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Repository source: docs/plans/nav_active_theme_override/nav_active_theme_override_debug_log.md

nav_active_theme_override — Railspike debug log

2026-10-19T19:08Z — Step 1

Debug mode resolved from the project marker .railspike_debug_on (new workflow, no explicit request).

RAILSPIKE.md › Key Rules, "Step 1 starts with ## Original Query… ## Understood Intent": useful. The user did not remember Midnight's color, and Understood Intent made room to record the color from the stylesheet without editing the query. Keep it.
step1_solution_assessment.md › Structure, "Problem statement (1 sentence)": useful as a forcing function, but this bug needed 3 sentences to explain the cause and the "sometimes correct" symptom. Clarify that bug fixes may state the cause briefly.
RAILSPIKE.md › Debug Mode, project-default marker rules: needed to resolve the mode without asking. Keep.

step1_solution_assessment.md › Effort estimation: inapplicable to an unselected cycle, but it still had to be read and evaluated. Consider stating it once in RAILSPIKE.md only.

Follow-up Cycles Before Merge; Documentation-only scope: not relevant to Step 1 of a new cycle.

Step 1 is optional. For a bug with one clear root cause, Step 1 mostly compares fix scope rather than approaches. A note about when bug fixes should skip to Step 2 might help, but the user explicitly asked for Step 1 here.

step2_feature_description.md › Structure, "Shared component inventory: enumerate every existing UI/API surface": useful. Listing the surfaces showed that six other themes define their own selected-nav rule and would also change with Option B, which became the top risk. Keep it.
step2_feature_description.md › "Risks (2–4): impact, earliest validation, mitigation": useful for raising the visible cross-theme change before planning. Keep it.

step2_feature_description.md › "User stories" for a single-symptom CSS regression: three stories mostly repeat the same need. Consider letting bug fixes use one story.

Known user or environment (no specific user, machine, or environment named); Documentation-only scope fields; Effort estimation (unselected cycle).

"Completion boundary" vs. "Success criteria" overlap noticeably for small bug fixes. Merging them might help, but this is not established by one cycle.

step3_development_plan_do.md › "Resolve each material risk before dependent work begins": useful. It put the screenshot review in Stage 2, before any theme adjustment, and gave the user a decision point. Keep it.
step3_development_plan_after.md › item 3, "completes the Contract through normal UI/CLI": useful. It prompted a fresh-load browser check instead of relying only on CSS tests. Keep it.

step3_development_plan_do.md › "Include planned function signatures when relevant" and "Document database changes conceptually": inapplicable to a CSS fix. "When relevant" already covers this; no change needed.

Known user or environment replay stage; Documentation-only scope; Effort estimation (unselected cycle).

The before/do/after split cost three file reads for a three-stage plan. For small plans, the before checklist could be merged into do; one cycle is not enough evidence.

step4_implementation_do.md › Stage Boundary Protocol, "Run applicable verification… capture commands/results": useful. It prompted rerunning the failing PHP tests against the original CSS, which showed all 6 failures were pre-existing.
step4_implementation_after.md › item 7, "Identify reproduced baseline failures": useful, and directly applied. Keep it.
RAILSPIKE.md › Key Rules, "Report Step 4 checks as passed, failed, blocked, pending, or inapplicable": helped state honestly that Stages 2–3 were not done when the user ended the cycle early.

Effort estimation (unselected cycle); Follow-up Cycles Before Merge; Documentation-only scope.

Railspike has no explicit guidance for a user ending Step 4 early, with planned stages unstarted, and asking to merge. The minimum commit count rule (1 + stages) can't be met. A short "early closeout" rule (record the unstarted stages, disposition and follow-up) might help.
The project's "review before commit" preference conflicts with Railspike's commit-before-next-stage cadence. Pausing for review at each stage boundary resolved it here, but neither document mentions the other.