feat(§8.12/§8.3): main-view Ask cuts an edit branch and runs the question there (v0.54.0)

The AI "Ask" affordance (selection tooltip + prompt bar) had no response
surface on an entry's canonical `main` view: RFCView renders the human-
discussion panel there, not the chat panel, so a chat turn posted from the
reading view had nowhere to render — asking-while-reading silently did
nothing. AI chat is an editing activity (a turn can emit <change> proposals)
and only runs on an edit branch.

Option B: when Ask is invoked from main, transparently cut an edit branch via
the same dispatch as Start Contributing (promote-to-branch for active,
start-edit-branch for super-draft; idempotent — reuse an existing edit
branch), navigate onto it so the chat panel mounts, and run the question
(text + selected quote) as the branch's first chat turn once its view and
main_thread_id resolve. The turn fires from the message-load effect's
continuation (not a parallel effect) so a late message load can't clobber the
optimistic turn; a live ref keeps the latest submitChatTurn closure in reach.

Degrades gracefully: signed-out → login; a viewer who can't contribute has the
cut rejected server-side and the error surfaced (no spurious branch); asking
from a branch already, and Flag on main (human discussion thread), unchanged.

Frontend-only; the branch chat endpoints already work on a branch. SPEC §8.3
records the behavior; new RFCView unit tests + an e2e spec cover the flow.
backend 677 / frontend 66 / e2e 5 green.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -23,6 +23,35 @@ skip versions are the composition of each intervening adjacent
 release's steps in order — no A-to-B path is pre-computed beyond
 that.
 
+## 0.54.0 — 2026-06-09
+
+**Minor — the AI "Ask" affordance now works from an entry's canonical view
+(§8.12); no operator action required.**
+
+AI chat is an editing activity (a turn can emit proposed edits) and only runs
+on an edit branch. On an entry's canonical `main` view the right column is the
+human-discussion panel, not the chat panel — so invoking "Ask" (the selection
+tooltip or the prompt bar) from the reading view pushed a chat turn that had
+nowhere to render: it silently did nothing. Surfaced by dogfooding a non-default
+project's spec entry on a live deployment.
+
+- **Asking while reading "just works" (Option B).** When Ask is invoked from
+  the canonical view, the app transparently cuts an edit branch via the same
+  dispatch as Start Contributing (`start-edit-branch` for a super-draft,
+  `promote-to-branch` for an active RFC — idempotent, so it reuses an existing
+  edit branch rather than double-cutting), navigates onto that branch so the
+  chat panel mounts, and runs the question (text + the selected quote) there
+  once the branch's chat thread has resolved. The viewer lands in the chat with
+  the streaming answer, quote intact.
+- **Graceful degradation.** A signed-out viewer keeps the read-only path
+  (sign-in prompt; Ask disabled) and a viewer who cannot contribute has the
+  branch cut rejected server-side and the error surfaced — no silent no-op and
+  no spurious branch. Asking from a branch already, and Flag on the canonical
+  view (which still opens a human discussion thread), are unchanged.
+
+Frontend-only: the branch chat endpoints already worked on a branch. No
+database migration and no configuration change.
+
 ## 0.53.0 — 2026-06-09
 
 **Minor — the branch/edit/body subsystem is now three-tier (project /

SPEC.md

@@ -1022,6 +1022,20 @@ the user on it in contribute mode. New-branch naming defaults to an
 auto-generated value (user-renamable); the exact format is an
 implementation detail.
 
+The AI chat is an editing activity — a turn can emit `<change>`
+proposals — so it runs on an edit branch, not on read-only main, whose
+right column is the human-discussion surface (§8.12 is branch-scoped).
+Invoking the AI **Ask** affordance (the selection tooltip's prompt, or
+the prompt bar) from main therefore transparently cuts an edit branch
+via the same dispatch as "Start Contributing" (promote-to-branch for an
+active RFC, start-edit-branch for a super-draft per §9.5; idempotent, so
+an existing edit branch is reused rather than a second one cut), lands
+the user on it, and runs the question — text plus any selected quote —
+as the branch's first chat turn. A viewer who cannot contribute has the
+branch cut rejected and the error surfaced (no branch is created); a
+signed-out viewer keeps the §8.7 read-only path. **Flag** from main is
+unaffected — it opens a human discussion thread on main, not a branch.
+
 Discuss vs. contribute is an *intent* affordance, not a *permission*
 affordance. A user without contribute access to a branch sees the
 toggle disabled, with a sign-in or request-access path (see §8.7).

