Relative conversation dates never refresh while a window stays open

• Status: Todo
• Kind: Bug
• Authors: jp
• Date: 2026-08-20
• Label: client=macos
• Label: type=bug

A row in the macOS app's conversation list dates itself against WorkspaceWindow.listingReadAt, which is set once when the workspace is read and never again. A row that said 21 minutes ago when the window opened still says it hours later, and a conversation from yesterday keeps a minutes-and-hours label after midnight instead of switching to 2 Aug, because ConversationDate.label picks its branch from a now that stopped moving.

The current behaviour is deliberate and the code says so:

/// The cost is that "21 minutes ago" is 21 minutes after the workspace was
/// opened, not after now.
@State private var listingReadAt = Date()

Taking a fresh Date() per render is not the fix. ConversationList is Equatable and compares now, and a render happens on every frame of a divider drag — a clock that changes each time makes the list unequal to itself and undoes the skipping that keeps the drag smooth.

A timer ticking once a minute and writing listingReadAt keeps that trade intact: the value changes once a minute rather than once a frame, so the equality comparison still skips the list on every drag frame. The row labels are only ever accurate to the minute anyway, so nothing finer is needed.

Found while triaging review feedback on the macOS app PR (dcdpr/jp#1008, comment 3815396254).