Frontend walkthrough polish and bugfix pass
From the PR description
Motivation
- Improve the V1 authenticated walkthrough (Log in/bypass → Upload document → Ask Gary → Get cited answer) by fixing UX friction, broken routes, unclear labels, and opaque backend errors without adding new backend code.
- Make the dev auth bypass visible but unobtrusive so developers can test the flow safely while not permanently changing authentication behavior.
- Surface friendly, non-technical messaging for features that cannot function until the backend is connected.
- Keep changes small and frontend-only, avoiding API/DB/schema changes or new provider keys.
Description
- Surface upload failures in the assistant entry view by adding an
uploadErrorstate and friendly fallback copy so uploads fail with:This will be available once GaryOSS is connected to the backend.(src/app/components/assistant/InitialView.tsx). - Rename the primary sidebar item from
AssistanttoAsk Garyto match the intended user journey and make the main action clearer (src/app/components/shared/AppSidebar.tsx). - Fix desktop sidebar persistence by saving the correct desktop state variable (
isSidebarOpenDesktop) tolocalStorageso the open/closed preference is preserved correctly (src/app/(pages)/layout.tsx). - Replace generic "Could not start... Try again." errors in Review and Draft flows with the friendly backend-unavailable message so users see a clear explanation when backend-dependent actions cannot complete (
src/app/(pages)/review/page.tsx,src/app/(pages)/draft/page.tsx). - Add a small, nonintrusive dev-bypass notice on the auth pages when
NEXT_PUBLIC_GARY_SKIP_AUTH=trueso the bypass is obvious but doesn't dominate the UI (src/app/login/page.tsx,src/app/signup/page.tsx). - No backend files, API contracts, or database schema were changed; all edits are frontend-only and scoped to UX polishing and safety messaging.
Testing
- Ran
npm run lintinfrontendwhich executed but surfaced many pre-existing lint errors across the repo; this PR did not introduce new lint rules and the lint run failed due to unrelated, repo-wide issues (output recorded). - Ran
npm run buildinfrontendwhich failed in this environment due to inability to fetch Google Fonts during the Next.js/Turbopack build, causing the production build to error (network/font fetch limitation in CI environment). - No backend automated tests were run as this change intentionally avoids backend/deployment work and only adds user-facing fallback copy.
Our analysis
Frontend polish for the Ask Gary walkthrough — read the full analysis →
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Commits in this PR (1)
| SHA | Subject | Author | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
d3b7ad48 | Frontend walkthrough polish and bugfix pass | Zack Brenner | 2026-05-07 | ↗ GitHub |
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