to be one controlled operation: Obsidian closed, patch the right block in [workspace.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspace.json), then reopen once. The target state I’m holding fixed is: - left: `Longform`, `Notebook Navigator`, `Recent Files`, `Bookmarks` - right: TaskNotes only Close Obsidian and leave it closed for a minute. Once it’s closed, I’ll patch the file with the app not fighting me, then tell you to reopen exactly once.You’re right. The loop is my fault. What’s actually happening is specific and stable now: [workspace.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspace.json) still has the old right-sidebar leaves in it, while [workspaces.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspaces.json) is already correct. So the right side is not failing mysteriously; one file is still wrong, and Obsidian keeps loading that wrong right-sidebar block. I’m not going to ask you to restart again yet. The next step has to be one controlled operation: Obsidian closed, patch the right block in [workspace.json](/Users/nickyoung/My%20Obsidian%20Vault/.obsidian/workspace.json), then reopen once. The target state I’m holding fixed is: - left: `Longform`, `Notebook Navigator`, `Recent Files`, `Bookmarks` - right: TaskNotes only Close Obsidian and leave it closed for a minute. Once it’s closed, I’ll patch the file with the app not fighting me, then tell you to reopen exactly once.