New left icon rail is hard to use; please restore the previous navigation (or make it optional) #5360

After updating to 0.46.0, a vertical icon rail now sits on the left edge of the sidebar. In daily use it is much less usable than the previous layout, and I keep getting lost in it.

Current behavior

• The rail is icon-only. Without hovering over each icon, it's unclear what each destination is.
• Navigation is now split across two places (the icon rail and the thread list beside it), which makes it hard to build a mental model of where things live.
• Things that used to be easy to find are now hidden. For example, Updates is only reachable via the gear icon at the bottom of the rail → Settings → Updates, which is not discoverable.
• There is no setting to disable the rail or restore the previous layout. The only workaround I found is third-party plugins.

Expected behavior

One of the following:

1. A setting to restore the previous navigation layout, or
2. A way to hide the rail entirely, or
3. A mode with text labels next to the icons.

Additional context

I use all of the sections the rail exposes (Plugins, Skills, Automations, Taskboard, and so on), so hiding entries is not a real fix for me. The previous version's navigation was clearly better for my workflow. I understand the product direction may have shifted toward other agent providers, but this layout is a regression for users of the Claude Code provider too.

Environment

• bb 0.46.0 (desktop app, macOS)
• Provider: Claude Code