Add gui.startupPanel config for the initially focused panel

The startup panel was hard-coded to Files unless a positional
argument (lazygit log / branches / stash) or a filter path picked
another one — tig-style users who live in the commits panel had to
type the argument every launch (#5877).

gui.startupPanel now selects the focused side panel for argument-less
launches: one of worktrees, submodules, branches, remotes, tags,
commits, reflog, or stash. CLI arguments and filter paths keep
precedence, an unrecognized value falls back to files, and the
validation lives in a pure normalizeStartupPanel so the accepted
vocabulary is pinned by unit tests.

docs/Config.md

@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ gui:
 
   # If true, increase the height of the focused side window; creating an accordion
   # effect.
+  # The side panel to focus on startup (when no positional argument like
+  # `lazygit log` is given). One of: files, worktrees, submodules, branches,
+  # remotes, tags, commits, reflog, stash. Anything else falls back to files.
+  startupPanel: files
   expandFocusedSidePanel: false
 
   # The weight of the expanded side panel, relative to the other panels. 2 means

pkg/config/user_config.go

@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@ type GuiConfig struct {
 	ExpandedSidePanelWeight int `yaml:"expandedSidePanelWeight"`
 	// If true, don't give a side panel more height than it needs to show its content; when all panels fit, the leftover height is shared among them so that they still fill the screen.
 	ShrinkSidePanelsToContent bool `yaml:"shrinkSidePanelsToContent"`
+	// The side panel to focus on startup, when lazygit is launched without
+	// a positional argument (e.g. `lazygit log`). Valid values are:
+	// 'files', 'worktrees', 'submodules', 'branches', 'remotes', 'tags', 'commits', 'reflog', 'stash'.
+	// An unrecognized value falls back to 'files'.
+	StartupPanel string `yaml:"startupPanel"`
+
 	// The side panels, in the order they appear from top to bottom.
 	// Each entry is a list of one or more names that share a single panel as tabs (cycle through them with the next-tab/previous-tab keys).
 	// Omit a name to hide it; give a name its own one-element list to promote a tab to a top-level panel.

pkg/gui/gui.go

@@ -664,7 +664,7 @@ func (gui *Gui) resetState(startArgs appTypes.StartArgs) types.Context {
 
 	gui.applySidePanelConfig()
 
-	return initialContext(contextTree, startArgs)
+	return initialContext(contextTree, startArgs, gui.Config.GetUserConfig())
 }
 
 func (gui *Gui) loadCachedPullRequests() []*models.GithubPullRequest {
@@ -752,7 +752,19 @@ func parseScreenModeArg(screenModeArg string) types.ScreenMode {
 	}
 }
 
-func initialContext(contextTree *context.ContextTree, startArgs appTypes.StartArgs) types.IListContext {
+// normalizeStartupPanel validates gui.startupPanel: a recognized panel name
+// passes through, and anything else (including the empty string and the
+// default "files", which initialContext already starts on) normalizes to ""
+// so the caller keeps the Files panel (#5877).
+func normalizeStartupPanel(name string) string {
+	switch name {
+	case "worktrees", "submodules", "branches", "remotes", "tags", "commits", "reflog", "stash":
+		return name
+	default:
+		return ""
+	}
+}
+func initialContext(contextTree *context.ContextTree, startArgs appTypes.StartArgs, userConfig *config.UserConfig) types.IListContext {
 	var initialContext types.IListContext = contextTree.Files
 
 	if startArgs.FilterPath != "" {
@@ -770,8 +782,28 @@ func initialContext(contextTree *context.ContextTree, startArgs appTypes.StartAr
 		default:
 			panic("unhandled git arg")
 		}
+	} else if panel := normalizeStartupPanel(userConfig.Gui.StartupPanel); panel != "" {
+		// An explicit config wins over the default Files panel when no CLI
+		// argument selected one (#5877); anything unrecognized stays on Files.
+		switch panel {
+		case "worktrees":
+			initialContext = contextTree.Worktrees
+		case "submodules":
+			initialContext = contextTree.Submodules
+		case "branches":
+			initialContext = contextTree.Branches
+		case "remotes":
+			initialContext = contextTree.Remotes
+		case "tags":
+			initialContext = contextTree.Tags
+		case "commits":
+			initialContext = contextTree.LocalCommits
+		case "reflog":
+			initialContext = contextTree.ReflogCommits
+		case "stash":
+			initialContext = contextTree.Stash
+		}
 	}
-
 	return initialContext
 }
 

pkg/gui/initial_context_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+package gui
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+// normalizeStartupPanel is the validation half of gui.startupPanel (#5877):
+// recognized names pass through, everything else (empty, "files" — the
+// default the caller already starts on — and typos) normalizes to "" so the
+// Files panel stays focused.
+func TestNormalizeStartupPanel(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, name := range []string{
+		"worktrees", "submodules", "branches", "remotes",
+		"tags", "commits", "reflog", "stash",
+	} {
+		assert.Equal(t, name, normalizeStartupPanel(name), name)
+	}
+	for _, name := range []string{"", "files", "status", "Files", "commit", "nonsense"} {
+		assert.Equal(t, "", normalizeStartupPanel(name), name)
+	}
+}
+
+// The wiring half: initialContext consults the config only when no CLI
+// argument selected a panel, and each recognized name selects the matching
+// tree field. Source-structural pin (the repo's established pattern for
+// context-graph assertions) because building a real ContextTree requires the
+// full view harness.
+func TestInitialContextWiring(t *testing.T) {
+	b, err := os.ReadFile("gui.go")
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	source := string(b)
+
+	assert.Contains(t, source,
+		"} else if panel := normalizeStartupPanel(userConfig.Gui.StartupPanel); panel != \"\" {",
+		"the config branch must come after the FilterPath/GitArg branches so CLI arguments win")
+	assert.Contains(t, source,
+		"initialContext(contextTree, startArgs, gui.Config.GetUserConfig())",
+		"the caller must pass the user config through")
+
+	for _, pair := range [][2]string{
+		{"worktrees", "contextTree.Worktrees"},
+		{"submodules", "contextTree.Submodules"},
+		{"branches", "contextTree.Branches"},
+		{"remotes", "contextTree.Remotes"},
+		{"tags", "contextTree.Tags"},
+		{"commits", "contextTree.LocalCommits"},
+		{"reflog", "contextTree.ReflogCommits"},
+		{"stash", "contextTree.Stash"},
+	} {
+		assert.Contains(t, source,
+			"case \""+pair[0]+"\":\n\t\t\tinitialContext = "+pair[1],
+			"startupPanel "+pair[0]+" must select "+pair[1])
+	}
+}