From 911b8953123ed6d15216d3d8fa5767795180b007 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Timothy Koech <timosville@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2026 13:16:32 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] refactor: update path normalization for language switching
 and add tests for story creation redirects

---
 src/frontend/shared/helpers.ts         |  5 ++++-
 tests/unit/replaceLocaleInPath.spec.ts | 10 ++++++++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/frontend/shared/helpers.ts b/src/frontend/shared/helpers.ts
index aabe7672..7df68df4 100644
--- a/src/frontend/shared/helpers.ts
+++ b/src/frontend/shared/helpers.ts
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ export function parentPathForBack(pathname: string): string | null {
   return null;
 }
 
-/** Redirect chapter preview paths to the story index before switching locale. */
+/** Redirect unsafe paths to a locale-switchable parent before swapping locale. */
 export function normalizePathForLanguageSwitch(pathname: string): string {
   const segments = pathname.split('/').filter(Boolean);
   if (
@@ -414,6 +414,9 @@ export function normalizePathForLanguageSwitch(pathname: string): string {
   ) {
     return `/${segments.slice(0, 3).join('/')}`;
   }
+  if (segments.length === 3 && segments[1] === 'story' && segments[2] === 'create') {
+    return `/${segments.slice(0, 2).join('/')}`;
+  }
   return pathname;
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/replaceLocaleInPath.spec.ts b/tests/unit/replaceLocaleInPath.spec.ts
index ad6cf494..5f3fe1e9 100644
--- a/tests/unit/replaceLocaleInPath.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/replaceLocaleInPath.spec.ts
@@ -105,11 +105,21 @@ test.describe('normalizePathForLanguageSwitch', () => {
     expect(normalizePathForLanguageSwitch('/en/dashboard')).toBe('/en/dashboard');
   });
 
+  test('redirects story create to story gallery', () => {
+    expect(normalizePathForLanguageSwitch('/en/story/create')).toBe('/en/story');
+  });
+
   test('combined with replaceLocaleInPath redirects chapter to translated story index', () => {
     const pathname = '/en/story/1/chapter/3';
     const normalized = normalizePathForLanguageSwitch(pathname);
     expect(replaceLocaleInPath(normalized, 'fr', locales)).toBe('/fr/story/1');
   });
+
+  test('combined with replaceLocaleInPath redirects story create to translated story gallery', () => {
+    const pathname = '/en/story/create';
+    const normalized = normalizePathForLanguageSwitch(pathname);
+    expect(replaceLocaleInPath(normalized, 'fr', locales)).toBe('/fr/story');
+  });
 });
 
 test.describe('parentPathForBack', () => {