[beruro]

Problem

Switching between conversations that both have no selected model briefly replaced “Select model” with “Loading” and rebuilt the trigger. Shared selectors also replaced their button DOM when tooltip availability changed. Selected-model controls changed structure while disabled, removing the effort control, and the mobile picker used CSS-only disabling while changing editable presentation during transient loading.

Solution

Keep loading as an interaction gate while preserving the empty action label. Retain the shared SelectorPill tooltip owner and centralize accessible disabled explanations there, forwarding them through PillGroup. Preserve combined and separate model/effort controls while disabled; immediately hide and close their menu, and reset its transient preview when reopened. Mobile uses the same native disabled behavior without treating a temporary disabled state as a change in editing capability.

Conversation bindings and mobile configuration remain the source of truth. This adds no model cache, persistence changes, requests, or previous-conversation fallback. The branch selector already retains known names and is unchanged. This PR contains only selector continuity, its regressions, and UI/lifecycle audit reports.

Potential risks

SelectorPill is shared, so tooltip ownership and the optional disabled explanation wrapper affect workspace and model callers. Callers configuring disabledTooltip must retain that prop across enabled/disabled states to keep the focus host stable. A disabled model menu is intentionally dismissed. Tooltip owners now remain mounted even without content; native idle memory/frame-time measurements have not been collected.

Native desktop switching and mobile device visual verification remain unverified. Two existing browser layout tests were skipped because ORGII_HEADLESS_CHROME was not configured. No database, dependency, IPC, or persisted-format changes are included; rollback is a normal revert of this UI-only commit.

Verification

Rebased onto the latest fetched develop in an isolated worktree, carrying only this task’s changes:

• pnpm test src/components/ModelSelectorPill/ModelSelectorPill.test.ts src/components/SelectorPill src/components/PillGroup/index.test.ts src/modules/MobileRemote/components/composer/MobileModelPicker.test.ts src/engines/ChatPanel/InputArea/components/ModelPill.test.ts src/engines/ChatPanel/InputArea/components/ModelPill.memberOwnership.test.ts src/features/SessionCreator/components/__tests__/SessionInfoPillGroup.test.ts src/features/SessionCreator/components/__tests__/SessionInfoLine.test.ts src/features/SessionCreator/components/__tests__/buildSessionInfoSegments.test.ts — 53 passed, 2 existing browser layout tests skipped, 10 files passed.
• pnpm typecheck:fast — passed.
• Commit hook npx lint-staged — oxlint, ESLint and Prettier passed; staged TypeScript gate also passed.
• git diff --check origin/develop...HEAD — passed.
• Regression coverage includes button identity and focus through tooltip changes, repeated empty-conversation loading/ready transitions, combined/split selected-model disabled controls and menu dismissal, mobile disabled click gating, and existing menu cleanup and mobile key-vault isolation.
• Inspected the scoped diff for raw action controls, secrets, personal paths, generated churn and unrelated edits; none introduced. No Rust changes, so Rust checks were not run locally.

Visual evidence

No new native screenshots or switching recording are attached: the ORG2 Dev window is unavailable on the current automation surfaces. Static images would not establish whether the transition flickers; DOM identity/interaction regressions provide partial evidence, but native visual verification is still outstanding. No measured performance improvement is claimed.

Audit

• UI audit: 1 fix, 5 keep with reason, 0 abstract; existing shared control families are reused.
• Lifecycle report: behavioral checks pass; native frame-time/CPU/RSS verification remains blocked by unavailable native automation.
• Reports: docs/frontend-ui-audit-2026-09-27/SelectorContinuity.md and docs/org2-performance-guard-2026-09-27/SelectorContinuity.md.