Merge pull request #626 from blooop/herdr_title

Spell the branch's slashes in the name a tab reads

Author: blooop

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,31 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Changed
+
+- **The name dl puts on a tab spells the branch's slashes.** `dl
+  blooop/devlaunch@feature/auth` titles the terminal, the herdr tab and the
+  container's prompt `devlaunch@feature/auth`, where all three read
+  `devlaunch@feature-auth` before. The flattening was the workspace *id*'s to do,
+  because an id is a devpod workspace name and a DNS label and can hold no slash;
+  a tab is neither, and it was paying a cost that was never its own. What it cost
+  was the one thing a tab is for: `feature/auth` and the different branch
+  `feature-auth` are two workspaces with two ids, and both tabs said
+  `devlaunch@feature-auth`.
+
+  The label is still a rendering of the id rather than a second reading of the
+  spec, which is what keeps a tab matchable by eye against a `dl --ls` row: the
+  same slugs, the same middle segments dropped, the same cut, one character per
+  separator either way. So `dependabot/github_actions/codecov/codecov-action-6`
+  reads as `devlaunch@dependabot/codecov-action-6` beside the id
+  `devlaunch-dependabot-codecov-action-6-amlt`.
+
+  The slash lands where the branch had one and nowhere else: it comes from the
+  segment split, not from a pass over the finished id, so a dash `slug` made
+  inside a segment stays a dash (`github_actions` reads as `github-actions`, never
+  `github/actions`). Nothing about a workspace id, a clone directory, a hostname
+  or a devpod name moves, and the golden id vectors are untouched.
+
 ## [0.49.0] - 2026-09-14
 
 ### Fixed

README.md

@@ -456,9 +456,10 @@ anything to its `devcontainer.json`.
   `DEVLAUNCH_ZELLIJ=1` is the ask, once in a shell profile or per launch; it costs 2.2s to 3.5s
   of a cold launch, which is why it waits to be asked.
 - **A terminal named after the workspace.** In zellij, tmux, or a plain terminal window
-  the pane takes the workspace id read for a person: the hashed suffix off and the dash
-  before the branch spelled `@`, so a tab and the row `dl --ls` prints still match by
-  eye. A workspace you name by its id keeps the id.
+  the pane takes the workspace id read for a person: the hashed suffix off and the
+  separators the spec is written with put back, so `devlaunch-feature-auth-np10` reads
+  `devlaunch@feature/auth` and a tab and the row `dl --ls` prints still match by eye.
+  A workspace you name by its id keeps the id.
   [The three renderings side by side](docs/workspaces.md#workspace-ids).
 - **A shared pixi package cache**, bound in from the host, so dotfiles that provision tools with
   `pixi global sync` download each package once per machine instead of once per container. On one

docs/workspace-tools.md

@@ -971,22 +971,31 @@ session; this one writes an escape sequence and two lines into a profile.
 `<repo>@<branch>`, with the hashed suffix off.** The [renderings
 table](workspaces.md#workspace-ids) is where the three are written down side by side
 and where the spelling is decided; the escape sequence above and the profile line
-below show it in place rather than settle it. One string with two characters changed,
-so a tab and a listing row still match by eye.
-
-Two characters, and they are the two a glance cannot use. The suffix carries the
-workspace's identity and none of its meaning: it is what keeps two branches whose
-readable halves cut to the same string in two containers, and by the time you are
-looking at a tab you have told them apart by the branch. The `@` is the character a
-spec is written with, so `devlaunch@main` reads as the branch it is where
-`devlaunch-main` reads as one dashed word.
-
-The branch is the id's slug of one, cut to the id's budget. `feature/auth` reads as
-`devlaunch@feature-auth`, which is also how the branch `feature-auth` would read, and
-a long branch is cut where the id cuts it. That is the tab bar's constraint rather
-than a shortfall: a name in a tab shares a strip of screen with a dozen others and is
-read at a glance. Where the whole branch matters, the
-[selector](cli.md#the-selector) spells it out, slashes and all.
+below show it in place rather than settle it. The same string with the suffix off and
+its separators respelled, one character for one character, so a tab and a listing row
+still match by eye.
+
+What goes is what a glance cannot use. The suffix carries the workspace's identity
+and none of its meaning: it is what keeps two branches whose readable halves cut to
+the same string in two containers, and by the time you are looking at a tab you have
+told them apart by the branch. What comes back are the two characters a spec is
+written with. `devlaunch@main` reads as the branch it is where `devlaunch-main` reads
+as one dashed word, and `devlaunch@feature/auth` reads as the branch it is where
+`devlaunch-feature-auth` reads as the name of a different branch the repository could
+have.
+
+The branch is still the id's slug of one, cut to the id's budget, so a long branch is
+cut where the id cuts it and a middle segment the id dropped is dropped here too:
+`dependabot/github_actions/codecov/codecov-action-6` reads as
+`devlaunch@dependabot/codecov-action-6`. That is the tab bar's constraint rather than
+a shortfall: a name in a tab shares a strip of screen with a dozen others and is read
+at a glance. Where the whole branch matters, the [selector](cli.md#the-selector)
+spells it out.
+
+A slash lands where the branch had one and nowhere else. The separator comes from the
+same segment split the id is cut by, not from a pass over the finished id, so a dash
+the slug made inside a segment stays a dash: `github_actions` reads as
+`github-actions` in a label, never as `github/actions`.
 
