Define and enforce shuttle open/closed semantics: which user actions the deadline and status should guard

[mithro]

Background

Investigation during #312 / PR #314 showed the platform has no single definition of a "closed" shuttle, and the two closure signals (status and submission_deadline) are enforced inconsistently. As of #314, staff slot assignment is (correctly) never blocked — but user-facing operations have gaps.

There are two closure signals on Shuttle:

• status — manually flipped by staff (open → full/locked/production/…). Nothing changes it automatically.
• submission_deadline — seeded from the published schedule (23:59:59 AoE), but after fix(shuttles): never block staff slot assignment on shuttle state #314 it influences exactly one thing platform-wide: a warning string on the staff assignment dashboard. No user-facing page displays or enforces it. The ["status", "submission_deadline"] DB index is never used by any query.

The other schedule dates (production_start_date, estimated_completion_date, actual_completion_date) are staff/admin display only, which is fine.

Live example: G802's deadline passed on 2026-07-15 11:59:59 UTC. Unless staff manually flipped its status, it is still open — so it is still offered (and is the default, being the oldest open shuttle) for new projects, and users can still upload new GDS files against it.

Current state (verified by tests)

User action	Guarded by status?	Guarded by deadline?
Create project against shuttle	✅ form queryset filters status=open	❌ not checked
Change shuttle / project ID / slot size	✅ always locked after creation for non-staff (CORE_FIELDS, #297) — stronger than shuttle-based	(n/a)
Toggle chip_on_board (packaging — cancels/requeues manufacturability checks)	❌ USER_FIELD, always editable	❌
Submit a new design file (ProjectFileSubmitURLView → submit_file_from_url)	❌ no check	❌
Submit project for manufacturing (Project.can_submit())	❌ no check	❌
Edit license / repository URL / name / description / CS order ID	✅ correctly NOT guarded	✅ correctly NOT guarded
Staff: assign/unassign slots	✅ correctly never blocked (#314, warning only)	✅ warning only

Proposed policy

Definition: a shuttle is closed to users when status != open or submission_deadline has passed. Suggest a single property, e.g. Shuttle.is_open_for_submissions, as the one source of truth.

When the shuttle is closed, users must NOT be able to:

1. Create a new project against it (fix: also exclude deadline-passed shuttles from the create-form queryset and the default-shuttle pick).
2. Submit a new design file (fix: guard ProjectFileSubmitURLView / submit_file_from_url; hide the upload button with an explanatory notice).
3. Change any manufacturing-affecting setting — including chip_on_board, which today is a freely editable USER_FIELD despite cancelling and re-queuing manufacturability checks on change.
4. Submit the project for manufacturing (fix: add shuttle check to can_submit() with a clear reason string).

Must remain possible when closed:

• Users editing non-manufacturing fields: name, description, visibility, license fields, repository URL, CrowdSupply order ID (behaviour verified working today; keep it, add regression tests).
• Staff: everything — slot assignment/removal (fix(shuttles): never block staff slot assignment on shuttle state #314), and staff bypass of field locks as already implemented.

User-facing visibility: users currently have no way to see a shuttle's deadline anywhere in the platform. The project form / detail page should show the deadline and a "closed" state instead of failing opaquely.

Open questions

1. Should the deadline auto-close a shuttle (computed property, as proposed) or should we keep status manual and just add an alert/cron that nags staff to flip it? Computed property avoids the G802 situation recurring.
2. Is chip_on_board the only USER_FIELD that affects manufacturing, or should the field taxonomy gain a third class (MANUFACTURING_USER_FIELDS) locked by shuttle closure while remaining user-editable when open?
3. Grace handling: staff sometimes accept late GDS changes. Is the staff-bypass (already in place for core fields) sufficient, or do we need a per-project "late submission allowed" override?

References

• Staff slot assignment blocked when shuttle is closed or deadline has passed #312 / PR fix(shuttles): never block staff slot assignment on shuttle state #314 — staff slot assignment unblocked; removed dead Shuttle.can_accept_projects() (was the only deadline enforcement, applied to the wrong actor)
• Edit Project: locked shuttle/slot-size fields show wrong shuttle, block saving, and render as dropdowns when shuttle is no longer open #297 — core-field locking for non-staff (shuttle, project ID, slot size)
• Migration shuttles/0009 — seeds G801/G802 schedule dates (23:59:59 AoE)

[coderabbitai]

🔗 Related PRs

#194 - Refactor ManufacturabilityCheck from OneToOneField to ForeignKey [closed]
#220 - fix: unified project form allowing users to edit and create projects [closed]
#280 - Update G802 layout to 6x9 grid and apply published GF180MCU schedule [merged]
#294 - Show CrowdSupply order number and CoB packaging across project views [merged]
#311 - Separate 'manufacturable' from 'submitted for manufacturing' and show per-revision status on the slot assignment page [open]

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