Notes: Preserve unsent note and reply drafts

[Mamaduka]

What?

Closes #73473

Keeps the text typed into the new note and reply forms when the form closes because another block or thread was selected, or the editor switched to the code editor. Today, typing a note, clicking another block and coming back shows an empty form.

Why?

NoteForm holds its content in local state, and the form only renders while its note is selected, so any selection change unmounts it and drops the text. Window and tab switches were fixed in #80222; block and thread switches are what remain.

How?

Drafts live in a Map owned by NotesSidebarContainer, keyed by block client ID (new note) or note ID (reply); useNoteDraft reads it when a form mounts and writes it on change, so typing doesn't re-render the sidebar, and the owner sits above the code editor and revisions checks. Selecting a block with no threads but a draft selects 'new', which reopens the form, and a non-empty new note form stays open on focus-out (as long as the same block is selected).

Alternative to #80482, which mirrors every keystroke into the editor store.

Testing Instructions

1. Open a post or page and add three paragraphs.
2. Select the first paragraph, choose "Add note" from the block options menu and type some text.
3. Click the first paragraph. The form stays open with the text. An empty form still closes.
4. Click the third paragraph, then the first again. The form reopens with the text.
5. Click "Add note". The note is created.
6. Open a new note form on the third paragraph, type, click "Cancel", then "Add note" again. The form is empty.
7. Select an existing note's thread, type a reply, click another paragraph, then the noted paragraph. The reply text is back.
8. Type a new note draft, switch to the code editor and back, then select the paragraph. The draft is back.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

Same.

Use of AI Tools

Assisted by Claude.

[github-actions]

🤖 PR meta 🤖

🎉 Props

If you're merging code through a pull request on GitHub, copy and paste the following into the bottom of the merge commit message.

Co-authored-by: Mamaduka <mamaduka@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: adamsilverstein <adamsilverstein@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: desrosj <desrosj@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: Mustafabharmal <mustafabharmal@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: yashjawale <yashjawale@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: t-hamano <wildworks@git.wordpress.org>
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📦 Bundle size

Size Change: +178 B (0%)

Total Size: 8.29 MB

📦 View Changed

Filename	Size	Change
build/scripts/editor/index.min.js	620 kB	+178 B (+0.03%)

_{c8a724d Run}

⚡ Performance

Show the results

Client side metrics exclude the server response time.

front-end-block-theme

Metric	b88a35d	trunk	% Change
timeToFirstByte	58.2 ms +8.51% -4.55%	58.9 ms +3.48% -4.16%	-1.19%
largestContentfulPaint	100 ms +2% -8%	98 ms +6.12% -4.08%	2.04%
lcpMinusTtfb	36.3 ms +21.9% -7.02%	38.4 ms +16.15% -7.16%	-5.47%
wpBeforeTemplate	28.84 ms +12.1% -3.26%	28.75 ms +3.27% -3.34%	0.31%
wpTemplate	24.66 ms +3.77% -3.73%	25.51 ms +4% -2.86%	-3.33%
wpTotal	54.38 ms +8.13% -4.76%	54.89 ms +3.95% -4.14%	-0.93%
wpMemoryUsage	7.65 MB +0% -0%	7.61 MB +0% -0%	0.46%
wpDbQueries	17 +0% -0%	17 +0% -0%	0%

front-end-classic-theme

Metric	b88a35d	trunk	% Change
timeToFirstByte	42.4 ms +7.31% -0.71%	50.2 ms +7.07% -1.2%	-15.54%
largestContentfulPaint	92 ms +2.17% -4.35%	108 ms +1.85% -3.7%	-14.81%
lcpMinusTtfb	48.15 ms +3.01% -4.15%	56.55 ms +2.39% -3.71%	-14.85%
wpBeforeTemplate	26.17 ms +2.37% -0.69%	27.43 ms +11.37% -1.57%	-4.59%
wpTemplate	13.58 ms +3.61% -1.33%	19.54 ms +1.13% -2%	-30.5%
wpTotal	39.75 ms +6.82% -0.86%	47.17 ms +6.78% -1.89%	-15.73%
wpMemoryUsage	6.13 MB +0% -0%	6.23 MB +0% -0%	-1.56%
wpDbQueries	10 +0% -0%	14 +0% -0%	-28.57%

media-processing

Metric	b88a35d	trunk	% Change
mediaProcessingJpeg	397.17 ms +1.32% -0.4%	400.83 ms +1.76% -0.53%	-0.91%
mediaProcessingAvif	6098.56 ms +0.42% -0.15%	6055.52 ms +0.19% -0.22%	0.71%
mediaProcessingJpegToAvif	4239.51 ms +0.06% -0.09%	4154.01 ms +0.79% -0.24%	2.06%

media-upload

Metric	b88a35d	trunk	% Change
jpegUploadProcessing	1433.38 ms +3.12% -1.4%	1415.69 ms +1.12% -0.4%	1.25%
pngUploadProcessing	197.13 ms +1.44% -5.81%	206 ms +22.67% -17.33%	-4.31%
largeJpegUploadProcessing	1421.12 ms +0.83% -0.31%	1402.66 ms +0.58% -0.62%	1.32%
multipleImageUploadProcessing	1588.45 ms +0.84% -0.6%	1532.78 ms +1.1% -1.67%	3.63%

