feat(lightspeed): Add Escape key to cycle through display modes

[its-mitesh-kumar]

Description

• Adds Escape key functionality to cycle through chatbot display modes
• Pressing Escape transitions: Fullscreen → Docked → Overlay → Close (FAB only)
• Settings dropdown closes on first Escape; display mode cycles on subsequent presses
• Works correctly across all display modes without breaking existing functionality

UI after changes

Screen.Recording.2026-01-27.at.10.42.18.PM.mov

Fixes

• Fixed https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHDHBUGS-2490

✔️ Checklist

• A changeset describing the change and affected packages. (more info)
• Added or Updated documentation
• Tests for new functionality and regression tests for bug fixes
• Screenshots attached (for UI changes)

[its-mitesh-kumar]

/cc @HusneShabbir @aprilma419

[rhdh-gh-app]

Changed Packages

Package Name	Package Path	Changeset Bump	Current Version
@red-hat-developer-hub/backstage-plugin-lightspeed	workspaces/lightspeed/plugins/lightspeed	patch	v1.2.2

[HusneShabbir]

I've observed a deviation where using the keyboard's Escape key to exit the chat actions menu impacts the Lightspeed display mode. This issue occurs most of the time and is reproducible. Please find the attached recording for reference.

Screen.Recording.2026-01-27.at.11.53.54.PM.mov

[HusneShabbir]

@aprilma419 what’s your take on the above observation?

[aprilma419]

@HusneShabbir looks good, didn't see any issues so far IMO

[karthikjeeyar]

Good job! I have a suggestion on finding the open modals, PTAL

[karthikjeeyar]

This is a brittle implementation and could break if MUI class names are changed or if we start using BUI instead of MUI.

const hasOpenModal = document.querySelector('.MuiDialog-root');

[karthikjeeyar]

This is related to my previous comment.

Can you use similar approach to track if the rename/delete/attachment modals are open so that you can use that information to see if any modals are open, rather than relying on className .MuiDialog-root ?

pseudo code:

  const [openModals, setOpenModals] = useState<Set<string>>(new Set());

 const openModal = useCallback((modalId: string) => {
    setOpenModals(prev => new Set(prev).add(modalId));
  }, []);

  const closeModal = useCallback((modalId: string) => {
    setOpenModals(prev => {
      const next = new Set(prev);
      next.delete(modalId);
      return next;
    });
    

Then context can expose method and properties like openModal, closeModal, hasOpenModals etc, so that you can use this to decide whether to perform any action or not.

[karthikjeeyar]

The above code can become complex, see my latest comment below, we dont need to maintain modalIds instead we can have a simple boolean to track if there any nestedModals Open and based on that we can avoid closing the main chatbot.

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

[karthikjeeyar]

Is this a new feature pressing escape to cycle through display mode? I can see this works only once, if you again go to the fullscreen for the second round and pressing escape does nothing, is this expected?

More over I can still reproduce the issue outlined in this https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHDHBUGS-2490 ticket. If I open a rename modal (from overlay mode) and press Escape it is closing the chatbot.

[karthikjeeyar]

I had taken a closer look at the code changes.

When Escape is pressed on nested modals (DeleteModal, Rename, Attachment Modals etc), the event bubbles to the parent ChatbotModal, causing closeChatbot() to run and close the entire chatbot instead of just the nested modal.

I would expect closeChatbot should early return the escape events when any of the modals are open. IMO we should not mix feature and bug fix in a PR as this could become problematic especially when you want to backport a fix to earlier backstage version, I would keep create two PRs one for bug fix and one for the display cycle feature (if we want this).

[debsmita1]

I agree with @karthikjeeyar. Let’s avoid over-complicating the Esc key behavior. Since display mode selection is now persisted, cycling through display modes on Esc would unnecessarily complicate that logic. Instead, pressing Esc should first close any open modal or the Lightspeed settings dropdown; pressing it again should close the chatbot

cc @aprilma419