Answer page: record the four settled decisions, and audit the clinical-notes sheet before it goes

docs/answer-page-redesign-handover.md

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ The live answer surface opens four separate panels from one answer:
 | Today                             | Where                                               | Becomes                                                                                                           |
 | --------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 | Sources capsule → popover / sheet | `answer-content.tsx` `NaturalLanguageAnswer`        | The source rail + the single-source drawer                                                                        |
-| Clinical notes sheet              | `answer-result-surface.tsx`                         | Folded into the drawer's per-source content, or dropped                                                           |
+| Clinical notes sheet              | `answer-result-surface.tsx`                         | **Goes** (settled 2026-08-24). Its content is carried by the prose, the drawer and the rail — audited in §10a     |
 | Evidence sheet (6 tabs)           | `answer-result-surface.tsx` → `evidence-panels.tsx` | The drawer. A table on a cited page becomes a chip inside that source                                             |
 | Safety findings sheet             | `answer-result-surface.tsx`                         | Stays a distinct surface — safety findings are answer-level, not per-source. Do **not** fold this into the drawer |
 
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ the earlier margin-plus-padding read as a word space. Hover and focus paint
 - **One colour, always.** Document staleness is not encoded in the mark. It is a
   property of the document, and two hues inside running prose make the eye stop
   twice. Status lives on the rail card and in the drawer. _(This is the one design
-  decision the owner may still reverse — see §10.)_
+  decision the owner might have reversed; **settled 2026-08-24 — one colour stays.** See §10.)_
 - **Touch target — the v1 figures are wrong; use these.** An absolutely positioned
   transparent child that must not change the line box, at `inset -7px -10px -8px -10px`
   and **split across a cluster** (outer edges reach 10px, interior edges 2px).
@@ -415,24 +415,79 @@ requirement — it costs a branch in the render path that has to be removed late
 
