Notes sidebar persists in Code Editor mode but lacks block reference

[karthick-murugan]

Description

When switching to Code Editor mode, the Notes sidebar remains visible. However, this creates confusion and functional limitations:

• It is unclear which block the notes are associated with, since the visual block structure is not available in Code Editor view.
• The Add Notes button is missing because the Block Toolbar is not accessible in this mode.
• As a result, users are unable to add new notes or clearly identify the block context of existing notes.

Expected behavior

When in Code Editor mode the Notes sidebar should either be hidden or clearly indicate that block-level commenting is unavailable.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Open the post or page editor.
2. Add a few blocks with or without Notes
3. Enable the Notes sidebar.
4. Switch to Code Editor mode.
5. Observe the following:
   • The Notes sidebar remains visible.
   • Notes are listed, but it’s unclear which block they refer to.
   • The Add Notes option is unavailable since the Block Toolbar is hidden.

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

REC-20251030145940.mp4

Environment info

No response

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

• Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

• Yes

Please confirm which theme type you used for testing.

• Block
• Classic
• Hybrid (e.g. classic with theme.json)
• Not sure

cc @Mamaduka

[Mamaduka]

Thanks, @karthick-murugan!

Enabling Code Editor should probably switch to the default sidebar and disable Notes. Tentatively adding this to the WP 6.9 board, but it's not a blocker.

P.S. Interestingly, the Global Styles sidebar is always available when code editing mode is enabled. @youknowriad, do you remember if this was an intentional choice?

[youknowriad]

I don't know whether that was intentional but maybe the question is more global. Maybe no sidebar is relevant in "core editor".

[jeffpaul]

I concur that hiding/disabling the Notes (and perhaps Global Styles) sidebar seems optimal when in the Code Editor mode.

[desrosj]

I concur that hiding/disabling the Notes (and perhaps Global Styles) sidebar seems optimal when in the Code Editor mode.

Agreed. When a user enters Code Editor mode, they are essentially saying that they want to manually edit the content all-encompassing. All panels but the post settings panel should probably be disabled.