pastilhasandClaude Fable 5
887f702c05
the idea is not settled. the card exists so the history is not dug out twice: user apps were born 2026-02-27 as a publishing system that made a personal app a first-class workspace panel, /projects was its authoring surface, and both went a day apart at the end of july — 1440 deletions. the part worth knowing before rebuilding: the app registry used to be mutable at runtime, registerApp keyed on email/slug, and the note left where it stood argues well against it. the plugin system solved the same problem afterwards by generating at build time, so the first question is whether a user app is just a plugin with a different author. nothing on disk was ever touched. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
102 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
102 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: backburner/resurrect-projects-apps
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title: "Resurrect Projects/Apps"
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theme: backburner
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status: open
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created: 2026-08-25
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date_source: stated
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order: 3
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---
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**Resurrect Projects/Apps.** The idea is not settled — this card exists so the archaeology is not done
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twice. Everything below was read out of git on 2026-08-25.
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## What existed
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Two features, one cluster, removed a day apart.
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**User apps — born `fd4d77a3`, 2026-02-27:** *"user app publishing system — build, serve, and use
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personal apps in workspace panels."* You wrote an app, published it, and it appeared as a **first-class
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workspace panel** beside Terminal and Chat. `/api/apps` (298 lines) built and served it; `/api/app-serve`
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served the built output; `/api/dev-server` (314 lines) plus a websocket proxy ran it live; a shared
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`html-rewrite.ts` made both viewable through the platform's own origin.
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**`/projects` — the authoring surface.** A list screen and a project screen, a 244-line list panel, a
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**612-line preview panel**, a publish dialog. Projects had a *type*, a *template*, and
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`hasBackend` / `hasAuth` flags — so it was scaffolding as well as hosting. A `projects` table, and
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`proj-meta` / `proj-layout` / `proj-terminals` / `proj-host-terminals` branches in the dashboards
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endpoint.
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## Why each went
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**`/projects`, `5a1e3d7e`, 2026-07-30.** Not a design failure — a scheduling one:
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> Being retired, so it is deleted rather than fixed — it had both defects dashboards just had (edit
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> dropping `?selected=`, an abandoned edit following you onto the next item) and repairing them was
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> work for something on its way out.
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**Apps, `188b45c1`, 2026-07-31.** The rest of the cluster, **1,440 deletions**: `/api/apps`,
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`/api/app-serve`, `/api/dev-server` and its websocket proxy, `html-rewrite`, the Preview panel, the
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UserApp panel and header, `useUserApps`, `/settings/apps`, `getUserProjectsDir`, `getUserAppsDir`, the
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`ProjectType` and `ProjectDefinition` types, and the `dev-server` websocket provider.
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**Nothing on disk was touched.** Both commits say so explicitly. Whatever was under `Projects/` is still
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there.
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## The interesting part: the App Registry used to be dynamic
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This is the piece worth understanding before rebuilding anything. Alongside the compiled-in apps:
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```tsx
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const { registerApp } = useAppRegistry(apps);
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const { apps: userApps, email } = useUserApps();
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registerApp(`${email}/${app.slug}`, {
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name: app.name,
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icon: resolveIcon(app.icon),
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component: createUserAppPanel(app.slug),
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header: createUserAppHeader(app.name, resolveIcon(app.icon)),
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});
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```
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Keyed per user, with the icon resolved from a **string name** at runtime (`utils/resolve-icon.ts`, 116
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lines — also deleted).
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**That capability is gone, and the argument against it is good.** The note left where it stood:
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> there is no `registerApp` any more because nothing ever called one, and a registry that can be added
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> to at runtime is a registry whose contents depend on what has mounted so far.
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Today `seedAppRegistry` writes the registry once, before anything renders, from 17 static meta lists.
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**So the constraint to design around, rather than re-litigate: user apps need to reach the registry
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without making it mutable at runtime.** The plugin system — which arrived *after* this was deleted —
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already solved a version of exactly this by generating `Plugins.gen` at build time and mounting plugin
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routers at boot. Any resurrection should start by asking whether a user app is just a plugin with a
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different author, rather than a second mechanism beside it.
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## What survived, and is still working
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**`dev-proxy`** (`/api/dev-proxy/5173/…` → `127.0.0.1:5173`). The reasoning in its header is worth
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reading before rebuilding the dev-server half — it explains why neither obvious approach works:
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`http://localhost:5173` resolves on the *viewer's* machine, and `http://<server>:5173` is mixed content
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inside an https page. So the bytes must arrive over the platform's own origin. It costs no certificate,
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no proxy-host entry, and no open port, and it lets a dev server stay bound to loopback.
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Its stated limit: the app believes it is at `/` and is not. Absolute paths are rewritten on the way out,
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which covers Bun's dev server and ordinary relative assets, but not an app that builds URLs in ways the
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rewrite cannot see.
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## Open questions, if this is picked up
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1. **Is a user app a plugin?** The app store, the plugin manifest, `ownerOnly`, sidecars and
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`Plugins.gen` all landed after this was removed. Rebuilding a parallel mechanism would be the
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expensive mistake.
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2. **What is the scaffolding half worth?** Templates, `hasBackend`, `hasAuth` — the agent can now write
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an app from a prompt, which may make a template picker the least valuable part of what was lost.
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3. **Multi-user changes the shape.** The old key was `${email}/${slug}`, written when the platform was
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effectively single-user. Whose apps appear in whose dock is now a permissions question, not a
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namespacing one.
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4. **Does it need its own theme?** It is in `backburner` because the idea is not settled. If it becomes
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real it is bigger than one card.
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