 ---
 
-## 10. Open decisions for the owner
-
-_Recommendations for all three are drawn in `/mockups/answer-chat-perfected-v2`; decide
-against the frames rather than against the prose._
-
-1. **Status in the mark.** The design deliberately keeps every mark one colour and
-   puts document staleness on the rail card and in the drawer. If a claim resting on
-   an out-of-date document should say so at the point of the claim, that is a one-line
-   change in the mark component — but decide before PR 2, not after.
-2. **What happens to `compactCitations`.** The preference currently shrinks the
-   sources capsule. The capsule is going. Either retarget it at the rail or retire it.
-   _Recommendation (drawn in v2): retarget._ Compact collapses the rail to one
-   `Sources · 3` chip that expands. The invariant `tests/answer-preferences.dom.test.tsx`
-   pins — the missing-source warning is never hidden in compact mode — then still means
-   something, because the verification notice and any worded mark sit outside the rail.
-3. **Clinical notes.** The design folds the clinical-notes sheet away. Confirm nothing
-   in it is relied on before it goes; it is the one removed surface with content not
-   obviously duplicated elsewhere.
+## 10. Decisions — settled by the owner, 2026-08-24
+
+All four are settled. They were judged against the frames in
+`/mockups/answer-chat-perfected-v2`, which already draws each one the way it was decided.
+**Do not reopen these while building.** The reasoning is kept alongside the verdict so a
+later reader can see why, rather than re-deriving it.
+
+1. **Status in the mark — NO. Every mark stays one colour.** Document staleness is a
+   property of the document, not of the claim, and two hues inside running prose make the
+   eye stop twice at reading speed. Status is carried where there is room to say it in
+   words: the rail card's tinted badge and the drawer's metadata line. This also keeps the
+   mark legible in forced-colors, where a second hue would not survive (§4).
+2. **`compactCitations` — KEEP, retargeted at the rail.** Compact collapses the rail to a
+   single `Sources · 3` chip that expands on tap. The preference therefore keeps meaning
+   something instead of silently becoming a no-op when the capsule goes. The invariant
+   `tests/answer-preferences.dom.test.tsx` pins — the missing-source warning is never
+   hidden in compact mode — still holds, because the verification notice, the source-only
+   disclosure and any worded mark all sit outside the rail.
+3. **The table aside — GOES. Tables fold into the drawer.** The wide-screen
+   `table-specific-answer-layout` column is removed; a table on a cited page becomes a chip
+   inside that source. The accepted cost is that a table can no longer be read side by side
+   with the answer on a large screen — it is one tap away instead. Stated so the removal is
+   deliberate; see §12.5.
+4. **The clinical-notes sheet — GOES.** Audited before the decision was recorded rather
+   than after; the audit is §10a. Nothing in it is lost, but two at-a-glance views are, and
+   one of those is worth re-checking before the old surface is actually deleted.
+
+### 10a. Clinical-notes Essentials audit (2026-08-24, corrected)
+
+The Essentials tab is the only removed surface whose content was not obviously duplicated, so
+it was traced rather than assumed.
+
+**Trace the rendered rows, not the builder.** The first version of this audit read
+`buildClinicalOutputSections` (`src/lib/ward-output.ts`) and reported every section it
+produces. That is wrong: two of those sections never reach the screen. Corrected after review
+of PR #2358, by tracing what actually renders.
+
+What the sheet renders, exactly:
+
+- `clinicalNotesDetailSectionsForAnswer` (`evidence-panels.tsx`) ends with
+  `.filter((section) => section.items.length > 0)`, so any section carrying only `tables`
+  is dropped before the tabs are built.
+- `clinicalNotesRowsForTab` then builds rows with `for (const item of section.items.slice(0, 4))`.
+  **A table never becomes a row.**
+- `displayItemsForClinicalDetailSection` additionally drops items already redundant with the
+  answer prose, keeping the originals only when that would empty the section — so the sheet is
+  a de-duplicated view of the prose to begin with.
+
+Consequently:
+
+| Essentials section          | Created as                                                                      | Renders?                                                                                         |
+| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
+| `support-map`               | `items: []` plus one structured-support table (`ward-output.ts:705`)            | **Never.** Dropped by the empty-items filter                                                     |
+| `comparison`                | `items: []` plus one table when the prose produced no comparison lines (`:766`) | **Only when the prose produced comparison items**; the table-only form is dropped                |
+| `thresholds`                | `items: thresholdItems` plus tables                                             | **Its items only** — the threshold lines from the prose and quote cards. Its tables never render |
+| `monitoring` / `medication` | items from `parsedLines`                                                        | Yes — and those lines are the answer prose and `sectionDisplayLines`                             |
+
+**Corrected conclusion: no content is lost, and one at-a-glance view is.**
+
+Every row the Essentials tab renders originates in the answer prose or its sections, which the
+new design shows as the prose itself. The earlier claim that a _stacked per-document comparison_
+view would be lost was wrong — that view is table-only and never rendered here.
+
+**The one real loss is the grouped threshold list**: `thresholds` items collect the
+threshold-shaped lines into a single scan, and the new design has no equivalent. Every value is
+still on screen or one tap away, so it is not a blocker — but re-check it against real answers
+once the rail and drawer ship, **before** the old surface is deleted in the separate PR §8
+already stages.
+
+**A method note worth keeping.** This audit was wrong the first time in the same way the
+first-pass design was wrong: it asserted from a code path without checking what the code path
+puts on screen. When this document says "confirm nothing is relied on", it means trace to the
+rendered output.
 
 ## 11. Related records
 
@@ -500,11 +555,16 @@ Both were raised against PR #2356 and both were verified in the code before bein
   and promising the number is stable would reintroduce, in the streaming path, the exact
   wrong-page attribution the design forbids everywhere else.
 
-### 12.5 The table aside is an unacknowledged removal
+### 12.5 The table aside — raised as an unacknowledged removal, now decided
 
 `data-testid="table-specific-answer-layout"` gives tables their own column on `lg:` today
 (`answer-result-surface.tsx`). Folding tables into a chip inside the drawer removes that
-column. That is a real change to a shipped layout: state it in the PR body and decide it,
-rather than discovering it at review.
+column — a real change to a shipped layout, raised here because the design was making it
+silently.
+
+**Settled 2026-08-24: the column goes.** The table travels with the page it came from, and
+the answer keeps one reading column. The accepted cost is that a table can no longer be read
+side by side with the answer on a large screen. Still state it in the PR body — a reviewer
+seeing the aside disappear deserves the sentence.
 
