Compact Mode Cleanup Step 3 Development Plan

Stage 1

• Goal: Establish the current compact-mode layout and focused regression contract before changing styles.

• Dependencies: Approved Step 2; clean target files; existing compact-mode implementation remains the baseline.

• Expected changes: Inspect the board controls, compact composer, thread-list structure, and current stylesheet cascade; extend focused assertions only where the intended scoped selectors need protection.

• Verification approach: Run the focused smoke test and capture a baseline screenshot of compact board mode.

• Risks or open questions: Existing theme-specific card rules may affect selector ordering or require a narrowly scoped exception.

• Canonical components/API contracts touched: public/assets/site.css, tests/LocalAppSmokeTest.php, existing board/thread-list templates.

Stage 2

• Goal: Remove unnecessary outer chrome and spacing around compact controls and the compact composer while preserving their internal appearance.

• Dependencies: Stage 1 baseline.

• Expected changes: Add or adjust compact-only stylesheet rules for the board controls container and the compact thread composer so they align with the surrounding list surface without changing button, field, or action styling.

• Verification approach: Run the focused smoke test, check stylesheet formatting, and manually compare the controls/composer against the baseline screenshot.

• Risks or open questions: Responsive card padding rules may override earlier compact declarations; final selectors must be scoped and ordered to win only in compact mode.

• Canonical components/API contracts touched: public/assets/site.css, existing board controls and compact composer markup.

Stage 3

• Goal: Remove compact thread-list side rails while retaining intended row separators and finish regression verification.

• Dependencies: Stage 2 committed and visually verified.

• Expected changes: Remove only the left/right borders from direct compact thread-list cards; preserve top/bottom separators, comfortable mode, and non-board pages. Update focused CSS assertions and the Step 4 implementation summary.

• Verification approach: Run the focused smoke test, git diff --check, the full test suite, and a manual screenshot review confirming no vertical rails and no unintended layout changes.

• Risks or open questions: Theme-specific borders may differ; if so, keep any exception limited to the compact thread-list selector rather than changing shared card styling.

• Canonical components/API contracts touched: public/assets/site.css, tests/LocalAppSmokeTest.php, docs/plans/compact_mode_menu_buttons_step4_implementation_summary.md.

Approval Gate

• Create the Step 4 feature branch only after explicit Approved Step 3.

• Commit the approved Step 1–3 planning documents as the first Step 4 commit, then implement one stage at a time with a summary update and stage-scoped commit.