fix(web): point settings panels at a connected device

[IAmJSD]

What Changed

The settings panels resolve their server-settings target to the primary device when there is one, and to the first connected device otherwise.

• New apps/web/src/state/settingsEnvironment.ts — resolveSettingsEnvironmentId (pure, unit tested) plus the atom and hook wrapping it.
• New settingsServerConfigAtom / settingsServerSettingsAtom / settingsServerProvidersAtom in state/server.ts, scoped to that environment.
• usePrimarySettings / useUpdatePrimarySettings → useGlobalSettings / useUpdateGlobalSettings, reading and writing that environment. Renamed rather than silently re-pointed, because the module header documents the primary-only scoping as deliberate and that is no longer what the hooks do.
• The three settings components consuming them updated accordingly.

Unchanged: the primary-scoped atoms behind the primary-device update notification, sidebar and command palette, and the diagnostics panel, whose RPCs target the primary environment. A session that has a primary device resolves to it exactly as before.

Why

The settings panels read and write server settings through the primary environment, which only resolves via a PrimaryConnectionTarget (state/primaryEnvironment.ts:7). The hosted app never has one — every device is paired remotely — so the panels degraded silently there, in three compounding ways:

1. primaryServerProvidersAtom returned EMPTY_SERVER_PROVIDERS, so deriveProviderInstanceEntries produced nothing and the model picker rendered "No models found". The Text generation model and Source control writer model pickers were therefore unusable, and the model backing thread titles, commit messages, change request content and branch names could not be changed at all.
2. useUpdatePrimarySettings resolved to a null environment id, and useUpdateSettingsTarget no-ops on null (hooks/useSettings.ts:326), so every write from these panels was dropped without an error.
3. Reads fell back to DEFAULT_SERVER_SETTINGS, presenting the schema default (instanceId: "codex" / gpt-5.6-luna, packages/contracts/src/settings.ts:566) as if it were the user's configuration.

The user-visible symptom is that generated commit messages, change request titles and bodies, branch names and thread titles are all produced by the hardcoded default model with no way to change it, on a device where that provider may not even be the one in use.

UI Changes

No layout or styling changes. The behavioural difference is that the Text generation model and Source control writer model pickers populate instead of showing an empty "No models found" popup, and edits in these panels now persist. Reproducing the before state requires a hosted session with no primary device.

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why
• I included before/after screenshots for any UI changes
• I included a video for animation/interaction changes

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Medium Risk
Changes which server's settings.json the global UI edits when there is no primary (e.g. hosted); multi-remote-device fallback is arbitrary but matches existing provider-panel behavior. Primary-device sessions are unchanged.

Overview
Fixes hosted and no-primary sessions where settings panels showed schema defaults, model pickers were empty, and writes were silently dropped because everything keyed off the primary server only.

Introduces settingsEnvironmentIdAtom (primary when present, otherwise first connected catalog device, skipping offline entries) plus settingsServerSettingsAtom / settingsServerProvidersAtom scoped to that environment. usePrimarySettings / useUpdatePrimarySettings are renamed to useGlobalSettings / useUpdateGlobalSettings and wired through all settings panels, ChatView, and useNewThreadHandler so displayed values, persistence, and new-thread defaults (defaultThreadEnvMode, newWorktreesStartFromOrigin) match the same environment the settings UI writes. Source control discovery uses useSettingsEnvironmentId for the same reason.

Sessions with a primary device behave as before; primary-only atoms for diagnostics and similar surfaces are unchanged.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 24e304f. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Point settings panels at a connected device when no primary device is present

• Introduces settingsEnvironmentIdAtom in settingsEnvironment.ts to select a settings target: the primary environment if available, otherwise the first connected catalog environment.
• Adds settingsServerConfigAtom, settingsServerSettingsAtom, and settingsServerProvidersAtom in server.ts to expose config, settings, and providers for the chosen environment.
• Replaces usePrimarySettings/useUpdatePrimarySettings with useGlobalSettings/useUpdateGlobalSettings across all settings panels (appearance, general, source control, fonts, legacy features) so reads and writes target the settings environment.
• New thread creation and ChatView draft-thread defaults (env mode, start-from-origin) now also read from the settings environment.
• Behavioral Change: settings panels now mount and operate against the first connected device when no primary device is available; previously they would not function in that state.

^{Macroscope summarized 24e304f.}

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[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Needs human review

This PR changes runtime behavior for settings resolution: when no primary device exists, settings panels now target a connected catalog device instead of using defaults. While fixing a bug, this fundamentally changes which environment receives settings reads/writes and should be reviewed by someone familiar with the settings architecture.

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Dismissing prior approval to re-evaluate 7e3dd2b

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Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 1 potential issue.

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[t3dotgg]

Note

🤖 GPT-5.6 Sol responding on behalf of Theo

We're closing this PR as we clean up the T3 Code backlog. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

Closing this implementation because global settings can write to whichever remote environment connects first, without an explicit target choice. The hosted model-picker and dropped-write bugs are valid. #4559 is related explicit-target work, not a shipped replacement. We should preserve these cases while choosing that behavior.

If you believe we closed this in error, please reopen the PR and leave a comment explaining what we missed. If GitHub does not let you reopen it, leave a comment here and we'll take another look.