rfc-app/docs/DEV.md

Build notes

The slicing plan for the v1 build, the current state of the codebase, and the next slice's brief.

The slicing plan

Eight slices carry §§1–15 of SPEC.md end-to-end. The build does not extend the spec; spec corrections during the build are rare and surgical and live in the appropriate numbered section per §19.3's working agreement.

1. Repository scaffolding + propose-to-super-draft vertical. The chokepoint that every Git operation flows through (§1 bot wrapper), the §4 cache machinery (webhook + reconciler), the §5 schema, Gitea OAuth + user provisioning, the minimal §7 catalog, and one end-to-end vertical: propose → idea PR → merge → super-draft view.
2. The active-RFC view per §8 in full. Editor, branch creation, per-branch chat with AI participation (the §18 <change> protocol), the change-card panel, accept/decline/edit, manual-edit flushes, sub-threads, flags, DiffView.
3. The PR flow per §10. Open, review surface (diff + compressed chat), the §10.3 seen-cursor, §10.4 review threads, merge, post-merge, §10.9 conflict resolution.
4. Super-draft body editing per §9.5 + §9.6. Meta-repo edit branches as the unit of work; everything from §8 inherits.
5. Graduation per §13. The dialog, the five-step transactional sequence, rollback, the pre-graduation history affordance.
6. Notifications per §15. Last, because every other surface produces signals the inbox receives — notification correctness depends on the producers being in place first.
7. The §14 chrome. Landing page polish, the /philosophy route, the persistent About link.
8. Hardening. End-to-end tests, dev/prod deployment shape, the §12 30/90 branch-hygiene timers.

State of the codebase

Slice 1 — shipped

The repository scaffolding (backend/, frontend/, scripts/, docs/), the §5 schema as numbered migrations under backend/migrations/, the §1 bot wrapper (app/bot.py) that is the single chokepoint every Git write flows through, Gitea OAuth and the §6.1 user-provisioning row in users, the §4.1 webhook receiver and the §4.1 periodic reconciler (both writing to the cache; user actions never do), the §7 left pane (catalog list, search, sort, state-filter chips, pending-ideas disclosure), and one end-to-end vertical: propose → idea PR opens → owner merges → super-draft appears in the catalog → super-draft view renders the body.

Slice 2 — shipped

The §8 active-RFC view in full. The bot wrapper grew per-RFC-repo write operations — branch cut from main, accept-change commit with the structured original/proposed/reason body and trailers, manual-edit flush, and a ensure_rfc_repo_seed seam Slice 5's graduation will eventually replace. The §4 cache now mirrors per-RFC repos via a new refresh_rfc_repo path; the webhook receiver dispatches on repository.full_name so per-RFC events refresh just that repo, and the reconciler sweeps every active entry. The §18 carryovers landed as backend/app/providers.py (the multi-provider abstraction, unchanged from the prototype) and backend/app/chat.py (an adapter that runs the provider's streaming interface against thread_messages rows, parses <change> blocks, and materializes changes rows per §8.14). The §17 endpoints owned by Slice 2 — the branches/<branch>/* and threads/<thread_id>/* families — live in backend/app/api_branches.py, mounted alongside Slice 1's routes via api.make_router. On the frontend, RFCView.jsx was rebuilt as the §8 three-column surface; Editor.jsx, ChatPanel.jsx, ChangePanel.jsx, PromptBar.jsx, SelectionTooltip.jsx, DiffView.jsx, ModelPicker.jsx, and modelStyles.js were lifted from the prototype and adapted to the canonical threads / thread_messages / changes shape rather than the prototype's global session_id. The §18 carryovers explicitly preserved: SSE streaming with base64-encoded chunks, Tiptap + ProseMirror plugin for the paragraph-margin gutter accent, the prompt-bar selection-quote machinery, the model picker.

The §17 endpoints exercised so far:

Method	Path	§
GET	/api/auth/me	§6
GET	/api/rfcs	§7, §17
GET	/api/rfcs/{slug}	§17
GET	/api/proposals	§17
GET	/api/proposals/{pr_number}	§17
POST	/api/rfcs/propose	§9.1
POST	/api/proposals/{pr_number}/merge	§9.3
POST	/api/proposals/{pr_number}/decline	§9.3
POST	/api/proposals/{pr_number}/withdraw	§9.3
POST	/api/webhooks/gitea	§4.1
GET	/auth/login / /auth/callback / /auth/logout	§18
GET	/api/models	§18
GET	/api/rfcs/{slug}/main	§8.1, §8.2, §17
GET	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}	§8.4, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/main/promote-to-branch	§8.14, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/changes/{id}/accept	§8.9, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/changes/{id}/decline	§8.9, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/changes/{id}/reask	§8.11, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/manual-flush	§8.11, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/visibility	§11.1, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/grants	§6.4, §17
DELETE	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/grants/{login}	§6.4
GET	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/threads	§8.12, §17
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/threads	§8.12, §8.13
GET	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/threads/{id}/messages	§8.12
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/threads/{id}/messages	§8.12
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/threads/{id}/resolve	§8.12
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/threads/{id}/chat	§18

