From 02f119cdbc34669b192dad3aa0f6a781d40b62d1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: ciregenz <ciregenz@berkeley.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 02:10:01 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] [eric] browser: Cmd+R reloads the browser you're in or last
 used in place (was a no-op), never an app wipe

---
 frontend/src/app/components/Layout/AppShell.tsx | 12 +++++++-----
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/frontend/src/app/components/Layout/AppShell.tsx b/frontend/src/app/components/Layout/AppShell.tsx
index ed62f330..f6773c47 100644
--- a/frontend/src/app/components/Layout/AppShell.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/app/components/Layout/AppShell.tsx
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import React, { useState, useEffect, useRef, useCallback, startTransition, useMemo } from 'react';
 import { NavLink, Outlet, useNavigate, useLocation } from 'react-router-dom';
 import { openSettingsModal } from '@/shared/state/settingsSlice';
-import { getLastInteractedBrowser, setLastInteractedBrowser, clearLastInteractedBrowser } from '@/shared/browserFocus';
+import { getLastInteractedBrowser, getKeepAliveBrowserIds, setLastInteractedBrowser, clearLastInteractedBrowser } from '@/shared/browserFocus';
 import { getWebview } from '@/shared/browserRegistry';
 import Box from '@mui/material/Box';
 import ListItemButton from '@mui/material/ListItemButton';
@@ -336,14 +336,16 @@ const AppShell: React.FC = () => {
     return () => document.removeEventListener('pointerdown', onPointerDown, true);
   }, []);
 
-  // Cmd/Ctrl+R: main neutralizes the default-menu reload and hands us the decision. Reload the browser you last interacted with; if your last click was NOT in a live browser, do nothing, a real browser reloads the active tab, not the whole app shell, and reloading the renderer here would destroy every browser card's webContents and wipe its sessionStorage (silently logging you out of sites like Discord). View > Reload still reloads the app on purpose.
+  // Cmd/Ctrl+R: main neutralizes the default-menu reload and hands us the decision. Reload the browser you're in or last used IN PLACE (keeps its login); only when no browser is open at all do we fall back to a full app reload, since reloading the renderer destroys every webview and wipes its session.
   useEffect(() => {
     const w = window as any;
     if (!w.openswarm?.onReloadShortcut) return;
     return w.openswarm.onReloadShortcut(() => {
-      const id = getLastInteractedBrowser();
-      const wv = id ? getWebview(id) : undefined;
-      if (wv) { try { wv.reload(); } catch (_e) { /* torn-down webview; ignore */ } }
+      for (const id of [getLastInteractedBrowser(), ...getKeepAliveBrowserIds()]) {
+        const wv = id ? getWebview(id) : undefined;
+        if (wv) { try { wv.reload(); return; } catch (_e) { /* torn-down webview; try the next */ } }
+      }
+      window.location.reload();
     });
   }, []);