Power Strip Overview

Power Strip is ThinkForge's floating desktop command bar. It stays available above other applications and provides fast access to capture actions, project tools, sidecar panels, agents, automations, and Chrome-aware commands.

Power Strip is a desktop surface. It is not an in-page browser bar.

What Power Strip Does

Power Strip combines several kinds of commands in one always-on-top window:

  • Direct actions such as Quick Note, Save Clipboard, Search Memory, Open Project, and Tasks
  • Sidecar panels for Recents, AI Activity, Smart Clipboard, Pinned items, folders, agents, automations, workspaces, document search, and shortcuts
  • Drop targets that save content or run tools
  • Chrome-aware commands that appear while Chrome is the foreground application
  • Configurable agent hooks that can run before or after supported actions

The default toolbar contains nine commands: Quick Note, Voice to Text, Save Clipboard, Toggle Floating Navigator, Search Memory, Open Project, Tasks, Drop File, and Recents. There are 31 commands available in total.

Desktop Surface and Chrome Commands

Power Strip remains a desktop window when Chrome is active. It does not move into the page and does not become a separate browser strip. Instead, Power Strip reveals its browser command buttons when Chrome is the foreground application.

Browser command visibility is based on the foreground application, not on extension connection state. The buttons can be visible while the extension is disconnected. Using one in that state reports that Chrome is not connected.

The browser command set includes saving and tagging a chat, capturing a page or selection, moving between conversation pairs, opening Personas or Template, requesting Dockit, and running an agent or automation on the current page. See Browser Commands for command-specific status and limitations.

Commands, Slots, and Bindings

Each toolbar entry is a command slot. A slot points to a command and can carry its own binding or settings.

Examples include:

  • A Folder slot bound to a project folder
  • An Agent slot bound to a deployed agent
  • An Automation slot bound to a deployed automation
  • A browser capture slot with its own capture and save settings
  • A supported action with before or after agent hooks

Some commands can be added more than once: Folder, Agent, Automation, and Browser Agent. Additional instances become child slots in a stack associated with a parent toolbar position.

Global Hotkeys

Power Strip supports Windows-global hotkeys for toggling the strip and invoking configured top-level command slots. The defaults are Win+Shift+P for Toggle Power Strip and Win+Shift+F for the first Toggle Floating Navigator slot. A hotkey invokes the same path as clicking its command, including settings and before or after Tool hooks.

Edit bindings under Settings → Hotkeys → Power Strip, or right-click an assignable top-level command and choose Assign Global Hotkey.... Drop-only commands and stacked child slots are not assignable.

Display and Position

Power Strip supports vertical and horizontal layouts. Its display modes are:

  • Full — normal command buttons
  • Compact — smaller command buttons
  • Peek — a collapsed handle that expands while engaged

A global visibility toggle can hide Power Strip entirely.

The strip can be dragged and can snap to a nearby screen edge. Position clamping and reset use the primary screen, so placement across multiple monitors is more limited than sidecar placement.

Foreground-App Behavior

Power Strip watches the foreground application and requires two consistent observations before switching app context. It ignores ThinkForge's own windows and selected Windows shell processes, so interacting with Power Strip does not immediately change the active profile.

Power Strip keeps a profile per application plus a wildcard default. When the foreground application changes, it restores:

  • Position
  • Display mode
  • Locked state
  • Vertical or horizontal orientation
  • Idle opacity and full opacity during external drag
  • Browser-command visibility appropriate to that application

Preview behavior and sidecar policy are read from the current app profile when used. Command arrangements do not switch live per application.

Sidecars

A sidecar is a compact panel that opens next to Power Strip. Opening the active panel again closes it; opening another panel swaps the content. The panel opens on the left when space allows and otherwise on the right.

Close behavior can be inherited from the app profile or overridden per sidecar:

  • Stay open
  • Close after the primary item action
  • Close after a successful action
  • Close when focus is lost

Panel capabilities vary. Some support drops, some support dragging items out, and some are execution or status surfaces only. See Sidecar Panels for what each panel actually does.

Agents, Automations, and Activity

Agent and Automation buttons can run deployed tools without input. They can also accept dropped files, folders, or text as execution context. Browser Agent and browser Automation first request context from the active Chrome tab.

Supported commands can have a before or after agent hook. A before hook runs ahead of the main action but does not rewrite or replace it. An after hook receives the outcome available for that action.

The fixed Activity bell after the drag handle opens run-centered cards for Agent execution and ordinary Power Strip results. A running card updates in place with progress, elapsed time, steps, and available output or error detail. Closing the cards does not stop work; the bell retains running or unread state. Activity can follow Power Strip or use the upper-left or upper-right corner of the same screen. The optional AI Activity sidecar is separate and shows recent successful MCP document operations. See Agents and Automations, AI Activity Sidecar, and Customization.

Requirements

Power Strip requires the ThinkForge desktop app, since it is part of that application. Local commands do not require Chrome.

Chrome commands additionally require the Think Forge extension and its desktop connection on localhost:19222.