post-editor

Metric	b88a35d	trunk	% Change
serverResponse	525.31 ms +5.74% -1.31%	526.77 ms +2.68% -6.86%	-0.28%
firstPaint	251.15 ms +20.74% -6.82%	282.85 ms +21.62% -24.97%	-11.21%
domContentLoaded	1103.4 ms +1.19% -1.25%	1103.47 ms +1% -1.14%	-0.01%
loaded	1104.58 ms +1.21% -1.25%	1104.6 ms +1% -1.13%	0%
firstContentfulPaint	456.4 ms +0.3% -2.25%	460 ms +1.34% -1.85%	-0.78%
firstBlock	3360.9 ms +0.55% -1.04%	3330.28 ms +0.63% -0.84%	0.92%
type	17.41 ms +1.9% -3.68%	17.51 ms +8.05% -5.65%	-0.57%
typeWithoutInspector	18.82 ms +6.22% -6.32%	17.97 ms +9.29% -4.56%	4.73%
typeWithTopToolbar	23.9 ms +4.23% -3.18%	23.73 ms +5.56% -5.86%	0.72%
typeContainer	8.82 ms +7.6% -9.52%	8.88 ms +8.11% -3.6%	-0.68%
focus	106.91 ms +3.16% -2.95%	116.9 ms +2.56% -4.92%	-8.55%
firstFocus	222.21 ms +0% -0%	224.23 ms +0% -0%	-0.9%
selectAll	584.57 ms +1.79% -6.9%	554.4 ms +4.61% -0.52%	5.44%
listViewOpen	78.29 ms +10.31% -6.4%	78.85 ms +3.69% -15.55%	-0.71%
inserterOpen	44.25 ms +4.56% -7.37%	41.51 ms +7.71% -11.15%	6.6%
inserterHover	12.05 ms +8.22% -7.97%	12.52 ms +6.79% -7.83%	-3.75%
inserterSearch	7.96 ms +10.43% -4.9%	8.88 ms +0.79% -9.12%	-10.36%
loadPatterns	620.22 ms +3.54% -5.93%	603.11 ms +7.54% -2.19%	2.84%
wpTotal	515.75 ms +5.76% -1.42%	516.4 ms +2.88% -6.94%	-0.13%
wpMemoryUsage	13.20 MB +0% -0%	13.17 MB +0% -0%	0.28%
wpDbQueries	53.5 +0.93% -0.93%	54 +0% -1.85%	-0.93%

site-editor

Metric	b88a35d	trunk	% Change
serverResponse	527.52 ms +0.53% -5.86%	506.27 ms +1.65% -1.56%	4.2%
firstPaint	274.96 ms +21.98% -8.2%	255.4 ms +20.22% -15.04%	7.66%
domContentLoaded	1189.26 ms +1.69% -0.93%	1181.52 ms +0.58% -1.48%	0.66%
loaded	1190.46 ms +1.69% -0.93%	1182.95 ms +0.57% -1.48%	0.63%
firstContentfulPaint	471.78 ms +2.39% -1.24%	457.22 ms +5.06% -0.63%	3.18%
firstBlock	4472.32 ms +0.5% -0.5%	4450.87 ms +0.14% -0.77%	0.48%
type	20.25 ms +3.21% -4.35%	18.71 ms +12.29% -1.76%	8.23%
navigate	119.09 ms +7.41% -3.38%	121.58 ms +15.03% -3.17%	-2.05%
loadPatterns	1312.12 ms +4.65% -6.5%	1331.15 ms +9.1% -8.41%	-1.43%
loadPages	1036.63 ms +0.93% -1.8%	1018.93 ms +1.34% -0.89%	1.74%
wpTotal	517.32 ms +0.56% -5.97%	496.92 ms +1.53% -1.62%	4.11%
wpMemoryUsage	12.25 MB +0% -0%	12.21 MB +0% -0%	0.3%
wpDbQueries	43 +2.33% -0%	43 +2.33% -0%	0%

_{c8a724d Run}

🏁 Flaky tests

Some tests passed with failed attempts. The failures may not be related to this commit but are still reported for visibility. See the documentation for more information.

refuses the drop and uploads nothing in /test/e2e/specs/editor/various/single-file-placeholder-drop.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toHaveLength(expected)

Expected length: 0
Received length: 2
Received array:  [{"_links": {"about": [{"href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}], "author": [{"embeddable": true, "href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1"}], "collection": [{"href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}], "curies": [{"href": "https://api.w.org/{rel}", "name": "wp", "templated": true}], "replies": [{"embeddable": true, "href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=193"}], "self": [{"href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/media/193", "targetHints": {"allow": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "PATCH", "DELETE"]}}], "wp:attached-to": [{"embeddable": true, "href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/191", "id": 191, "post_type": "post"}]}, "alt_text": "", "author": 1, "caption": {"rendered": ""}, "class_list": ["post-193", "attachment", "type-attachment", "status-inherit", "hentry", "entry"], "comment_status": "open", "date": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "date_gmt": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "description": {"rendered": "<p class=\"attachment\"><a href='http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK-1.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" src=\"http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK-1.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;max-width:10px;\" /></a></p>
"}, "featured_media": 0, "filename": "10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK-1.png", "filesize": 80, "guid": {"rendered": "http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK-1.png"}, "id": 193, "link": "http://localhost:8889/?attachment_id=193", "media_details": {"file": "2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK-1.png", "filesize": 80, "height": 10, "image_meta": {"alt": "", "aperture": "0", "camera": "", "caption": "", "copyright": "", "created_timestamp": "0", "credit": "", "focal_length": "0", "iso": "0", "keywords": [], "orientation": "0", "shutter_speed": "0", "title": ""}, "sizes": {}, "width": 10}, "media_type": "image", "meta": [], "mime_type": "image/png", "modified": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "modified_gmt": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "ping_status": "closed", "post": 191, "slug": "10x10_e2e_test_image_z9t8jk-2", "source_url": "http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK-1.png", "status": "inherit", "template": "", "title": {"rendered": "10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK"}, "type": "attachment"}, {"_links": {"about": [{"href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}], "author": [{"embeddable": true, "href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1"}], "collection": [{"href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}], "curies": [{"href": "https://api.w.org/{rel}", "name": "wp", "templated": true}], "replies": [{"embeddable": true, "href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=192"}], "self": [{"href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/media/192", "targetHints": {"allow": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "PATCH", "DELETE"]}}], "wp:attached-to": [{"embeddable": true, "href": "http://localhost:8889/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/191", "id": 191, "post_type": "post"}]}, "alt_text": "", "author": 1, "caption": {"rendered": ""}, "class_list": ["post-192", "attachment", "type-attachment", "status-inherit", "hentry", "entry"], "comment_status": "open", "date": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "date_gmt": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "description": {"rendered": "<p class=\"attachment\"><a href='http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" src=\"http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;max-width:10px;\" /></a></p>
"}, "featured_media": 0, "filename": "10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK.png", "filesize": 80, "guid": {"rendered": "http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK.png"}, "id": 192, "link": "http://localhost:8889/?attachment_id=192", "media_details": {"file": "2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK.png", "filesize": 80, "height": 10, "image_meta": {"alt": "", "aperture": "0", "camera": "", "caption": "", "copyright": "", "created_timestamp": "0", "credit": "", "focal_length": "0", "iso": "0", "keywords": [], "orientation": "0", "shutter_speed": "0", "title": ""}, "sizes": {}, "width": 10}, "media_type": "image", "meta": [], "mime_type": "image/png", "modified": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "modified_gmt": "2026-10-06T11:46:02", "ping_status": "closed", "post": 191, "slug": "10x10_e2e_test_image_z9t8jk", "source_url": "http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK.png", "status": "inherit", "template": "", "title": {"rendered": "10x10_e2e_test_image_z9T8jK"}, "type": "attachment"}]
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/various/single-file-placeholder-drop.spec.js:71:45

scrolls the thread before the canvas in /test/e2e/specs/editor/various/block-notes-floating.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toBeGreaterThan(expected)

Expected: > 221
Received:   221

Call Log:
- Timeout 5000ms exceeded while waiting on the predicate
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/various/block-notes-floating.spec.js:839:6

should indent with Space and outdent with Shift+Space at the start in /test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/list.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: Object with guid handle@9ff2e06092d67f8f8eb05180ce4e0e74 was not bound in the connection

three users concurrently edit a large post with diverse blocks in /test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-stress.spec.ts, passed after 1 failed attempt.

TimeoutError: locator.waitFor: Timeout 17500ms exceeded.
Call log:
  - waiting for getByRole('button', { name: /Collaborators list/ }) to be visible

    at map (/home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/fixtures/collaboration-utils.ts:193:7)
    at CollaborationUtils.waitForMutualDiscovery (/home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/fixtures/collaboration-utils.ts:188:10)
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-stress.spec.ts:416:28

_{c8a724d Run}

[Mamaduka]

Marking this ready to review.

Re: Inline note drafts

The tricky part is the anchor. With drafts, the form outlives the text selection, so we need to keep the range somewhere and track it while the content changes.

Google Docs and Notion handle this with a placeholder highlight on the selected text while you write the note. It goes away on cancel and becomes the real marker on submit. I'd like to experiment with something similar: a highlight that exists only in the editor and is never saved in the content.

It's more involved than block and reply drafts, so it will probably be a follow-up.

[adamsilverstein]

is this comment block removal intentional?

[Mamaduka]

Sort of, it's more a result of my aggressive comment pruning. Happy to restore, but the L580-581 logic seems clear to me.

[adamsilverstein]

Neat

[adamsilverstein]

Nice work, I like this approach. I tested this with block level and selection notes and while I see the anchor issue you mentioned, it still feels fine to land as is for now.

[Mamaduka]

Thanks, @adamsilverstein!