Bind Cmd+[ / Cmd+] to back/forward in the desktop app

[RhysSullivan]

Problem

In the desktop app, the standard macOS back/forward shortcuts (Cmd+[ and Cmd+]) do nothing. The window loads the web shell, which navigates with browser history (TanStack Router pushState). On the web the browser chrome handles those keys, but inside the Electron window there is no chrome, and the application menu is built entirely from Electron roles (editMenu, viewMenu, windowMenu), none of which carry Back or Forward. Electron binds none of these shortcuts by default, so the keys were dead.

Fix

Add a History menu with Back (Cmd+[) and Forward (Cmd+]), Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] on Windows and Linux, that drives the focused window's webContents.navigationHistory. The canGoBack / canGoForward guards make the keys no-ops at the ends of the history stack, matching how they behave in a browser. This follows the existing pattern in the same file where an explicit File menu was added purely to bind the Cmd+W close accelerator. It also places these shortcuts where Safari and Chrome put them.

Verification

• bun run typecheck (apps/desktop), oxlint with --deny-warnings, and oxfmt --check all pass.
• This is a native menu accelerator, so it is not exercised by the web e2e harness. Manual check: open the app, navigate between a few views, then press Cmd+[ to go back and Cmd+] to go forward.

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR adds a History menu to the Electron application menu, binding Cmd+[ / Cmd+] (macOS) and Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] (Windows/Linux) to back/forward navigation. Because the desktop window has no browser chrome, these shortcuts were previously dead keys despite the web shell using TanStack Router's pushState for navigation.

• Adds a navigateHistory helper that retrieves BrowserWindow.getFocusedWindow()?.webContents.navigationHistory at click time and calls goBack()/goForward() guarded by canGoBack()/canGoForward().
• Inserts a historyMenu between viewMenu and windowMenu, matching the History menu position in Safari and Chrome.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Safe to merge — a small, self-contained menu addition with no shared state and graceful null-checks at every step.

The change touches only the application menu construction function and introduces no new async logic, IPC channels, or shared state. The navigationHistory API is stable in Electron 41 (introduced in Electron 30). The canGo* guards prevent calls at history boundaries, and the optional-chaining on getFocusedWindow() prevents crashes when no window is focused. The accelerators don't conflict with any existing role-based shortcuts.

No files require special attention.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
apps/desktop/src/main/index.ts	Adds History menu with Back/Forward accelerators using the Electron 30+ webContents.navigationHistory API, which is available in the project's Electron 41. Logic and guards are correct.

Sequence Diagram

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant NativeMenu as Native Menu (macOS/Win/Linux)
    participant ClickHandler as click: navigateHistory()
    participant BW as BrowserWindow.getFocusedWindow()
    participant NavHistory as webContents.navigationHistory

    User->>NativeMenu: Press Cmd+[ or Cmd+]
    NativeMenu->>ClickHandler: trigger accelerator
    ClickHandler->>BW: getFocusedWindow()
    BW-->>ClickHandler: "window | null"
    alt no focused window
        ClickHandler-->>NativeMenu: return (no-op)
    else window focused
        ClickHandler->>NavHistory: canGoBack() / canGoForward()
        NavHistory-->>ClickHandler: "true | false"
        alt can navigate
            ClickHandler->>NavHistory: goBack() / goForward()
            NavHistory-->>User: browser history navigated
        else at history boundary
            ClickHandler-->>NativeMenu: return (no-op)
        end
    end

Loading

%%{init: {'theme': 'base', 'themeVariables': {"darkMode": true, "background": "#0d1117", "primaryColor": "#21262d", "primaryTextColor": "#e6edf3", "primaryBorderColor": "#8b949e", "lineColor": "#8b949e", "textColor": "#e6edf3", "edgeLabelBackground": "#161b22", "actorBkg": "#21262d", "actorBorder": "#8b949e", "actorTextColor": "#e6edf3", "actorLineColor": "#8b949e", "signalColor": "#8b949e", "signalTextColor": "#e6edf3", "noteBkgColor": "#373320", "noteBorderColor": "#d4a72c", "noteTextColor": "#f0e6c0", "labelBoxBkgColor": "#21262d", "labelBoxBorderColor": "#8b949e", "labelTextColor": "#e6edf3", "loopTextColor": "#e6edf3", "activationBkgColor": "#30363d", "activationBorderColor": "#8b949e"}}}%%
sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant NativeMenu as Native Menu (macOS/Win/Linux)
    participant ClickHandler as click: navigateHistory()
    participant BW as BrowserWindow.getFocusedWindow()
    participant NavHistory as webContents.navigationHistory

    User->>NativeMenu: Press Cmd+[ or Cmd+]
    NativeMenu->>ClickHandler: trigger accelerator
    ClickHandler->>BW: getFocusedWindow()
    BW-->>ClickHandler: "window | null"
    alt no focused window
        ClickHandler-->>NativeMenu: return (no-op)
    else window focused
        ClickHandler->>NavHistory: canGoBack() / canGoForward()
        NavHistory-->>ClickHandler: "true | false"
        alt can navigate
            ClickHandler->>NavHistory: goBack() / goForward()
            NavHistory-->>User: browser history navigated
        else at history boundary
            ClickHandler-->>NativeMenu: return (no-op)
        end
    end

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_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "Bind Cmd+[ / Cmd+] to back/forward in th..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

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