Slice 2 ships covered by backend/tests/test_rfc_view_vertical.py — the FakeGitea simulator from Slice 1 grew per-RFC-repo support (PUT contents, POST orgs/{org}/repos, seed_rfc_repo), and a new test file walks the §8 vertical end-to-end: main-view read, promote-to- branch, accept (with and without edit-before-accept), decline, manual flush + system message, flag creation, visibility flip, anonymous read-but-no-contribute, stale-change refusal, and the chat-streaming path with a fake provider injected.

Slice 3 — shipped

The §10 PR flow in full. The bot wrapper grew per-RFC-repo PR operations — open_branch_pr (with the §10.9 Supersedes: trailer hook), merge_branch_pr (no-fast-forward via Gitea's style='merge', the On-behalf-of: trailer carrying the merging user per §6.5), withdraw_branch_pr, cut_resolution_branch, and commit_replay_change for the §10.9 per-accept replay onto fresh main. The §4 cache learned about per-RFC PRs via the existing refresh_rfc_repo sweep, plus a _parse_supersedes pass that bumps an original PR's state to closed and records the supersession the moment the resolution PR's merge arrives — whether via webhook or the reconciler. The §17 endpoints owned by Slice 3 — the branches/<branch>/{pr-draft,open-pr} and the prs/<n>/* family — live in backend/app/api_prs.py, mounted alongside Slices 1 and 2's routes via api.make_router. The migration in 007_pr_flow.sql adds superseded_by_pr_number and merge_commit_sha columns to cached_prs plus the pr_resolution_branches join table that records resolution-branch parentage so the cache can supersede the original on the resolution PR's merge.

On the frontend, the Open PR affordance landed on RFCView.jsx's branch view (gated on the branch having commits ahead of main and no already-open PR), opening a new PRModal.jsx that fetches the AI draft via /pr-draft, lets the contributor edit, and surfaces the §11.3 universal-public confirmation inline when the source branch is private. The PRView.jsx sibling to RFCView.jsx is mounted at /rfc/:slug/pr/:prNumber and renders the §10.3 three-column shape: catalog left (App chrome), a unified/split diff in the center computed from main and branch RFC.md bodies, and a compressed conversation surface on the right that interleaves chat / flag / review threads with visual distinction per §10.4. The per-user seen-cursor advances on every visit; new commits and new messages since the cursor surface with an accent. The merge button is arbiter-gated per §6.3; withdraw is contributor-or-arbiter per §10.8; the §10.9 Start resolution branch affordance fires from the conflict banner when the live Gitea pull reports the PR as unmergeable, and the new resolution branch opens in the §8 editor for the contributor to re-anchor stale changes before opening the resolution PR.

The §17 endpoints exercised in Slice 3:

Method	Path	§
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/pr-draft	§10.2
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/branches/{branch}/open-pr	§10.1
GET	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}	§10.3
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}/seen	§10.3
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}/review	§10.4
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}/merge	§10.5
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}/withdraw	§10.8
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}/description	§10.2
POST	/api/rfcs/{slug}/prs/{n}/resolution-branch	§10.9

Slice 3 ships covered by backend/tests/test_pr_flow_vertical.py — nine integration tests against an extended FakeGitea that grew PR mergeability via base-snapshot tracking, no-fast-forward merge behavior, and a mergeable field on PR responses. The tests cover opening (with the §11.3 visibility flip and the §10.9 one-PR-per- branch refusal), the AI draft, the three-column payload shape, seen-cursor advance with stale-tab protection, review-thread posting, arbiter-only merge, contributor withdraw with the withdrawn state distinct from generic closed, anonymous read of a public PR, and the full §10.9 conflict-replay path including the auto-close of the original PR on the resolution PR's merge.

