Footer layout

The rows under the composer hold small items: the live status, the key hints, subscription limits, the folder and branch, the activity strip, and the pane controls. Run /settings, then Footer layout, to choose which of them show and which slot each one sits in. The composer itself does not change.

Each item shows whenever it has something to show: the activity strip during a turn, the limits when the provider reports them. The live status reads ready while idle and names the phase during a turn. The key hints read Ctrl+P commands · Ctrl+X h keys while idle and Ctrl+X h keys during a turn.

The screen draws an example footer, a crow working in ~/crow-nest on the plunder branch, so every item has something to show while you place it. The real footer under the composer changes with each edit too. Escape saves the layout for this home.

The grid

The footer has three rows of four numbered slots:

 1 live status     2 limits          3 ·               4 key hints
 5 folder, branch  6 ·               7 pane controls   8 activity strip
 9 ·              10 ·              11 ·              12 ·

Each item sits in one slot, and · is an empty slot. The folder and branch are one item, place in the file, drawn as ~/crow-nest · plunder. When room runs short, the path loses leading folders before the branch is cut.

A row spreads its items from edge to edge with even gaps, so there is no stray space on either side. A row with one item keeps it on the left for slots in the first two columns, and on the right for the last two.

When a row runs short, the item in the highest-numbered slot shortens first, then steps aside. Slot 1 holds on longest. The key hints never step aside, so the way to the keys card is always visible.

The activity strip keeps its space while it has nothing to show, so the items beside it do not move when a turn starts or ends.

Keys

On Preview, Left and Right flip the example between idle and mid-turn. On Reset to default, Enter puts the standard layout back.

Move an item

Enter picks the item up, and the title reads Footer layout › moving <item>. The arrows carry it from slot to slot. Landing on a filled slot swaps the two items. Enter or Space puts it down, and Escape puts everything back where it was.

The example is drawn as it looks in an 80-column terminal. Putting an item down, or hiding or showing one, is refused if it would leave an item out there, and the hint line says won't fit at 80 columns. A narrower terminal may still shorten or drop the items in the highest slots.

If the item you pick up has nothing to show in the current preview, such as the activity strip while idle, the preview flips to the state where it shows.

Edit the file

The layout is saved under footer_layout in the home’s tui.json. Only a layout that differs from the default is written:

{
    "footer_layout": {
        "rows": [
            ["status", "limits", null, "keys"],
            ["place", null, "panes", "activity"],
            [null, null, null, null]
        ],
        "hidden": ["panes"]
    }
}

rows holds three rows of four slots, and null is an empty slot. An item the file does not place goes back to its default slot, or the first empty one. A field Vera cannot read falls back to its default, and a broken footer_layout never stops Vera from starting.