 It used to be the whole spec you typed, resolved, `blooop/devlaunch@main`, and the
 reason that is not what came back is length. A triple is checked for the characters

docs/workspaces.md

@@ -55,31 +55,34 @@ The other two are renderings of that same id, cut to what their surface is for:
 
 | Where | Reads | Why that shape |
 |-------|-------|----------------|
-| `dl --ls`, the hostname, devpod | `devlaunch-main-3j1t` | Addressed and typed back, so it must be unique and it must be one word |
-| The [terminal tab](workspace-tools.md#naming-the-terminal-after-the-workspace) | `devlaunch@main` | A handful of characters read at a glance beside a dozen others, so the suffix goes and the branch stays the id's slug |
-| The [selector](cli.md#the-selector) | `blooop \| devlaunch \| main` | One row at a time with the width of a terminal, so the owner comes back and the branch is spelled in full, out of the clone's `HEAD` |
+| `dl --ls`, the hostname, devpod | `devlaunch-feature-auth-np10` | Addressed and typed back, so it must be unique and it must be one word |
+| The [terminal tab](workspace-tools.md#naming-the-terminal-after-the-workspace) | `devlaunch@feature/auth` | A handful of characters read at a glance beside a dozen others, so the suffix goes and the separators are the ones the spec is written with |
+| The [selector](cli.md#the-selector) | `blooop \| devlaunch \| feature/auth` | One row at a time with the width of a terminal, so the owner comes back and the branch is spelled in full, out of the clone's `HEAD` |
 
 They are renderings and not separate derivations, which is what keeps them
-matchable: the tab is the id with the suffix off and one dash spelled `@`, so the
-first two rows are recognisably the same workspace. This table is where the tab's
-spelling is decided, and no other page states it as the answer to a command; where
-one appears elsewhere it is inside an example of the mechanism, like the escape
-sequence and the profile line in
+matchable: the tab is the id with the suffix off and its separators respelled, one
+character for one character, so the first two rows are recognisably the same
+workspace. This table is where the tab's spelling is decided, and no other page
+states it as the answer to a command; where one appears elsewhere it is inside an
+example of the mechanism, like the escape sequence and the profile line in
 [workspace-tools.md](workspace-tools.md#naming-the-terminal-after-the-workspace).
-`a_label_is_the_id_with_the_suffix_off_and_an_at_where_the_dash_was` in
-`rust/devlaunch-core/src/domain/workspace_id.rs` pins the tab's cell against what
+`a_label_is_the_id_with_the_suffix_off_and_its_separators_respelled` in
+`rust/devlaunch-core/src/domain/workspace_id.rs` pins the tab's cells against what
 `WorkspaceId::label` returns.
 
-Which dash the `@` replaces is not readable off the id, since a repo slug holds
-dashes of its own, so the tab's name travels with the launch that resolved it rather
-than being recovered later. A workspace you name by its bare id on the command line
-is therefore titled by that id. The selector is not: it read the triple to draw the
-row, and hands it on with the pick.
-
-The tab is the one that gives something up. It does not name the owner, since an id
-never carried one, so a fork and its upstream read alike; and it spells the branch as
-the id's slug, so `feature/auth` reads as `feature-auth`. Both are recoverable in the
-selector, which is where a name is read carefully rather than glanced at.
+Neither the dash the `@` replaces nor the dashes that stood for slashes are readable
+off the id, since a repo slug holds dashes of its own and so does a branch name, so
+the tab's name travels with the launch that resolved it rather than being recovered
+later. A workspace you name by its bare id on the command line is therefore titled
+by that id. The selector is not: it read the triple to draw the row, and hands it on
+with the pick.
+
+The tab still gives one thing up. It does not name the owner, since an id never
+carried one, so a fork and its upstream read alike. That is recoverable in the
+selector, which is where a name is read carefully rather than glanced at. What it no
+longer gives up is the branch's own spelling: the branch `feature/auth` reads as
+`devlaunch@feature/auth` on the tab, so the tab tells it apart from the different
+branch `feature-auth` even though the id, which has to flatten the slash, cannot.
 
 At 47 characters the id leaves 17 of the 64-byte hostname limit for tools that stack
 their own prefixes onto the container name. That was about 26 when the hostname was the