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Does the Overlay survive project scale #11

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@stueydubs

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Does the Overlay survive project scale, and at what cost?

The Overlay is a hand-rolled UI in a single file with no framework. Release 0.8.0 was spent almost entirely on its footprint and reachability: it still takes roughly 26% of a 1280px window once something is selected and roughly 61% of a 360px one, Peek exists because the chrome takes the page's clicks, and below 520px the properties panel becomes a bottom sheet. CONTEXT.md also records three JS-to-CSS layout channels that exist because CSS cannot ask "how tall did that render" or "did that wrap".

Project scope adds a project picker, a file tree and page navigation. That is a different quantity of UI on top of a surface that is already fighting for room.

Resolve:

  • Whether project-level UI lives inside the Overlay or beside it - a separate chrome that owns the project and hands one page at a time to the existing Overlay. The second is likely cheaper and keeps 0.8.0's footprint work intact.
  • Whether the Overlay gets rebuilt, extended, or left alone.
  • Whether a UI framework enters the project, and how that interacts with the zero-dependency decision being resolved for the writer. Answering these two independently is how a codebase ends up with one vendored dependency and one npm dependency for no stated reason.
  • What happens to Peek, the three measured layout channels, and the bottom-sheet breakpoint if the chrome changes shape.

A rough prototype is likely worth more here than argument - the question is "how should it look and behave", which is what makes this a prototype ticket rather than a grilling one.

Blocked on the Project definition, since there is nothing to browse until Project means something.

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    wayfinder:prototypeDecision ticket resolved by making something rough to react to (HITL)

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