eleven / messenger Public

web: offer New group when alone in the space (#1244)

* web: offer New group when alone in the space (open groups made it possible)

The sheet-head gate hid the New group toggle unless the roster held someone
else — a rule from before open groups existed. The group view itself has
allowed a solo open group for a while (create enables when the Open box is
ticked), Discover's empty state starts one, and both native apps offer New
group unconditionally — only this web entry point still had the stale gate.
Now offered whenever creating could succeed: people to pick, or the
instance key that lets an open group start with just its creator.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* web: solo group view — don't early-return into the invite empty state

The mode-blind !others.length branch bailed before the group inputs
rendered, so the unhidden New group toggle led to the invite empty state
(name/Open/create never shown). Scope it: fall through in group mode when
the instance key is here; hide the Search box over an empty roster.

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Paul Campbell 3 months ago 6eb832f52b82b4ac53b58560a2d0eac4763f2391 parent 8681004

2 files changed, +15 −2

changelog/2026-07-21-solo-open-group.md +4 −0
web/static/newchat.js +11 −2

diff --git a/changelog/2026-07-21-solo-open-group.md b/changelog/2026-07-21-solo-open-group.md

new file mode 100644

index 0000000..044a361

--- /dev/null

+++ b/changelog/2026-07-21-solo-open-group.md

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@

+🤖 You can now start a group even when you're the only person in your space —

+choose New group, tick "Open group", and it's there under Discover for

+everyone who joins later. Before, the New group button only appeared once

+somebody else had joined.

diff --git a/web/static/newchat.js b/web/static/newchat.js

index 143c473..72779c0 100644

--- a/web/static/newchat.js

+++ b/web/static/newchat.js

@@ -165,7 +165,10 @@ export function showNewChat(startMode) {

// Secondary actions for the default "people" view: switch to a group, and — when

// the admin allows it — invite someone new to the server.

if (mode === "people") {

- if (others.length) {

+ // Offered whenever creating could succeed: people to pick, OR the

+ // instance key that lets an open group start with just its creator

+ // (the others-only gate predates open groups; native never had it).

+ if (others.length || instanceKey) {

const toggle = document.createElement("button");

toggle.className = "linkish";

toggle.textContent = "New group";

@@ -253,7 +256,11 @@ const disc = document.createElement("button");

return;

}

- if (!others.length) {

+ // Nobody else here yet: the people picker has nothing to offer, so show

+ // the invite empty state — EXCEPT in group mode with the instance key,

+ // where an open group can start with just its creator; fall through to

+ // the real group view (name, Open toggle, create).

+ if (!others.length && !(mode === "group" && instanceKey)) {

const p = document.createElement("p");

p.className = "sub";

if (verbs.inviteAllowed()) {

@@ -393,6 +400,8 @@ const disc = document.createElement("button");

const filter = document.createElement("input");

filter.placeholder = "Search";

filter.className = "sheet-input";

+ // A search box over nobody (the solo open-group path) is just confusing.

+ if (!others.length) filter.style.display = "none";

card.appendChild(filter);

const list = document.createElement("div");