session-history/ohm/0019/SESSION-0019.2-TRANSCRIPT-2026-05-28T11-27--2026-05-28T11-31.md

SESSION-0019.2 — header rename + inbox icon + light inbox UX

Parent: SESSION-0019.0-TRANSCRIPT-… (UX-polish wave, rfc-app v0.21.0) Subsession: 0019.2 Window: 2026-05-28T11-27 → 2026-05-28T11-31 (PST)

Goal

Roadmap #24 (rename), #25 (inbox icon + light inbox UX), and the header's share of #31 polish — confined to the App.jsx header region, Inbox.jsx, and a new Inbox.css. No version/changelog/tag/merge/push.

Pre-state

• Branch feature/v0.21.0-header-inbox at the foundation commit (token module frontend/src/styles/tokens.css present).
• Header link text was "About" (already routing to /philosophy).
• Inbox trigger used a 📮 emoji with title "Notifications inbox (§15.2)".
• Inbox.jsx: working panel; row click marks-read + navigates; one "Mark all read (under filter)" button; terse empty copy; no per-row mark-read; unread indicated only by .inbox-row.unread bg tint.
• No Amplitude track() calls inside Inbox.jsx (only api.js calls: listNotifications, markNotificationRead, markNotificationsReadByFilter). So "preserve §15 tracking" = don't break the data path; nothing to add.

Turn-by-turn arc (honest)

1. Read tokens.css, the App.jsx header block (~150–238), Inbox.jsx full, and the §15 inbox block of App.css (1573–1641) to learn existing class names + property values before touching anything.
2. #24: one-word change "About" → "Philosophy" (kept the title attr).
3. #25 icon: replaced <span>📮</span> with a hand-rolled inline SVG envelope (18×18, viewBox 0 0 24 24, stroke=currentColor, ~1.75 stroke, rounded). Set aria-label="Inbox", retitled "Inbox (§15.2)". Badge block untouched.
4. #25 UX: refactored Inbox.jsx. Extracted markOneRead(item) (used by both row-click and the new per-row affordance) which also decrements the local unreadCount. Added an inbox-unread-dot span + read/unread row class, a per-row "Mark as read" button (inline check SVG) that sits OUTSIDE the Link and preventDefault/stopPropagations so it marks without navigating, shown only for unread rows. Simplified the mark-all label to "Mark all read" with an explanatory title. Replaced empty copy with a "You're all caught up." state that branches on whether filters are active.
5. Wrote Inbox.css (tokenized). Discovered via import order that Inbox.jsx is imported at App.jsx line 6, BEFORE App.css at line 30 — so under ESM depth-first eval Inbox.css injects FIRST and App.css wins ties. Wrote override rules one notch more specific (.inbox-list .inbox-row…) and .inbox-empty .muted to beat global .muted. New classes need no guard. All values via var(--space/-text/-color/-radius/-motion/-ease).
6. Build: first npm run build failed — VITE_APP_NAME required (config guard, unrelated to my change; no .env in worktree). Re-ran with VITE_APP_NAME="OHM RFC" npm run build → green (expected ~971kB chunk warning only).
7. Verified git status shows only App.jsx + Inbox.jsx modified and Inbox.css new (node_modules symlink left untracked). Committed exactly those three.

Cut state

• Branch: feature/v0.21.0-header-inbox
• Final commit: 317738ed7998a7af5abe0b64769941cb11808ab2
• Files changed: frontend/src/App.jsx (header region only), frontend/src/components/Inbox.jsx, frontend/src/components/Inbox.css (new)
• Build: green (chunk-size warning only).

What the driver needs to know (inbox UX review pointers)

The inbox pass is LIGHT — same layout, panel, filters, bundle toggle, deep-links, and API calls as before. Exactly what changed for review:

• Unread/read: unread rows now get an accent left-bar (inset box-shadow)
  • warm tint + a filled accent dot + medium-weight summary; read rows drop the dot (space reserved, stays aligned) and mute the summary.
• Per-row affordance: a check-icon button appears on row hover/focus (always visible on touch via @media (hover:none)) that marks the row read without navigating. Uses the same markOneRead path.
• Mark-all: relabeled "Mark all read" (+ title clarifying it's filter-scoped). Same markNotificationsReadByFilter call, same disabled-when-all-read guard.
• Empty state: "You're all caught up." with filter-aware sub-copy.
• Behavior preserved: row-click still marks-read then navigates + closes; unreadCount now also decremented locally on single marks (was only reset to 0 on mark-all before — minor, improves badge accuracy, SSE still authoritative per §15.3).

§19.2 candidates

• Full inbox redesign deferred to a #25-followup: the operator's reference screenshot did not transmit, so this stayed a polish pass within the existing structure rather than a re-layout. Revisit with the screenshot.
• The inbox-trigger / inbox-* base rules still live in App.css with hardcoded hex (a sibling is tokenizing App.css this wave). If that sweep lands, the few overrides in Inbox.css could shed their extra-specificity guards once import order is normalized.