Epic: Life Chronicle — analyst workstation UI

[splaice]

Summary

Build the Life Chronicle application per the normative handoff spec: a private, authenticated, desktop-first analyst workstation over the maildb archive. Root experience is a zoomable, evidence-backed chronology; Research Desk, Topic Atlas, People, Files, Reader, Workspaces, and Data Health are secondary lenses sharing one working set.

• Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-13-life-chronicle-spec.md (+ wireframes)
• Plan & architecture: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-07-13-life-chronicle-plan.md
• Execution: Claude plans/coordinates/reviews; Grok (grok-4.5 @ max, cheap-coder workflow) implements. Driver skill: .claude/skills/chronicle-build.

Architecture (decided)

Monorepo apps/chronicle/{server,web} — FastAPI + pydantic v2 (uv workspace, imports the maildb library) and React + TS + Vite + Tailwind (pnpm). Custom Canvas timeline with accessible table alternatives. Additive app_* tables only; source tables immutable. Session auth (argon2) structured for future multi-user; passkeys in hardening. Ollama-first model gateway with per-action policy + audit.

Phase checklist

• Phase 0 — Archive adapter & foundation: (PR feat(chronicle): Phase 0 — archive adapter & foundation #106) server+web scaffolds, auth, archive summary, source contracts + sanitizer, Data Health basics
• Phase 1 — Chronicle foundation: (PR feat(chronicle): Phase 1 — Chronicle foundation #107) time buckets, timeline canvas + density navigator, working set/URL state, inspector + reader, people lane, focus mode
• Phase 2 — Research & evidence: (PR feat(chronicle): Phase 2 — Research & evidence #108) hybrid/exact/semantic search, NL interpret, Research Desk, /api/ask SSE + citations + model gateway, files browser/preview, workspaces v1 + manifest export
• Phase 3 — Chronicle intelligence: (PR feat(chronicle): Phase 3 — Chronicle intelligence #109) event schema + generation, reconstruction, confirm/edit/dismiss, compare mode
• Phase 4 — Secondary exploration: (PR feat(chronicle): Phase 4 — secondary exploration #110) topics subsystem + Topic Atlas, people/org profiles + ego graph, version families
• Phase 5 — Hardening: (PR feat(chronicle): Phase 5 — hardening & release #111) WCAG 2.2 AA, security review, archive-scale perf, redaction, passkeys, release gates (spec §19.6)

Leverage & gaps

Existing backend covers most of Phase 0-2 data needs (search_all RRF, threads, attachments+extraction, contacts subsystem = §7 identity resolution). Net-new: HTTP API, frontend, auth, topics, events, citations, workspaces, exports.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01XP7M17NHxw6mjpTFtMqwZu