feat(kilo-chat): auto-open chat conversations

[evanjacobson]

Summary

Kilo Chat could leave users sitting on an empty root screen even when a conversation was available or could be created for them. This updates the chat landing flow to open the latest conversation or create an empty one when appropriate, while preserving an explicit suppression path for cases like leaving an active conversation.

The implementation follows the existing React Query and component-state patterns in Kilo Chat: conversation creation remains routed through the shared mutation/cache helpers, and the sidebar now surfaces history and pagination failures with retry affordances.

Additional details

• Adds root landing decision helpers and tests for auto-open, auto-create, suppression, and stale mutation-result handling.
• Extends conversation list UI state to cover history and pagination errors without blocking manual conversation creation.
• Allows useConversations callers to opt into refetchOnMount: 'always' for fresh root landing decisions.

Verification

• Not manually verified yet; opened as a draft PR for review.

Visual Changes

Not captured yet. This changes Kilo Chat root navigation behavior and sidebar error/retry states.

Reviewer Notes

Focus areas: root landing edge cases, suppression after leaving a conversation, and stale create-conversation results when switching sandboxes or routes.

[kilo-code-bot]

Code Review Summary

Status: No Issues Found | Recommendation: Merge

Executive Summary

The previously flagged vi.mock violation in use-conversations-options.test.ts has been resolved by deleting that test file; no remaining issues across all reviewed files.

Files Reviewed (9 files)

• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/components/ConversationList.tsx
• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/components/KiloChatConversationPage.tsx
• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/components/KiloChatLayout.tsx
• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/components/chat-root-selection-state.ts
• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/components/chat-root-selection-state.test.ts
• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/components/conversation-list-state.test.ts
• apps/web/src/app/(app)/claw/kilo-chat/hooks/useConversations.ts
• packages/kilo-chat-hooks/src/use-conversations.ts
• packages/kilo-chat-hooks/src/use-conversations-options.test.ts — deleted (resolved WARNING: vi.mock violation)

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_{Reviewed by claude-4.6-sonnet-20260217 · 371,641 tokens}

_{Review guidance: REVIEW.md from base branch main}