# ArchNest — Design Decisions & Lessons Learned > This file captures all visual/UX decisions made during Glance page development. > Apply these consistently to ALL future pages to avoid repeated iteration. --- ## Global Rules (Apply to Every Page) ### Sidebar - **Expanded width**: 200px (matches mockup proportions — needs room for labels) - **Collapsed width**: 64px (icon only) - **User can manually collapse/expand** via toggle button (not just responsive) - **Main content margin-left** must match sidebar width exactly ### Page Title (Top Bar) - **Color**: Gold (#C8A434) — NOT white. Use inline `style={{ color: '#C8A434' }}` if Tailwind class doesn't apply - **Font**: 18px, bold, uppercase, tracking-wide - **No border on top bar** — blends into the page background ### Colors — Use Inline Styles When Tailwind Fails - Tailwind v4 `@theme` custom colors (text-gold, bg-card, etc.) may not always apply - If a color isn't rendering correctly, fall back to inline `style={{ color: '#C8A434' }}` - Always verify visually after changes ### Content Alignment - **All rows must share the same horizontal padding** (`px-6` applied once at the parent container level) - **Do NOT** use different padding for different rows — this causes misalignment - The hero banner, status cards, middle row, and bottom row must all line up left and right edges ### Hero Banner + KPI Overlap - Banner height: 200px - Status cards overlap via negative margin: `-mt-12` - Banner image: `object-cover` with `object-position: center 25%` (show the top/skyline, not center) - Cards use `backdrop-blur-sm` and `bg-card/95` for glass effect over the banner ### KPI Card Sizing - KPI 1 (System Status) and KPI 4 (Network): **wider** — `1.3fr` - KPI 2 (Infrastructure) and KPI 3 (Security): **standard** — `1fr` - Grid: `grid-cols-[1.3fr_1fr_1fr_1.3fr]` - Cards have compact padding: `p-4` (not p-5 or p-6) ### No Footer - The mockup does NOT have a footer/status bar - Do not add one unless explicitly requested ### Target Display - Primary design target: **16-inch screen / 1920px width** - Lots of horizontal space available — don't constrain content width unnecessarily - Design should feel spacious, not cramped ### Typography Sizes (smaller than default) - Card titles: 10-11px, uppercase, tracking-[1.5px], secondary color, font-medium - Large numbers: 24-28px, bold, primary color - Subtitles/labels: 10-11px, secondary color - Body text in lists: 13px, primary color - Timestamps: 11px, secondary color - Breakdowns: 9-10px, secondary color ### Animations - Card hover: border → gold, 0.2s ease - Progress ring: animates from 0 to value in 1s - Sparklines: draw animation 1s - Progress bars: fill animation 0.8s ### Icons - Source: Lucide React (imported per component, tree-shaken) - Size: 14-18px depending on context - Color: gold for active/accent, text-secondary for inactive - Gold glow on active sidebar items: `shadow-[0_0_6px_rgba(200,164,52,0.5)]` --- ## Page-Specific Notes ### Glance Page - No footer - Status cards overlap hero banner - Middle row: 3 equal-ish columns (30/40/30) - Bottom row: 2 columns (65/35) - Network Traffic card has its own background image at low opacity - User avatar dropdown has: Profile, Appearance, Security, Help & Support, Sign Out ### Infrastructure Page - Hero banner rendered at the **App.tsx layout level** (not per-page), so it can extend behind the sticky TopBar — conditional via `showHero = location.pathname === '/infrastructure'`. TopBar and the search input are transparent on hero routes so the banner shows through. - Hero image: `object-position: center 5%` to reveal the full arch + sky; faded out via `linear-gradient` mask (vertical) + a `radial-gradient(ellipse 70% 100% at center, ...)` overlay (sides/corners) — borderless, blends into page background. - Sub-tabs trimmed to **Overview only** (Compute → Tags are future work, not built yet). - Status cards: `rgba(10,10,12,0.5)` background (more transparent than other pages), content centered (`justify-content/alignItems: center`) with a fixed row height (110px) so there's breathing room instead of empty space below left-aligned content. - Middle row (`grid-cols-[1fr_1.6fr]`): **Resource Distribution** (donut) and **Node Status** (server tile grid). Both use the `/blank-kpi-bg.png` background art with a `cardDim` (semi-transparent dark overlay) + `cardVignette` (radial-gradient `closest-side` blend) combo — keeps the background pattern visible but subdued, with