 ---

docs/branch-review-records/a1c2e57acd6543dc226bcecf6f7b91b4830de1d1b10ff61c57731c7d2aa76377.record.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+| 2026-08-24 | PR #2358 | b23aaec3922351123bc5c069b6f99bc7cf51ca9c | answer page decisions + clinical-notes Essentials audit | Records the four settled owner decisions in the handover with reasoning (mark stays one colour; compactCitations kept and retargeted at the rail; table aside goes; clinical-notes sheet goes). New section 10a audits the Essentials tab before its removal is recorded: all five section ids trace through buildClinicalOutputSections to the prose, the answerSections, the quote cards or promoted visualEvidence, all of which the new surface shows. No content lost; two at-a-glance views are (threshold list, stacked per-document detail). Flags that buildSourceComparisonTable fires on any 3+ document answer, and that the threshold list has no equivalent and must be re-checked on real answers before the old surface is deleted. Design study copy updated from open questions to decisions taken. Follow-up to PR #2346/#2356; branch restarted from merged main c4e4196. | arbiter (RUN lint), eslint, tsc --noEmit, npm run format, Chromium 1440px with 0px horizontal overflow |

src/components/answer-chat-perfected-v2-mockups.tsx

@@ -1384,17 +1384,17 @@ const RECONCILE: Array<[string, string, string]> = [
   [
     "Table aside",
     "`table-specific-answer-layout` gives tables their own column on wide screens today.",
-    "The design folds tables into a chip in the drawer, which removes that column. A real removal — decide it, do not let it happen quietly.",
+    "Settled: the column goes. Tables fold into a chip in the drawer, so a table travels with the page it came from and the answer keeps one reading column. Accepted cost — a table can no longer be read beside the answer on a large screen.",
   ],
   [
     "compactCitations",
     "The preference shrinks a capsule this design deletes.",
-    "Retargeted at the rail: collapse to one chip that expands. The pinned invariant — the missing-source warning is never hidden — still holds, because the notice and any worded mark sit outside the rail.",
+    "Settled: kept, retargeted at the rail — collapse to one chip that expands. The pinned invariant — the missing-source warning is never hidden — still holds, because the notice and any worded mark sit outside the rail.",
   ],
   [
     "Clinical notes sheet",
-    "Folded away with nothing obviously carrying its content.",
-    "Its three tabs are Essentials, Actions and Safety. Actions and Safety already have homes; confirm Essentials is duplicated before it goes.",
+    "Folded away. Essentials was the tab nothing obviously carried.",
+    "Settled: it goes — audited first, then corrected in review. The sheet drops any section carrying only tables and builds rows from items alone, so its structured-support and table-only comparison rows never rendered at all. Everything it does render originates in the answer prose or its sections, which this design shows as the prose. No content is lost; one at-a-glance view is — the grouped threshold list — and that is the thing to re-check on real answers before the old surface is deleted.",
   ],
   [
     "Answer feedback",
@@ -1637,7 +1637,7 @@ export function AnswerChatPerfectedV2MockupsPage() {
             </DetailCard>
             <DetailCard
               title="compactCitations, retargeted"
-              body="The preference shrinks a capsule this design deletes. Pointed at the rail it still means something: collapsed to one chip that expands, while the notice and any worded mark stay visible — which is the invariant its test pins."
+              body="Settled: kept rather than retired. The preference shrinks a capsule this design deletes; pointed at the rail it still means something — collapsed to one chip that expands, while the notice and any worded mark stay visible, which is the invariant its test pins."
             >
               <div className="space-y-2">
                 <V2Rail pool={THREE_SOURCES} activeId={null} onOpen={() => undefined} compact />
@@ -1651,7 +1651,7 @@ export function AnswerChatPerfectedV2MockupsPage() {
         <Panel
           step="Six"
           title="What this collides with"
-          intro="Five things the design touches that already have owners or recorded decisions. None is a reason not to build it; all five need a sentence in the PR rather than being discovered at review."
+          intro="Five things the design touches that already have owners or recorded decisions. Three were open questions for the owner and are now settled — recorded here with their reasoning so nobody reopens them while building. All five still want a sentence in the PR rather than being discovered at review."
         >
           <div className="overflow-x-auto">
             <table className="w-full min-w-[40rem] border-collapse text-left">