Hey, thanks for the feedback. This isn’t the first request for this, so we can see it’s a common need.
Right now there’s no built-in setting, but as a quick workaround, Cmd+Opt+B on Mac or Ctrl+Alt+B on Windows will instantly close the chat pane.
Also, in this thread How to configure Chat pane not to open at start you mentioned the pane now stays closed when you reopen the workspace. That’s already an improvement compared to before. If the issue is only with the very first open of a new workspace, I’ll pass the feedback to the team, but there’s no ETA for a dedicated setting yet.
Let me know if the workaround helps.