Sidebar AI Chatbot panel resets/reloads when closed and reopened instead of preserving state

[ppmdaz]

Expected behavior:
The chatbot panel should preserve its previous state — the same conversation should still be loaded, similar to how a pinned tab or a normal browser tab retains its content when hidden and shown again.

Actual behavior:
The panel reloads from scratch, as if a full page refresh (F5) had occurred. The user has to manually search for and reopen the previous conversation every time the sidebar is closed and reopened, even if it was only closed briefly (e.g., to make more room on screen).

Why this matters:
The sidebar AI panel is visually and functionally similar to a tab, so users expect tab-like persistence. Losing session state every time the sidebar is toggled makes the feature frustrating to use for any extended conversation, and discourages closing the sidebar even temporarily.

Suggested fix:
Treat the sidebar AI panel like a persistent tab/session (keep it alive in the background, similar to how normal tabs work) rather than destroying and recreating it each time the sidebar is closed and reopened.

[Jon]

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