borders blended rather than hard-edged. Card titles are rendered as our own text, NOT baked into the image (baked-in labels got covered by the dim overlay). - **Node Status** card: originally a world-map-style region dot plot, replaced with a 4-column tile grid (one tile per server, colored status dot + name) — a world map didn't make sense for a small/single-site infra. Reuse this "small-scale" reasoning for any future map-like cards. - Bottom row (`grid-cols-[1.4fr_1fr_1fr]`): Resource Trend / Cost Breakdown / Recent Activity — **left plain/regular**, no dim/vignette blending (explicit user preference, only the middle row gets the hero-style blend). Resource Trend uses the `/archnest-network-traffic-bg.png` background (plain, no dim/vignette) with 4 trend lines: blue `#3B82F6` (compute), orange `#E67E22` (storage), green `#2ECC71` (database), brown `#8B5E3C` (network). - `cardVignette` radial-gradient must use the `closest-side` keyword (not a fixed `%`) — otherwise straight edges of the card don't reach full opacity and a hard border line remains visible (only corners fade correctly with a fixed percentage). ### BookNest Page - Hero banner reused at the App.tsx layout level (`showHero` now includes `/booknest`), with page-specific tuning via small lookup maps in `App.tsx` keyed on `location.pathname`: `heroPaddingTop` (how far content sits below the hero top) and `heroObjectPosition` (horizontal/vertical crop of the arch image) — `70px` / `54% 8%` for BookNest vs. `72px` / `center 5%` for Infrastructure. Extend these maps rather than hardcoding a single value when a future page needs different hero framing. - **Large hero title + subtitle**: unlike other pages, BookNest's TopBar title is NOT the small 18px uppercase label — it's rendered at 28px with a subtitle line ("Your Digital Library") underneath, driven by a new `pageSubtitles` map in `TopBar.tsx`. When a page has a subtitle, the header height grows from 56px → 72px (`TopBar.tsx`), and `App.tsx`'s `topBarHeight` lookup keeps the content section's `calc(100vh - Npx)` in sync — both must be updated together or the layout will clip/gap. - **Stats row lives directly under the hero subtitle** (Links / Categories / Favorites), not in its own separate bar — matches the blueprint's hero-header block grouping. - **"Quick Access" section label** added above the 5 quick-access category cards (gold, same `sectionTitle` style) — the row is intentionally pulled up via a small negative hero-padding tune so it slightly overlaps the bottom edge of the hero, like the blueprint. - **"+ Add Bookmark" button**: same gold-fill button style as Infrastructure's "+ Add Resource", placed inline next to the "Quick Access" label rather than the page-stats row. - **Right sidebar spans both grid rows** (`gridRow: '1 / span 2'` in a `gridTemplateRows: 'auto 1fr'` grid) so the Favorites card can rise up near the hero while the main column's page-stats row stays in row 1 of column 1 only — keeps the two from overlapping/clipping. Negative margins were tried first and discarded: content pushed above the scroll container's natural top edge gets clipped by `overflow-y-auto`, so prefer reshaping the grid/flow over negative-margin hacks when something needs to "reach upward." - **Sidebar cards stretch to match the main column's full height** so the last card's (Category Breakdown) bottom border lines up with the bottom of the bookmark groups grid: sidebar wrapper is `display:flex; flex-direction:column; height:100%` (grid's default `align-items: stretch` already gives it the matching height), and each card uses `flex: 1 0 auto` (Favorites gets `flex: 1.4 0 auto` to read as visibly taller, per explicit request) so they share the leftover vertical space instead of all packing tight at content height. - lucide-react gotcha (see Global Rules candidate): the installed version does **not** export brand/wordmark icons (`Github`, `Gitlab`, `Linkedin`, `Youtube`) even though TypeScript's type declarations list them — `tsc --noEmit` stays clean while the page renders blank with a runtime `SyntaxError` only visible in the Vite dev log. Verify icon names against `Object.keys(require('lucide-react'))` before importing anything brand-flavored; substitutes used here: `GitBranch`/`GitFork` (GitHub/GitLab/Gitea), `SquarePlay` (YouTube), `Briefcase` (LinkedIn Learning). ### Settings Page - No mockup image existed for this page — built directly from the blueprint's Page 6 spec