I'd like a way to cycle through dock panels

[jvatic]

Similar to how we have pane::ActivatePreviousNextItem and pane::ActivateNextItem that can be attached to a keybinding in panes such as Editor and Terminal, I'd like to have a way of navigating between dock panels.

I'd incorrectly thought that panel::PreviousPanelTab and panel::NextPanelTab served this function, but this appears to not be the case (see discord).

I do have a work-around that's too specific for my liking, is only for the first three panels (given how they're arranged in my left dock), and doesn't get priority unless I change the prefix to ctrl-shift- (there may be some more context I can configure to raise the priority?) edit: updated workaround based on answer below:

  {
    "context": "ProjectPanel",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-h": "outline_panel::ToggleFocus",
      "ctrl-l": "git_panel::ToggleFocus",
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "GitPanel || (GitPanel > Editor)",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-h": "project_panel::ToggleFocus",
      "ctrl-l": "outline_panel::ToggleFocus",
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "OutlinePanel || (OutlinePanel > Editor)",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-h": "git_panel::ToggleFocus",
      "ctrl-l": "project_panel::ToggleFocus",
    }
  }

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to use ctrl-w-{h,l,j,k} to jump between regions (as is currently the default, at least in vim mode), and ctrl-{h,l} to cycle through tabs in each region, including the dock panels (which is the only region I'm currently unable to map to these key bindings). It's often a lot easier for me to decide which direction to go than it is to remember a specific/unique keybinding for the destination, and while I wouldn't want things like project search, diagnostics, and language servers to be included in such panel navigation (those icons don't change the contents of the dock, despite being located right next to ones that do), it'd be intuitive for me if I could cycle through the dock panels without having to name them (especially since they can be moved between docks).

Edit: This should include the bottom dock also (Terminal and Debug).

[FloppyDisco]

@jvatic

this seems really interesting to me.

I'm just thinking about how one could implement something like this.
and whether or not it is possible with the current context and actions.

right now i don't think there is an action to move focus to whatever panel happens to be in the (left | bottom | right) dock
which i think is basically the first bit you would need to do something like this.

the workspace::ActivatePane<Direction> commands move me around and move focus to the dock.

i was trying to come up with a way of having these same keybindings open the dock if it is currently closed, which i thought would be cool as well. but since there is no way of knowing when we are in the furthest left pane with context. the keybinding is not behaving great. (it will first open the dock regardless of which pane you are in)

and i'm also pretty confident that there is not an action to cycle through the panels that are in a specific dock.
so currently the only way to do this would be to hard code some values in your keybindings like you have done here.

you mentioned that ctrl-h and ctrl-l were not getting the correct priority to toggle your the panels?
i tested with some similar keybindings that use ctrl-tab and ctrl-shift-tab and they seem to be working for me.

can you send some screen shots of the key context viewer after pressing ctrl-h and ctrl-l in the dock to see what it's matching?

[jvatic]

Great, thanks @FloppyDisco! The > syntax is what I was missing.

[dzervas]

@jvatic sorry for the off-topic but: how did you get that inspection view that shows the current context?

[jvatic]

@dzervas search for key context view in the command palette ^

[irl231]

@jvatic can you share the keymaps for this? 👀

[jvatic]

@irl231 yup! I've updated the workaround in the original post above