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.53.0
+0.54.0

e2e/main-view-ask.spec.js

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+import { test, expect } from './lib/fixtures.js'
+import { signIn, OWNER_EMAIL } from './lib/auth.js'
+import { dismissCookies } from './lib/ui.js'
+
+// §8.12 Option B — asking-while-reading on the canonical `main` view.
+//
+// Before this fix, the AI "Ask" affordance had no chat surface on main (the
+// human-discussion panel renders there, not the chat panel), so asking from the
+// reading view silently did nothing. Option B transparently cuts an edit branch,
+// navigates to it, and runs the question there.
+//
+// This spec asserts the model-independent core: the branch cut + navigation
+// (old code did NOTHING here — the silent no-op), and that the question turn
+// actually FIRED against the branch. The turn's outcome is environment-specific
+// — PPE/prod (a model is configured) streams an answer and the optimistic
+// question persists; the Tier-1 stack has no AI provider, so the turn errors
+// with "Chat failed". Either outcome proves the turn fired; we match both so the
+// one spec passes in both environments. The quote-passthrough + answer rendering
+// are covered deterministically by the RFCView unit tests (model mocked).
+//
+// Driven through the prompt bar, which shares handlePrompt → handleMainAsk with
+// the selection tooltip's onAsk. Runs against the faceted `bdd` collection entry
+// (collection-scoped — the same three-tier path G-15 hardened).
+const ENTRY = '/p/ohm/c/bdd/e/checkout-returning'
+
+test('Ask from the canonical view cuts an edit branch and lands the question in chat', async ({ page }) => {
+  await signIn(page, OWNER_EMAIL)
+  await page.goto(ENTRY)
+  await dismissCookies(page)
+
+  // We start on the canonical (main) view: read-only, no chat surface — the
+  // discuss-mode banner is the canonical-view tell, and the URL has no branch.
+  await expect(page.locator('.discuss-mode-banner')).toContainText('read-only')
+  expect(new URL(page.url()).searchParams.get('branch')).toBeNull()
+
+  // Ask a question from the prompt bar.
+  const question = `What problem does this entry solve? (${Date.now()})`
+  await page.locator('.prompt-input').fill(question)
+  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Ask', exact: true }).click()
+
+  // Option B: an edit branch is cut and we navigate onto it (no silent no-op).
+  await expect(async () => {
+    expect(new URL(page.url()).searchParams.get('branch')).toMatch(/^edit/)
+  }).toPass({ timeout: 30_000 })
+
+  // The question turn fired against the new branch: either the optimistic
+  // question is showing (model answered / answering) or the turn surfaced a
+  // chat error (no AI provider in Tier-1). Both prove it ran — the pre-fix
+  // silent no-op showed neither.
+  await expect(
+    page.getByText(question).or(page.getByText(/Chat failed|No AI providers/i)),
+  ).toBeVisible({ timeout: 30_000 })
+})

frontend/package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "rfc-app-frontend",
   "private": true,
-  "version": "0.53.0",
+  "version": "0.54.0",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "vite",

