Task name in sidebar and on the task list differs

Please take a look at these screenshots. The first one shows the full task list with 3 tasks:

And the second shows the same 3 tasks listed in the sidebar in the details view of one of the tasks.

As you can see, the names are completely different and none of the views shows both naming conventions. The name used in the sidebar are also used on the workspace list view.

Recommendation:

use the same task naming convention on both screens: task view and task details view in the sidebar
do not use the workspace name as-is as the primary name -> it always starts with "task" and ends with an identifier making the name ugly
in both cases of sidebar and full task list use the shortened name but without the prefix and suffix and all the dashes
as a hover-over action over the task name display a tooltip with: (1) workspace name and (2) the prompt (first N characters)

Task created: https://dev.coder.com/tasks/bartek/traiage-gh-20455-18777498906

fix: consistent task naming across all views

As part of this issue:

A new “Display Name” attribute will be introduced for tasks:
- This will serve as a user-friendly, readable name for each task.
- It will be generated by Claude, similar to how the current task name is generated.
- The task name and display name should be as similar as possible to help users easily identify which workspace belongs to which task.
- As a result, the task- prefix will be removed from task names (and consequently workspace names) to maintain closer similarity between the two.
- The display name will be the name shown across all task views.
In the workspace view, workspaces linked to tasks will include a small icon to visually identify them as Tasks.

More context is available in the internal Slack thread and meeting notes.

PR #20918 updates the tasks list view to show the display name, and it also updates the task view so the sidebar uses the display name as well.

There was a question in that PR about whether the task name shown in the top bar should also be switched to the display name (discussion here: #20918 (comment)). That led to the internal Slack thread here: https://codercom.slack.com/archives/C0992H8HGCS/p1764086497375829

Edit: this was addressed in #20957

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Task name in sidebar and on the task list differs #20455

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Task name in sidebar and on the task list differs #20455

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github-actions commented on Oct 24, 2025

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