Explorer Sidebar

The Explorer sidebar is your navigation hub for every workspace, project, and feature inside GitScrum Studio. It renders as a tree view in the Activity Bar and gives you one-click access to boards, sprints, wiki, discussions, and every other panel.

The Problem This Solves

When a project management tool lives in the browser, switching to it means losing sight of your code. Even within the extension, finding the right project and feature should not take more than a second.

The Explorer sidebar puts your entire organizational hierarchy — workspaces, projects, and feature sections — in a compact tree that stays visible while you code. One click opens any panel without navigation friction.

What You Are Looking At

After signing in, the GitScrum icon in the Activity Bar reveals the Explorer tree. The tree organizes your data in a strict hierarchy:

Workspace Alpha
  └─ Project Dashboard
       ├─ Plan
       │    ├─ Sprints
       │    ├─ User Stories
       │    └─ Team Standup
       ├─ Build
       │    └─ Board
       ├─ Knowledge
       │    ├─ Wiki
       │    ├─ Discussions
       │    └─ Documents
       └─ Time Tracking
Workspace Beta
  └─ Project Mobile App
       ├─ Plan
       │    └─ ...
       └─ ...

Workspaces are your top-level organizations. Expand a workspace to see its projects.

Projects sit one level down. Expand a project to see its feature sections.

Sections group related features: Plan, Build, and Knowledge. These expand automatically when you open a project.

Feature items are the leaf nodes. Click one to open its webview panel as an editor tab.

Opening the Sidebar

Click the GitScrum icon in the Activity Bar (the vertical strip on the far left of your editor). The icon resembles the GitScrum logo.

If the sidebar is already visible, clicking the icon again toggles it. You can also open it from the Command Palette with GitScrum: Focus on Explorer.

Workspace Navigation

The root level of the tree shows every workspace you belong to. Each workspace displays its name and a folder icon.

• Expand a workspace to load its projects
• Projects appear alphabetically inside the workspace node
• The tree fetches project data on first expansion and caches it for the session

If you belong to multiple workspaces (for example, your company workspace and a client workspace), both appear at the root level.

Project Navigation

Click a project node to expand it into feature sections. The sections correspond to the sidebar groups you see in the GitScrum web application:

Time Tracking appears as a standalone feature outside the sections.

The feature list for each project comes from the GitScrum API, which means it reflects your project's enabled features and your permissions.

Opening Feature Panels

Click any feature node to open its panel:

• Board → Opens the Kanban board in an editor tab
• Sprints → Opens the sprint list and detail view
• User Stories → Opens the user story list
• Team Standup → Opens the async standup panel
• Wiki → Opens the wiki tree and editor
• Discussions → Opens the discussion channels
• Documents → Opens the file browser
• Time Tracking → Opens the time tracking dashboard

Each feature opens in a separate editor tab. You can split, stack, pin, or close them like any other tab.

Header Actions

The Explorer view title bar includes three buttons:

The Create Project and Refresh buttons are only visible when you are authenticated. The Sign Out button replaces the Sign In button after authentication.

Context Menu Actions

Right-click a project node to access context actions:

• Project Settings — Opens the project settings page in your browser (only visible to Agency Owners)

Context menu actions vary based on your role. Standard members see a simplified menu.

Tree Behavior

Caching

The sidebar caches workspace and project lists after the first load. Feature sections for each project are cached after the first expansion. Click the Refresh button to force a reload.

Auto-Expand

Section nodes (Plan, Build, Knowledge) expand automatically when you open a project, so features are immediately visible without extra clicks.

Multiple Workspaces

If you have access to many workspaces, the tree supports up to 52 workspaces at the root level. Projects within each workspace load on demand.

Pro Tips (Once You Are Comfortable)

• Collapse All: Use the collapse icon in the view header to collapse every open workspace and project. This is handy when you switch context between workspaces.

• Keyboard navigation: Use arrow keys to navigate the tree. Press Enter to open a feature panel. Press Space to expand/collapse nodes.

• Pin your board: After opening a Board tab from the sidebar, right-click the tab and select "Pin Tab." It will stay open across editor sessions.

Permissions

The Explorer tree respects your GitScrum account permissions:

• Agency Owners: See all workspaces, all projects, and the Project Settings context menu action
• Managers: See workspaces and projects they have access to
• Developers: See projects they are assigned to
• Clients: See projects where they have been granted access

If a workspace or project does not appear, verify your access in the GitScrum web application.

How to Report a Problem or Request a Feature

If the sidebar does not load, shows incorrect data, or you have suggestions for improvements, submit feedback through GitScrum Studio.

In the Sidebar of the web application, click on Support Tickets and open a ticket describing your experience.