kandev/apps/web/AGENTS.md

Frontend (Vite/React SPA) — architecture and conventions

Scoped guidance for apps/web/. Repo-wide rules (commit format, code-quality limits, etc.) live in the root AGENTS.md.

Plugin authoring

For plugin UI work, begin with the canonical plugin authoring guide. Follow: choose recipe → edit manifest.yaml → implement → validate → package → smoke test. The frontend contract pair is ../../docs/plans/plugins/PLUGIN-API.md plus lib/plugins/types.ts; concrete shared Host UI exports are in lib/plugins/host-api.ts, and registration/cleanup behavior is in lib/plugins/registry.ts and lib/plugins/host.ts. Keep the guide and that contract pair synchronized; do not invent hooks such as task panels, task-menu actions, per-user host.storage, rich-text components, or Kanban-card injection when they are absent from the current source.

UI Components

Shadcn Components: Import from @kandev/ui package:

import { Badge } from "@kandev/ui/badge";
import { Button } from "@kandev/ui/button";
import { Dialog } from "@kandev/ui/dialog";
// etc...

Do NOT import from @/components/ui/* - always use @kandev/ui package.

• Always prefer native shadcn components over custom implementations.
• Check apps/packages/ui/src/ for available components (pagination, table, dialog, etc.).
• For data tables, use @kandev/ui/table with TanStack Table; use shadcn Pagination components.
• Only create custom components when shadcn doesn't provide what's needed.

Responsive and touch surfaces

• Use hooks/use-responsive-breakpoint.ts for application layout decisions. Its phone boundary is 640px and it also models tablet, compact desktop, full desktop, and pointer precision; do not substitute the UI package's generic useIsMobile hook.
• Use useTouchDrawer when a hover/popover disclosure needs a coarse-pointer Drawer alternative. Width-based phone composition and pointer-based disclosure behavior are related but not interchangeable.
• Existing Radix DropdownMenu and ContextMenu surfaces receive inset, safe-area-aware bottom-sheet treatment below 640px in app/globals.css. Reuse those primitives for contextual actions and add focused coverage for long or nested menus instead of creating a parallel mobile menu.
• Mobile capability parity does not require desktop layout parity. Load /mobile-parity for the Kandev surface decision guide, mobile design contract, and verification requirements.

Data Flow Pattern (Critical)

Go Boot Payload -> Hydrate Store -> Components Read Store -> Hooks Subscribe

Never fetch data directly in components.

Store Structure (Domain Slices)

lib/state/
├── store.ts                        # Root composition
├── default-state.ts                # Default state + initial state merge
├── slices/                         # Domain slices
│   ├── kanban/                    # boards, tasks, columns
│   ├── session/                   # sessions, messages, turns, worktrees
│   ├── session-runtime/           # shell, processes, git, context
│   ├── workspace/                 # workspaces, repos, branches
│   ├── settings/                  # executors, agents, editors, prompts (incl. userSettings)
│   ├── comments/                  # code review diff comments
│   ├── github/                    # GitHub PRs, reviews
│   └── ui/                        # preview, connection, active state, sidebar views
├── hydration/                     # SSR merge strategies

hooks/domains/{kanban,session,workspace,settings,comments,github}/  # Domain-organized hooks
lib/api/domains/                    # API clients
├── kanban-api, session-api, workspace-api, settings-api, process-api
├── plan-api, queue-api, workflow-api, stats-api, github-api
├── user-shell-api, debug-api, secrets-api, sprites-api, vscode-api
├── health-api, utility-api

Key State Paths:

• messages.bySession[sessionId], shell.outputs[sessionId], gitStatus.bySessionId[sessionId]
• tasks.activeTaskId, tasks.activeSessionId, workspaces.activeId
• repositories.byWorkspace, repositoryBranches.byRepository

Hydration: Go injects window.__KANDEV_BOOT_PAYLOAD__ into the SPA shell before React mounts. lib/state/hydration/merge-strategies.ts has deepMerge(), mergeSessionMap(), mergeLoadingState() to avoid overwriting live client state. Pass activeSessionId to protect active sessions.

For rebasing or finishing PRs written against the old Next.js runtime, follow docs/nextjs-spa-migration.md.

Hooks Pattern: Hooks in hooks/domains/ encapsulate WS subscription + store selection. WS client deduplicates subscriptions automatically.

WebSockets

Format: {id, type, action, payload, timestamp}.

Use subscription hooks only; the WS client auto-deduplicates.

When changing task lifecycle WS handlers (task.updated, task.deleted, task.state_changed), check both kanban and Office surfaces. Archive/delete events may need to update kanban caches, tasks.activeTaskId / session pin state, recent/sidebar prefs, Office refetch triggers such as setOfficeRefetchTrigger("tasks"), and route redirects for /t/:id, /tasks/:id, and /office/tasks/:id. Add focused tests for every affected surface.