rather than iterating against a screenshot. - Layout: fixed-width (200px) left nav listing the 6 sections (Profile, Appearance, Integrations, Notifications, Data & Backup, About) + a scrollable content panel on the right showing the active section. No hero banner (not in the blueprint spec for this page, and a settings page doesn't need one). - Active section is local component state (a string id) mapped through a `sectionComponents` record to the corresponding section-renderer function — simplest approach for a page with no routing/deep-linking requirement. - Shared style helpers (`cardBase`, `sectionTitle`, `labelStyle`, `inputStyle`) plus two small reusable components defined in the same file: `Toggle` (on/off pill switch) and `GoldButton` (gold-filled primary / danger-outline variant) — kept local to `Settings.tsx` rather than extracted, since no other page needs them yet. - **Integrations** cards mask secret fields (API keys/tokens) behind dots with an eye icon to reveal/hide, plus a "Test Connection" button per card — matches the blueprint's explicit "masked secrets with eye toggle" instruction. - **Avatar upload** (Profile section): the avatar circle is clickable and opens a hidden `` via a `useRef` + `.click()` call rather than a visible file input — keeps the round avatar as the only visible control. On change, `FileReader.readAsDataURL` converts the selected image to a base64 data URL stored in component state, which becomes the circle's `backgroundImage` (cover-fit), replacing the "AO" initials fallback. A hover-only camera-icon overlay (Tailwind `group` / `group-hover:opacity-100`) signals the circle is clickable without cluttering the default state. This is a frontend-only preview (no backend upload endpoint exists yet). --- ## Backend (added once frontend reached "good enough" state) - New `backend/` package (separate `package.json`/`tsconfig.json`, own `node_modules`, own Dockerfile) — Fastify + TypeScript, `better-sqlite3` for storage, deployed as a second container alongside the existing frontend container (`docker-compose.yml` now has `archnest` + `archnest-backend`, with a named volume for the SQLite file). - Auth: single-user, JWT-based (`@fastify/jwt`). `POST /api/setup` creates the one user and only succeeds while the `users` table is empty — this is what powers the first-run enrollment page. `GET /api/system/setup-status` tells the frontend whether to show enrollment/login or the normal app. - Integration credentials are split across two tables: `integrations` (type, name, status, non-secret `config_json`) and `secrets` (per-key AES-256-GCM-encrypted values, key derived from the `ARCHNEST_SECRET_KEY` env var) — keeps secrets out of any generic "list integrations" query/response by construction, not by remembering to redact a field. - Each integration type has an adapter module under `backend/src/integrations/` exporting `testConnection(config, secrets)`; `registry.ts` maps `IntegrationType` → adapter. Only `uptime_kuma` and `docker` are real so far (simple HTTP health checks); the rest return a "not yet implemented" result until built out — this lets the Integrations UI and `POST /api/integrations/:id/test` endpoint work end-to-end for every type without blocking on every adapter being finished. - Vite dev server proxies `/api` → `http://localhost:4000` (`vite.config.ts`) so the frontend can call relative `/api/...` paths in both dev and prod (prod routes `/api` to the backend container via NPM). - Next steps (not yet done): build the enrollment/login frontend pages, strip the mock arrays out of Glance/Infrastructure/BookNest/Settings and replace with calls to this API, add bookmark category seeding. ## Future Integration Notes ### Live Provider Data (AWS, Linode, etc.) - All KPI/status card data (resource counts, health, pricing, budgets, cost breakdowns, utilization, regions/map data) is currently mocked/static. - The Infrastructure page (and likely Glance) should eventually integrate with real cloud provider APIs — AWS, Linode, or any other VPC/cloud provider — via user-supplied API keys, to pull live data such as: - Resource inventory/counts and health status - Pricing and budget/cost data (replacing the static Cost Breakdown numbers) - Resource utilization metrics - Region/datacenter info for the Infrastructure Map - Design the data layer so it's provider-agnostic (a common interface/adapter per provider) since users may connect more than one provider's API key.