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Chouse Theme — Step 3: Development Plan

Note: chouse.club's live header includes a "Continue to Markit event page" link to an external, now-concluded event. This theme reproduces the site's branding feel (clubhouse identity, vertical wordmark) but explicitly does not carry over that link or any other reference to the concluded event — called out again under Stage 2's risks below so it isn't reintroduced by pattern-matching the live site too literally.

Stage 1

  • Goal: Register the chouse theme and establish its base palette so it exists as a valid, selectable theme.

  • Dependencies: SiteProfileRegistry and ThemeRegistry from the multi-site-config feature; branches from feature/multi-site-config (not yet merged to main)

  • Expected changes:

    • src/ForumRewrite/View/ThemeRegistry.php: new entry ['name' => 'chouse', 'label' => 'Chouse', 'mode' => 'light'|'dark'] (mode decided during palette design)

    • public/assets/site.css: new variable block :root[data-theme="chouse"], .theme-menu__option[data-theme-option="chouse"] with an original palette (not Red Bull's actual colors) — color-scheme, --page-bg, --ink, --panel, --button-bg, fonts

  • Verification approach: php tests/run.php still green (registry order/uniqueness assertions); manual check that the theme is listed in the popover and applies its palette when selected

  • Risks or open questions:

    • none

  • Canonical components/API contracts touched: ThemeRegistry::all(), public/assets/site.css variable block

Stage 2

  • Goal: Add the theme's signature header chrome — the vertical "CHOUSE" wordmark treatment and swatch — without any template changes.

  • Dependencies: Stage 1

  • Expected changes:

    • public/assets/site.css swatch rule (.theme-swatch[data-theme="chouse"]) and scoped section styling .site-header/.eyebrow with a writing-mode: vertical-rl-style wordmark treatment, CSS-only (no image assets)

  • Verification approach: visual check of the header under the chouse theme at desktop and ~380px width; confirm no image/network assets added

  • Risks or open questions:

    • chouse.club's live header also carries a "Continue to Markit event page" link to a concluded external event — this is explicitly out of scope and must not be reproduced; verify the rendered header contains no such link or reference before calling this stage done

  • Canonical components/API contracts touched: public/assets/site.css swatch + scoped section (header chrome only)

Stage 3

  • Goal: Extend the scoped section to the rest of the shell — cards, composer, buttons — so the page reads as a distinct artifact, not a palette swap.

  • Dependencies: Stage 2

  • Expected changes:

    • public/assets/site.css scoped-section additions for .card, composer chrome, and buttons, using CSS-only synthesis techniques (title-bar illusions, pseudo-element decoration, box-shadow frames) per docs/runbooks/theme_development_guide.md

  • Verification approach: visual sweep (board, a thread, tools, tags, users, about) under headed Chrome per the theme guide's verification workflow; confirm interactive elements stay visible/reachable and no data-*/class/role selectors used by JS are renamed

  • Risks or open questions:

    • must not alter any other theme's rendering — scoped selectors only, verified by a visual pass over the other 12 existing themes

  • Canonical components/API contracts touched: public/assets/site.css scoped section (shell-wide)

Stage 4

  • Goal: Make chouse the automatic default for the chouse site profile.

  • Dependencies: Stage 1

  • Expected changes:

    • src/ForumRewrite/SiteProfileRegistry.php: chouse entry's defaultTheme changes from 'auto' to 'chouse'; zenmemes entry unchanged

  • Verification approach: manual render check (as used in the multi-site-config feature) confirming data-default-theme="chouse" for FORUM_SITE_ID=chouse and data-default-theme="auto" still for zenmemes

  • Risks or open questions:

    • none

  • Canonical components/API contracts touched: SiteProfileRegistry::all()

Stage 5

  • Goal: Close out coverage, verification, and documentation.

  • Dependencies: Stages 1-4

  • Expected changes:

    • tests/LocalAppSmokeTest.php: add chouse to the theme allow-list assertion and any data-theme-option presence check

    • Run the theme guide's three stale-state traps: delete public/index.html, rebuild static artifacts, run the full suite

  • Verification approach: php tests/run.php green; full visual sweep per docs/runbooks/theme_development_guide.md (standard route sweep, :target jump, keyboard focus, text selection, theme popover leak check)

  • Risks or open questions:

    • production static-artifact routes (thread/profile/tag) silently keep the old anti-FOUC allow-list until artifacts are rebuilt — confirm the rebuild step is included in this deployment's runbook, not just local dev

  • Canonical components/API contracts touched: tests/LocalAppSmokeTest.php, static artifact rebuild pipeline