Component conventions

• Framework adapters during Next removal: Client components should import links, router hooks, dynamic imports, images, and theme hooks from the local adapter modules (components/routing/*, lib/routing/*, components/theme/app-theme) instead of importing next/* or next-themes directly. The routing/image/dynamic adapters now provide browser-native behavior for the Vite SPA while legacy Next entrypoints are phased out.
• Components: <200 lines, extract to domain components, composition over props.
• Hooks: domain-organized in hooks/domains/, encapsulate subscription + selection.
• Interactivity: all buttons and links with actions must have cursor-pointer class.
• Self-documenting settings: every setting must explain in visible, plain-language copy what changes, when the setting applies, and when the user should choose each non-obvious option. State important exclusions, precedence, cost, or destructive consequences next to the control when they can affect the decision. Do not rely on tooltips, external documentation, or implementation terms alone to teach the setting.
• Settings save coordination: settings surfaces with local unsaved state must register a contributor with useSettingsSaveContributor (or use SettingsPageTemplate) so the shared floating Save changes control, navigation guard, and discard flow own persistence. Do not add page-local Save/Cancel controls. Contributor save callbacks must reject on failure so the coordinator can report an error; discard must restore the contributor's authoritative baseline.
• Dialog Enter-to-confirm: the base @kandev/ui DialogContent / AlertDialogContent activate the dialog's semantic action on plain Enter (packages/ui/src/lib/dialog-default-action.ts), so per-dialog "submit on Enter" input handlers are unnecessary — let the base own it. Resolution: AlertDialogAction → an explicit data-dialog-default-action button → the single primary (type="submit" or data-variant="default"|"destructive") button in DialogFooter. More than one primary candidate (counting disabled ones), a disabled resolved action, or one inside a hidden/aria-hidden subtree → no-op (never guesses). Left alone: textarea/contenteditable, Shift/Cmd/Ctrl/Alt+Enter, event.repeat auto-repeat, mid-IME composition (isComposing or keyCode 229), already-preventDefaulted events, and Enter fired from a focused interactive control that owns Enter (any action button — including outline/secondary like Copy/Back — <select>, combobox, or a listbox option / menu item). Only a slot-marked alert-dialog-cancel / dialog-close is treated as a dismiss control and overridden (the Radix-focuses-Cancel case). A plain single-line <input> is not exempt — type-to-confirm dialogs rely on Enter firing the primary. Pass enterConfirms={false} to opt a dialog out; mark the intended button with data-dialog-default-action when a footer has several action buttons.
• Radix tooltip on disabled buttons: disabled buttons do not receive pointer/focus events, so wrap the disabled Button in a focusable span and put TooltipTrigger asChild on that span:

  <Tooltip>
    <TooltipTrigger asChild>
      <span tabIndex={disabled ? 0 : -1} className="inline-flex">
        <Button disabled={disabled}>Run</Button>
      </span>
    </TooltipTrigger>
    <TooltipContent>{disabledReason}</TooltipContent>
  </Tooltip>
  

  Keep the wrapper focusable only while disabled; when enabled, the button itself owns focus.
• Interactive help inside Radix tooltips: do not nest a Tooltip root inside another TooltipContent when the inner trigger must remain interactive. Tooltip roots under one provider coordinate open state, so the inner tooltip can close and unmount its parent before the pointer reaches it. Render the secondary help inline in the existing content or use a disclosure primitive with independent open state. Touch-pinned help must close on a second trigger tap, outside interaction, and Escape; verify desktop pointer and mobile-sized touch flows.
• Renaming a data-testid: set the new id as data-testid="<new>" and keep the old id as data-legacy-testid="<old>", then migrate e2e specs to the new id in the same PR. JSX rejects two data-testid attributes on one element, and Playwright's getByTestId only matches one attribute name — the data-legacy-testid alias lets existing specs keep selecting the element while the migration is in flight.
• Dockview session panel activation: session chat panels can become active through tab pointer/keyboard events, global tab-cycling shortcuts, reopen/menu actions, and Dockview close controls. When changing tasks.activeSessionId or active-session sync, audit all of those paths. Use store state in addition to Dockview api.isActive; the current session's chat tab may be Dockview-inactive while Files/Changes is active. Same-session clicks must not leave stale activation intent, and Dockview .dv-default-tab-action close controls should be treated as close/delete actions rather than session-switch intent.
• GitHub PR status UI: visual PR/CI status surfaces should use the shared helpers in apps/web/components/github/pr-task-icon.tsx (hasPRChecksPassedForDisplay, hasPRChecksInProgressForDisplay, and hasPRChecksPassedWithoutReviewWaitForDisplay) instead of re-deriving status from checks_state, checks_total, or checks_passing locally. Aggregate check counts are a display-only fallback when checks_state is empty; they may make chips or task icons render passed/in-progress, but must not enable merge actions. Merge readiness must use isPRReadyToMerge, which requires GitHub's explicit checks_state === "success" rollup. When changing PR status behavior, update both pr-task-icon.test.ts and pr-status-chip.test.tsx.
• Task repository labels: user-facing task/card repo chips should display a stable repo slug or name (owner/repo when known, otherwise the repo name), not a local filesystem path. Local clone paths or folder paths belong in hover/title/tooltip metadata. Tasks with no repository, or only a non-repo local folder, should not render a repo chip.