What's deferred from Slice 2

These were in the §8 spec but lean on infrastructure later slices build, so they were scoped out of this slice without altering the spec:

• Super-draft body editing on the meta repo (§9.5). The branches/<branch> machinery is structurally general enough that meta-repo edit branches fall out of it once Slice 4 wires the super-draft view's "Start Contributing" gesture to cut against the meta repo. The Slice 2 RFCView renders a placeholder for super-draft entries pointing at Slice 4.
• The §10.4 review threads on PRs. thread_kind='review' is in the schema and the threads endpoints honor it generically, but the PR-page surface where review threads anchor to diff hunks lands with Slice 3.
• DiffView's full reconstruction from changes history. Slice 2 renders the editor's current HTML (which carries the session-local tracked-change markup from the accepts that happened in this session) into DiffView; rebuilding the full accepted-change markup from changes for a returning contributor needs a render pipeline DiffView doesn't yet own. The current behavior matches §8.10's "session-local" framing exactly; the §19.2 "persistent accepted-change markup" topic is the durable extension when evidence demands it.
• The §10.6 PR-side commit / chat reconciliation. Manual-edit flushes drop a system-author message into branch chat per §10.6 in Slice 2, but the PR-side seen-cursor that uses the marker ships with Slice 3.
• Branch-name path conversion for slashes. The auto-generated branch name in Slice 2 is <login>-draft-<hex> (no slash) so the FastAPI {branch} path segment matches without {branch:path}. Users can still rename to a slashed name, but the routes will 404 on read; the proper fix is {branch:path} everywhere, which lands cleanly when Slice 3 makes the same change to the PR routes (PR numbers don't have this problem, but resolving the routing shape once across both surfaces is the right hop).

Environment notes

• Python 3.13. Earlier 3.11+ should also work; 3.13 is what the build session ran on.
• Node 20+ for the frontend.
• Local Gitea on port 3000. Anything that exposes the Gitea v1 REST API works. If you tunnel Gitea elsewhere (e.g. a container, a Codespace), re-run scripts/seed_meta_repo.py so the webhook re-registers against the right APP_URL.

Conventions

• Bot writes only via app/bot.py. If a module wants to call app/gitea.py's write methods directly, the spec is right and the module is wrong — the wrapper is the chokepoint that makes the §6.5 On-behalf-of: trailer and the §6 authorization both consistent.
• Cache writes only from app/cache.py. User actions trigger Git operations via the bot; the cache learns about them when the webhook arrives (or the next reconciler sweep), and never before. This invariant is what makes §4's "Git is truth" claim hold operationally.
• Spec corrections during the build are rare and surgical. When running code reveals the spec was wrong at a structural level (per §19.3's working agreement), the correction lands in the appropriate numbered section with a brief note explaining what running code revealed. Spec extensions during the build are not in scope — they accumulate in §19.2.
• §16 stays deferred. Body full-text search, per-RFC model picker, funder role, persistent accepted-change markup, slug renames — these are not shipped in any slice. They earn their own topic sessions when use surfaces evidence they matter.

Next slice

Slice 4: super-draft body editing per §9.5 + §9.6.

The §8 within-branch surface and the §10 bridge to main now ship for active RFCs; the same mechanics still need to reach super-draft entries on the meta repo. Slice 4's unit of work is the meta-repo edit branch — edit/<slug>/<auto-name> per §9.5 — and the structural claim is that almost everything from §8 falls out unchanged once <slug> resolves to a super-draft entry and <branch> names a meta-repo branch rather than a per-RFC-repo branch (see the §5 super-draft scoping note).

What Slice 4 owns specifically:

• §9.5's Start Contributing on a super-draft cutting an edit/<slug>/<auto-name> branch on the meta repo via the bot, re-anchoring pending changes rows from main to the new branch the way promote-to-branch does for active RFCs.
• §9.6's chat-and-threads surface scoped to the super-draft and to edit branches, sharing the §5 threads/thread_messages shape.
• §9.7's visibility and contribute grants on edit branches — the same branch_visibility / branch_contribute_grants machinery that Slice 2 wired, now keyed on the meta repo.
• The metadata pane from §9.5 — title and tag edits as small meta-repo PRs via POST /api/rfcs/{slug}/metadata. Slug renames remain deferred per §9.5 / §19.2.
• The §17 routing collapse the spec calls for: the branches/<branch>/... endpoint family already exists; Slice 4's job is the dispatch in api_branches.py that recognizes a super-draft slug and routes to the meta repo on every read and write. RFCView.jsx's super-draft placeholder is replaced by the full editor surface.

What Slice 4 does NOT own: the §10 PR flow against the meta repo's super-draft edits is structurally identical to the active-RFC PR flow Slice 3 just shipped, and falls out from the same dispatch. The graduation flow from §13 stays deferred to Slice 5.

The carryovers Slice 4 inherits — none new from the prototype; every §8 / §10 surface already exists. The work is dispatch glue plus a small number of routes that need the meta-repo path (branches/edit/<slug>/<auto-name> cuts).

The next build session should read SPEC.md, README.md, and docs/DEV.md and pick up Slice 4 cleanly without re-briefing. The working agreement in §19.3 continues to apply: implement the slice, correct the spec only where running code reveals it was wrong at a structural level, accumulate new candidate topics in §19.2, do not extend the spec beyond what the slice requires.