frontend/src/components/RFCView.jsx

@@ -93,6 +93,15 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
   // surface to expose.
   const editorRef = useRef(null)
   const originalSourceLinesRef = useRef([])
+  // §8.12 Option B — asking-while-reading on `main`. When Ask is invoked from
+  // the canonical view we transparently cut an edit branch, navigate to it, and
+  // run the question there once its view (and main_thread_id) loads. The pending
+  // question is stashed here and fired by the pending-ask effect below — we
+  // can't push optimistic chat messages before branchView.main_thread_id exists.
+  const pendingAskRef = useRef(null)   // { text, quote, branch } | null
+  // Live ref to submitChatTurn so the (intentionally narrow-dep) message-load
+  // effect can fire the stashed §8.12 main-view ask with the latest closure.
+  const submitChatTurnRef = useRef(null)
   const [editorContent, setEditorContent] = useState('')
   // Mirror of the live CM6 doc for the Contribute-mode preview pane,
   // debounced so the preview doesn't re-render on every keystroke.
@@ -237,8 +246,21 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
   // Load chat messages whenever the branch's main thread id resolves.
   useEffect(() => {
     if (!branchView?.main_thread_id) return
-    loadAllMessages(slug, branchParam, branchView.threads).then(setMessages)
+    loadAllMessages(slug, branchParam, branchView.threads).then(loaded => {
-  }, [branchView?.main_thread_id, slug, branchParam])
+      setMessages(loaded)
+      // §8.12 Option B — run the stashed main-view question now that the freshly
+      // cut branch's messages have loaded. Firing here (rather than in a parallel
+      // effect) appends the turn AFTER the loaded set, so this late message load
+      // can't clobber the optimistic chat turn. Land in contribute mode to
+      // surface any edits the turn proposes (AI chat is an editing activity).
+      const pending = pendingAskRef.current
+      if (pending && pending.branch === branchView.branch_name && pending.branch === branchParam) {
+        pendingAskRef.current = null
+        setMode('contribute')
+        submitChatTurnRef.current?.(pending.text, pending.quote)
+      }
+    })
+  }, [branchView?.main_thread_id, branchView?.branch_name, slug, branchParam])
 
   // Selection wiring (§8.12). MarkdownPreview reports {text, coords}
   // sourced from window.getSelection(); the SelectionTooltip
@@ -335,8 +357,12 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
   }, [manualCountdown, flushManualBuffer])
 
   // ── Start contributing ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  // Returns the branch the viewer should now be on (the freshly cut branch on
+  // main, or the current branch on a mode-flip), or null if no branch was cut
+  // (signed-out → login redirect, or the server rejected the cut). §8.12's
+  // main-view Ask reuses this dispatch and consumes the returned branch name.
   const handleStartContributing = useCallback(async () => {
-    if (!viewer) { window.location.href = '/auth/login'; return }
+    if (!viewer) { window.location.href = '/auth/login'; return null }
     if (branchParam === 'main') {
       try {
         // §9.5 dispatch: super-drafts cut a meta-repo edit branch via
@@ -345,18 +371,34 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
           ? await startEditBranch(slug)
           : await promoteToBranch(slug)
         setSearchParams({ branch: branch_name })
+        return branch_name
       } catch (err) {
         setError(err.message)
+        return null
       }
-      return
     }
     // Non-main: pure mode flip per §8.14.
     if (pendingDiscussChanges.length > 0) {
       setPendingDiscussChanges([])
     }
     setMode('contribute')
+    return branchParam
   }, [viewer, slug, branchParam, pendingDiscussChanges, setSearchParams, isSuperDraft])
 
+  // ── §8.12 Option B — Ask invoked from the canonical `main` view ─────────
+  // AI chat is an editing activity and only runs on an edit branch, so asking
+  // while reading transparently cuts one (same dispatch as Start Contributing),
+  // navigates to it, and stashes the question; the pending-ask effect fires it
+  // once the new branch's view (and its main_thread_id) has resolved. Degrades
+  // gracefully: signed-out → login; a viewer who can't contribute has the cut
+  // rejected server-side → the error surfaces and we neither navigate nor chat.
+  const handleMainAsk = useCallback(async (text, quote) => {
+    if (!viewer) { window.location.href = '/auth/login'; return }
+    const branch = await handleStartContributing()
+    if (!branch || branch === 'main') return   // cut failed → setError already ran
+    pendingAskRef.current = { text, quote: quote || null, branch }
+  }, [viewer, handleStartContributing])
+
   // ── Submit a chat turn (prompt bar or selection tooltip) ───────────────
   const submitChatTurn = useCallback(async (text, quote) => {
     if (!branchView?.main_thread_id || isStreaming) return
@@ -427,16 +469,24 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
     }
   }, [slug, branchParam, branchView?.main_thread_id, isStreaming, viewer, selectedModel, mode])
 
+  // Keep submitChatTurnRef pointed at the latest submitChatTurn so the
+  // message-load effect's §8.12 main-view ask uses the current branch closure.
+  useEffect(() => { submitChatTurnRef.current = submitChatTurn }, [submitChatTurn])
+
   const handlePrompt = useCallback((text, sel) => {
     const quote = sel?.text || null
+    // On the canonical view there is no chat surface; Ask cuts an edit branch
+    // and runs the question there (§8.12 Option B). On a branch, ask directly.
+    if (branchParam === 'main') { handleMainAsk(text, quote); return }
     submitChatTurn(text, quote)
-  }, [submitChatTurn])
+  }, [branchParam, handleMainAsk, submitChatTurn])
 
   const handleTooltipAsk = useCallback(async (textOrNull, quote) => {
     if (textOrNull === null) { setSelection(null); return }
     setSelection(null)
+    if (branchParam === 'main') { await handleMainAsk(textOrNull, quote); return }
     await submitChatTurn(textOrNull, quote)
-  }, [submitChatTurn])
+  }, [branchParam, handleMainAsk, submitChatTurn])
 
   const handleTooltipFlag = useCallback(async (label, quote) => {
     if (!viewer) { window.location.href = '/auth/login'; return }

frontend/src/components/RFCView.test.jsx

@@ -0,0 +1,220 @@
+import React from 'react'
+import { describe, it, expect, vi, beforeEach } from 'vitest'
+import { render, screen, fireEvent, waitFor } from '@testing-library/react'
+import { MemoryRouter, Routes, Route } from 'react-router-dom'
+
+// §8.12 Option B — asking-while-reading on the canonical `main` view. The AI
+// "Ask" affordance (selection tooltip + prompt bar) has no chat surface on
+// main (RFCDiscussionPanel renders there, not ChatPanel). These tests cover the
+// transparent branch-cut: Ask on main cuts an edit branch, navigates to it, and
+// runs the question there; Ask on a branch is unchanged; a rejected cut degrades
+// gracefully; Flag on main still opens a discussion thread.
+
+const getRFC = vi.fn()
+const getRFCMain = vi.fn()
+const getBranch = vi.fn()
+const listModels = vi.fn()
+const getCollection = vi.fn()
+const getThreadMessages = vi.fn()
+const promoteToBranch = vi.fn()
+const startEditBranch = vi.fn()
+const streamChatTurn = vi.fn()
+const createThread = vi.fn()
+
+vi.mock('../api', () => ({
+  getRFC: (...a) => getRFC(...a),
+  getRFCMain: (...a) => getRFCMain(...a),
+  getBranch: (...a) => getBranch(...a),
+  listModels: (...a) => listModels(...a),
+  getCollection: (...a) => getCollection(...a),
+  getThreadMessages: (...a) => getThreadMessages(...a),
+  promoteToBranch: (...a) => promoteToBranch(...a),
+  startEditBranch: (...a) => startEditBranch(...a),
+  streamChatTurn: (...a) => streamChatTurn(...a),
+  createThread: (...a) => createThread(...a),
+  acceptChange: vi.fn(), declineChange: vi.fn(), editMetadata: vi.fn(),
+  manualFlush: vi.fn(), reaskChange: vi.fn(), resolveThread: vi.fn(),
+  setBranchVisibility: vi.fn(), claimOwnership: vi.fn(),
+  retireRFC: vi.fn(), unretireRFC: vi.fn(),
+}))
+
+vi.mock('../lib/entryPaths', () => ({
+  entryPath: () => '/p/ohm/c/rfc-app/e/the-entry',
+  entryPrPath: () => '/pr',
+  useProjectId: () => 'ohm',
+  useCollectionId: () => 'rfc-app',
+}))
+vi.mock('../lib/analytics', () => ({ EVENTS: { RFC_VIEWED: 'rfc_viewed' }, track: vi.fn() }))
+
+// Stub the heavy children; expose just the callbacks/data the flow needs.
+vi.mock('./MarkdownSourceEditor.jsx', () => ({ default: () => null }))
+vi.mock('./MarkdownPreview.jsx', () => ({ default: () => <div data-testid="preview" /> }))
+vi.mock('./RFCDiscussionPanel.jsx', () => ({ default: () => <div data-testid="discussion-panel" /> }))
+vi.mock('./ChatPanel.jsx', () => ({
+  default: ({ messages }) => (
+    <div data-testid="chat-panel">
+      {(messages || []).map((m, i) => (
+        <div key={i} data-role={m.role}>{m.text}</div>
+      ))}
+    </div>
+  ),
+}))
+vi.mock('./SelectionTooltip.jsx', () => ({
+  default: ({ onAsk, onFlag, disabled }) => (
+    <div data-testid="tooltip">
+      <button data-testid="tooltip-ask" disabled={disabled}
+        onClick={() => onAsk('Why this approach?', 'the selected quote')}>ask</button>
+      <button data-testid="tooltip-flag"
+        onClick={() => onFlag('confusing', 'the selected quote')}>flag</button>
+    </div>
+  ),
+}))
+vi.mock('./PromptBar.jsx', () => ({
+  default: ({ onSubmit, disabled }) => (
+    <button data-testid="prompt-submit" disabled={disabled}
+      onClick={() => onSubmit('Why this approach?', { text: 'the selected quote' })}>send</button>
+  ),
+}))
+vi.mock('./ChangePanel.jsx', () => ({ default: () => null, diffWords: () => [] }))
+vi.mock('./PRModal.jsx', () => ({ default: () => null }))
+vi.mock('./GraduateDialog.jsx', () => ({ default: () => null }))
+vi.mock('./InvitationsModal.jsx', () => ({ default: () => null }))
+vi.mock('./MetadataFieldsPanel.jsx', () => ({ default: () => null }))
+
+import RFCView from './RFCView.jsx'
+
+const ACTIVE_ENTRY = {
+  id: 'RFC-0001', title: 'The Entry', state: 'active',
+  owners: [], meta: {}, proposed_use_case: '', tags: [],
+}
+const MAIN_VIEW = { slug: 'the-entry', branches: [], open_prs: [] }
+
+function branchPayload(branch, { main_thread_id = 't-1' } = {}) {
+  return {
+    slug: 'the-entry', title: 'The Entry', branch_name: branch, body: '# Body\n',
+    body_sha: 'abc', main_thread_id, threads: [], changes: [],
+    visibility: {}, grants: [], creator: 'me',
+    capabilities: { can_contribute: true, can_change_branch_settings: true },
+  }
+}
+
+const VIEWER = { gitea_login: 'me', role: 'contributor' }
+
+function renderView(viewer = VIEWER, initialBranch = null) {
+  const path = initialBranch ? `/e/the-entry?branch=${initialBranch}` : '/e/the-entry'
+  return render(
+    <MemoryRouter initialEntries={[path]}>
+      <Routes>
+        <Route path="/e/:slug" element={<RFCView viewer={viewer} />} />
+      </Routes>
+    </MemoryRouter>,
+  )
+}
+
+describe('RFCView — §8.12 main-view Ask (Option B)', () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.clearAllMocks()
+    getRFC.mockResolvedValue(ACTIVE_ENTRY)
+    getRFCMain.mockResolvedValue(MAIN_VIEW)
+    listModels.mockResolvedValue({ models: [{ id: 'claude' }], default: 'claude' })
+    getCollection.mockResolvedValue({ fields: null })
+    getThreadMessages.mockResolvedValue({ messages: [] })
+    getBranch.mockImplementation((_slug, branch) => Promise.resolve(branchPayload(branch)))
+    promoteToBranch.mockResolvedValue({ branch_name: 'edit-me-1' })
+    startEditBranch.mockResolvedValue({ branch_name: 'edit-the-entry' })
+    createThread.mockResolvedValue({ thread_id: 1, message_id: 1 })
+    streamChatTurn.mockImplementation(async (_slug, _branch, _threadId, { text, quote }, cb) => {
+      cb.onChunk?.('Here is the answer.')
+      cb.onChanges?.({ message_id: 42 })
+      cb.onDone?.()
+      return { assistantId: 42, userMsgId: 41 }
+    })
+  })
+
+  it('cuts an edit branch and runs the question (with the quote) there', async () => {
+    renderView()
+    await screen.findByTestId('discussion-panel')   // we start on main
+
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByTestId('prompt-submit'))
+
+    // The active-RFC dispatch is promote-to-branch.
+    await waitFor(() => expect(promoteToBranch).toHaveBeenCalledWith('the-entry'))
+
+    // Once the new branch view loads, the turn runs there — not on main —
+    // with the selected quote intact.
+    await waitFor(() => expect(streamChatTurn).toHaveBeenCalled())
+    const [slug, branch, threadId, payload] = streamChatTurn.mock.calls[0]
+    expect(slug).toBe('the-entry')
+    expect(branch).toBe('edit-me-1')
+    expect(threadId).toBe('t-1')
+    expect(payload).toMatchObject({ text: 'Why this approach?', quote: 'the selected quote' })
+
+    // The chat panel is now mounted (we left main) and shows the streamed answer.
+    const panel = await screen.findByTestId('chat-panel')
+    await waitFor(() => expect(panel).toHaveTextContent('Here is the answer.'))
+  })
+
+  it('uses start-edit-branch for a super-draft entry', async () => {
+    getRFC.mockResolvedValue({ ...ACTIVE_ENTRY, state: 'super-draft' })
+    getBranch.mockImplementation((_slug, branch) =>
+      Promise.resolve(branchPayload(branch === 'main' ? 'main' : 'edit-the-entry')))
+    renderView()
+    await screen.findByTestId('discussion-panel')
+
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByTestId('tooltip-ask'))
+
+    await waitFor(() => expect(startEditBranch).toHaveBeenCalledWith('the-entry'))
+    expect(promoteToBranch).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    await waitFor(() => expect(streamChatTurn).toHaveBeenCalled())
+    expect(streamChatTurn.mock.calls[0][1]).toBe('edit-the-entry')
+  })
+
+  it('asking from an existing branch runs directly, without cutting a new one', async () => {
+    renderView(VIEWER, 'edit-me-1')
+    await screen.findByTestId('chat-panel')
+
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByTestId('prompt-submit'))
+
+    await waitFor(() => expect(streamChatTurn).toHaveBeenCalled())
+    expect(promoteToBranch).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    expect(startEditBranch).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    expect(streamChatTurn.mock.calls[0][1]).toBe('edit-me-1')
+  })
+
+  it('surfaces an error and does not chat when the branch cut is rejected', async () => {
+    promoteToBranch.mockRejectedValue(new Error('not a contributor'))
+    renderView()
+    await screen.findByTestId('discussion-panel')
+
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByTestId('prompt-submit'))
+
+    await waitFor(() => expect(promoteToBranch).toHaveBeenCalled())
+    // Explicit error path — not a silent no-op — and no spurious chat turn.
+    expect(await screen.findByText(/not a contributor/)).toBeInTheDocument()
+    expect(streamChatTurn).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+  })
+
+  it('Flag on the canonical view still creates a discussion thread (no branch cut)', async () => {
+    renderView()
+    await screen.findByTestId('discussion-panel')
+
+    fireEvent.click(screen.getByTestId('tooltip-flag'))
+
+    await waitFor(() => expect(createThread).toHaveBeenCalled())
+    const [, branch, body] = createThread.mock.calls[0]
+    expect(branch).toBe('main')
+    expect(body).toMatchObject({ thread_kind: 'flag' })
+    expect(promoteToBranch).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    expect(streamChatTurn).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+  })
+
+  it('signed-out viewer gets a read-only path on main — no prompt bar, Ask disabled, no cut', async () => {
+    renderView(null)
+    await screen.findByTestId('discussion-panel')
+
+    expect(screen.queryByTestId('prompt-submit')).toBeNull()
+    expect(screen.getByTestId('tooltip-ask')).toBeDisabled()
+    expect(promoteToBranch).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    expect(startEditBranch).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+  })
+})