Internationalization (i18n)

The migration is in progress, one directory per PR. The runtime, the gates, and Settings → General → Appearance are done; most of the app still holds English literals. New user-facing copy must go through t() / <Trans> wherever you write it, even in a directory that has not been migrated yet.

User-facing strings are localized with i18next + react-i18next, keyed as namespace:key. Add the English text to src/locales/en/<namespace>.json, then reference it with t("settings:deleteExecutor") (useTranslation() in components, the module-level t from @/lib/i18n in plain helpers). Use <Trans i18nKey=... values={...}> only for copy containing markup — and never a t() call inside its children, which shifts the message's tag indices.

Never translate user/domain data, code identifiers, data-testid, or a literal that is also compared with ===, used as a map key, or typed as a string-literal union. When a prop is both display copy and logic (label: "Reviewers" | "Assignees"), split it into a kind/origin discriminant plus a translated label rather than translating in place.

lib/i18n/provider.tsx initializes i18next at module load. Do not remove that call: react-i18next suspends on an uninitialized instance and there is no Suspense boundary above the root, so the app renders a blank page with no error of any kind. Unit tests cannot catch it — vitest.setup.ts pre-initializes.

Never write a plural ending yourself: use t(key, { count }) with _one/_other keys. Passing the morpheme as a value ({ s: n === 1 ? "" : "s" }) is untranslatable — the plural rule ends up at the call site.

Never assign t() to a module-level constant. It resolves at import, before a locale is active, and never updates on a switch — and the pseudo-locale cannot see it, because the text is translated, just frozen. Store the key and resolve at render, or make the value a component. check-module-scope-t.mjs enforces it.

pnpm lint fails on hardcoded UI strings (i18next/no-literal-string is an error), but only on the i18nGuardFiles allowlist in eslint.i18n.options.mjs — paths already migrated. That scoping is deliberate: a repo-wide error breaks every unrelated PR that adds a label, which is what made the first attempt at this migration unmergeable. When you migrate a directory, append it to i18nGuardFiles in the same PR — that is the step that stops it drifting back. Never delete an entry to make a build pass. Use pnpm run lint:i18n <path> to preview the guard on a path that is not on the list yet.

Separately, pnpm run i18n:ratchet (pre-commit + CI) guards new code everywhere, regardless of the allowlist: a file you added must be clean outright, and a file you modified is judged on the lines you touched. Untouched literals are never reported, so it cannot ask you to migrate code you did not write — the same contract as golangci-lint --new-from-rev for Go.

The rule only sees literals in JSX — confirm() arguments and copy in plain .ts helpers are invisible to it — and it skips anything assigned to a SCREAMING_CASE identifier, so const ROWS = [{ label: "Disk usage" }] passes silently. A clean lint is not proof a file is done. pnpm run i18n:check gates key/catalog drift, <Trans> tag indices, inline plurals and module-scope t(), and the pseudo-locale (Settings → General → Appearance, dev/e2e) is the completeness check — any plain-English text under it was never externalized. The tooling needs Node 24. Full guide: docs/i18n.md; spec: docs/specs/platform/i18n.md.

Markdown safety

Any renderer that enables embedded raw HTML must pair rehype-raw immediately with rehype-sanitize, and enable that combination only on the intended surface. Do not broaden raw-HTML support to chat, comments, or other renderers without a separate security decision. Add regression coverage for permitted README markup and for stripping executable HTML and unsafe URLs.

Code-quality limits

Enforced by apps/web/eslint.config.mjs (warnings, will become errors):

• Files: ≤600 lines · Functions: ≤100 lines
• Cyclomatic complexity: ≤15 · Cognitive complexity: ≤20
• Nesting depth: ≤4 · Parameters: ≤5
• No duplicated strings (≥4 occurrences) · No identical functions · No unused imports
• No nested ternaries

When you hit a limit, extract a helper function, custom hook, or sub-component. Prefer composition over growing a single function.

Testing notes

• jsdom drops secure cookies over http, so document.cookie reads back empty. To assert a cookie write in a Vitest unit test, intercept the setter with Object.defineProperty(document, "cookie", { set: ... }) and restore it after.
• jsdom synthetic mouse events do not reliably open Radix Tooltip. In component tests, render under TooltipProvider and assert the keyboard-focus path with fireEvent.focus. Cover pointer hover in Playwright with locator.hover() and assert the visible portaled role="tooltip"; do not remove a hover regression solely because mouseenter or pointerMove failed in jsdom.
• In Playwright tests, avoid strict locators that assume only one terminal-panel or .xterm exists. Mobile and dockview layouts can mount multiple terminal instances; scope to the active panel or use .first() / .last() deliberately with a comment or helper.
• Shared E2E helpers that inspect mounted React/DOM internals must be scoped to the active panel/container, not global selectors, because hidden or stale mounted panels can coexist in dock/mobile layouts.