Skip to content

⚡️ Feature: Live background operations panel (for deploy, update, scans and download progress) #2415

@Adrian-Grimm

Description

@Adrian-Grimm

Feature Description

Add a centralized background activity view for long-running operations in Arcane.

The goal is to give users a clear overview of what Arcane is currently doing in the background and how far each task has progressed. Examples include image download/update activity, redeploy/deploy progress, and related status messages or output.

This could be implemented as:

  • an activity sidebar,
  • a modal flyout / drawer,
  • or a persistent activity panel accessible from the header.

A Dockge-inspired output UX would work well here, especially if it gives quick visibility into progress and recent messages without forcing the user to navigate away.

Problem It Solves

At the moment, background work can feel a bit opaque.

The current spinning animations are hiding quite a lot of usefull informations and more transparency would be great.

For operations such as downloads, updates, redeploys, or other async actions, it is hard to quickly answer:

  • what is currently running,
  • which project/container/resource is affected,
  • how far the task has progressed,
  • whether it is still active vs stuck,
  • and what the latest status or error message is.

This can lead to uncertainty, repeated clicks, or the impression that nothing is happening while Arcane is still working in the background.

Proposed Solution

Introduce an Activity Center for background tasks.

Core UX

A dedicated UI element (sidebar, flyout, or modal) that lists current and recent background activities.

Each activity entry could show

  • activity type (download, update, deploy, redeploy, restore, prune, scans, etc.)
  • target resource (project, stack, image, container, environment)
  • current status (queued, running, success, failed, cancelled)
  • progress in % if possible
  • current step / sub-step if available
  • latest message / status output
  • start time, end time, and duration

Expanded details

Clicking an activity could expand a more detailed view with:

  • live message output
  • step-by-step progress
  • error details if the task fails
  • final result summary

Nice-to-have behavior

  • badge/count indicator when background work is active
  • recent activity history (not only currently running tasks)
  • filter by running / completed / failed
  • ability to copy activity output for troubleshooting
  • toast notifications linking directly to the relevant activity item

Alternatives Considered

  • Only showing transient toasts
  • Only showing progress inline on the resource page
  • Sending users to logs after the fact

These help partially, but they do not provide one unified overview of all active background work in Arcane.

Additional Context

A first version could focus on the most visible long-running operations:

  1. image pull / download progress
  2. update progress
  3. deploy / redeploy progress
  4. success / failure state with latest message
  5. vulnerability scan progress
  6. recent history of completed tasks

I think this would significantly improve confidence and usability, especially when Arcane is managing multiple actions in parallel.

Would you be willing to work on this feature?

  • Yes, I'd like to implement this feature
  • I could help with parts of this feature
  • No, I'm just suggesting the feature

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

No labels
No labels

Projects

Status

In progress

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions