selfpost/docs/plans/panel-redesign.md

Plan: panel-redesign

Status: candidate
Date: 2026-09-21 (replaces the 2026-09-08 givens)
Version: 2.0.0 MAJOR — a breaking release by the owner's decision (§ No compatibility).

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What this file is

The design contract for the control panel and the plan to implement it. The design itself is drawn and accepted:

Artefact	Role
docs/assets/panel-redesign/panel/	33 screens — the reference for what each page looks like
panel/components.html	every component in every state — the only parts a page may be built from
panel/outlines.json	the component skeleton of each screen, generated from the mockups
panel/check.py	the contract as a program; its rules are ported to Go tests below

When this file and a mockup disagree, the mockup wins and this file is fixed. When an implementation and a mockup disagree, the implementation is wrong.

The 2026-09-08 givens ("no component library, Web Awesome layout CSS only") are withdrawn. docs/assets/panel-ui/ and the stage-1 directions a/, b/, c/ are history, not a brief.

Goal

A panel an operator opens a few times a year and still finds their way in: the important things in view, details one or two clicks away, one visual language on every page, and no page that tunes its own width.

Delivery constraints (unchanged)

Constraint	Where
Go html/template, server-rendered; htmx 2.x for polled fragments	internal/web/view/
Assets embedded (//go:embed), no CDN at runtime	view.go
CSP default-src 'self' — no inline script, no style=""	security.go
State changes are native HTML POST; no script is the only way to submit	templates
New front-end is MIT-or-better and listed in NOTICE	NOTICE

Bulma was chosen partly because it needs nothing from this table relaxed: no JavaScript, no data: URIs.

Information architecture

Navigation is grouped by mail direction. Page titles carry the group (Outbound domains, Inbound log); menu entries do not repeat it.

Group	Pages	Today
Overview	Overview	/status (verdicts only)
Outbound	Domains · Log · Queue · DMARC reports	/domains, /deliveries, /mail-queue, /dmarc
Inbound	Domains · Log · Queue	/inbound; Log and Queue are new
Server	Health · System log · Backup · Users · Settings	Health is new (the tables that left /status)
User menu	Account · Help · Sign out	Account is the credentials half of /settings

A hidden page leaves no gap in the menu. The inbound and DMARC feature flags stay as in web.go; who sees what changes — see § Who sees what.

No compatibility

Decided 2026-09-21 (owner): nothing is kept compatible across the redesign, and the migration chain is deleted to zero. The redesign is 2.0.0.

• URLs. Old paths are not redirected; they are gone. Bookmarks break once.
• Schema. internal/store/migrations/ is emptied and replaced by one baseline, 0001_init.sql, equal to the 2.0 schema (including the new assignment table below). No historical admin table, no create-then-drop. This is schema-squash with its trigger now decided and without the upgrade gate that item planned: 2.0 starts from an empty data directory.
• Docs. schema-migrations.md shrinks to the 2.0 baseline; the 1.x chain stays in git history.

The only live installation is the owner's, and it is set up again on 2.0. Nothing is built to ease that move, and nothing needs to be.

Who sees what

Decided 2026-09-21 (owner): a domain administrator manages inbound domains too, and that is granted separately from outbound. Today every inbound handler is requireGlobal() and user_domains references outbound domains only.

	Global administrator	Domain administrator
Overview, Server	yes	no (404)
Outbound: domain, applications, settings, log, DMARC	all domains	assigned outbound domains
Inbound: domain (upstream, recipients), log	all domains	assigned inbound domains
Add / delete a domain, either direction	yes	no
Queues, either direction	yes	no, until the queue is a filterable table
Inbound › Quarantine	all domains	assigned inbound domains
Inbound › Filter lists, Server › Preflight	yes	no — the lists are instance-wide
Account, Help	yes	yes

• New table user_inbound_domains (user_id, inbound_domain_id), mirroring user_domains; both live in the 2.0 baseline. The same name on both lists is two assignments — the two kinds of domain stay separate entities.
• The user form has two lists (mockup user.html); a domain administrator needs at least one assignment on either.
• A group with nothing assigned is absent from that user's menu.
• Authorization helpers come in pairs: requireDomain(id) and requireInboundDomain(id); lists and logs are filtered by assignment in the query, not in the template.

Routes

Decided 2026-09-21 (owner): paths are renamed to follow the new names and structure. A URL reads like the menu: /<group>/<page>, an entity under its list, an action under the thing it changes.

Screen (mockup)	New	Today
overview	GET /overview	/status
health	GET /server/health · POST …/recheck · POST …/reload	tables of /status · /status/recheck · /reload
preflight	GET /server/preflight · POST …/preflight/run · POST …/preflight/test-email	— (preflight; its plan says /preflight)
out-domains	GET, POST /outbound/domains	/domains
out-domain	GET /outbound/domains/{id} · POST …/dns-recheck	/domains/{id}
out-domain-settings	GET /outbound/domains/{id}/settings · POST …/settings/reports · …/settings/ratelimit · …/settings/ratelimit/recalc · …/settings/export	cards of /domains/{id} · …/dmarc · …/ratelimit · …/ratelimit/recalc · …/export
out-domain-delete	GET, POST /outbound/domains/{id}/delete	/domains/{id}/delete
out-app	GET, POST /outbound/domains/{id}/applications/new · GET, POST …/applications/{aid} · POST …/{aid}/ratelimit/recalc · POST …/{aid}/delete	POST /domains/{id}/applications · POST /applications/{aid}/mode, /authips, /ratelimit · …/recalc · …/delete
out-app-created	the response of POST …/applications/new and POST …/{aid}/password; no GET path, Cache-Control: no-store	a card on /domains/{id} after the POST
out-log · out-message	GET /outbound/log · GET /outbound/log/{id}	/deliveries · /deliveries/{id}
out-queue	GET /outbound/queue	/mail-queue
dmarc · dmarc-domain · dmarc-report	GET /outbound/dmarc · …/dmarc/domains/{id} · …/dmarc/reports/{id}	/dmarc/…
in-domains · in-domain	GET, POST /inbound/domains · GET /inbound/domains/{id} · POST …/dns-recheck, …/upstream, …/recipients	/inbound · /inbound/{id}/…
in-domain-delete	GET, POST /inbound/domains/{id}/delete	/inbound/{id}/delete
in-log · in-queue	GET /inbound/log · GET /inbound/queue	— (new, see below)
in-quarantine · in-quarantine-message	GET /inbound/quarantine · GET …/quarantine/{id} · POST …/{id}/release · POST …/{id}/discard	— (inbound-quarantine)
in-filter-lists	GET, POST /inbound/filter-lists · POST …/filter-lists/{id}/delete	— (inbound-antispam-panel)
system-log	GET /server/log	/system-log
backup	GET, POST /server/backup · POST /server/backup/import	/backup · POST /domains/import
users · user · user-delete	/server/users · …/new · …/{uid} · …/{uid}/delete	/users/…
settings	GET, POST /server/settings	the instance half of /settings
account	GET, POST /account	the credentials half of /settings (today /account redirects there)
help · components	GET /help · GET /server/components	/help · —

Unchanged: /healthz, /license, /static/, /setup/{token}, /login, /logout. GET / goes to /overview, or to /outbound/domains for a domain administrator.

Rules that come with the rename:

• One fragment name. Every polled page answers <page>/fragment (/overview/fragment, /outbound/log/fragment, …) — today it is fragment, rows and body.
• The application form is one POST. The mockup has a single Save application; sender, IP allow-list and rate limit are validated and saved together, or not at all. The three separate POSTs go away.
• No redirects. Old paths, GET and POST alike, are removed (§ No compatibility), including today's /account → /settings redirect. The full list goes under Removed in the CHANGELOG.
• Authorization can follow the tree — for /server/ only. Everything under /server/ is global-only, so requireGlobal() can guard that subtree once instead of once per handler. /outbound/ and /inbound/ are checked per domain (§ Who sees what). Both are security-relevant: they go through the security review, and a per-route test asserts 404 for a domain administrator on every path they must not reach — including another tenant's domain id.
• TestRoutesFollowNavigation — every path in this table is registered with the listed methods, every menu entry points at a registered path, every old path answers 404, and no template contains an old path.

Needs its own roadmap decision before it is built (the mockups show the target; none of this is smuggled in with the restyle):

• Queue as a table — parse postqueue -j instead of printing postqueue -p.
• Inbound queue — the same queue filtered by recipient domain.
• Inbound log — rides on inbound-antispam-panel (1.10.0).
• Server › Health — a route for the tables removed from Overview, and the home of Reload configuration (today a card on /status).

Until a row above is agreed, its page ships in the old content inside the new shell, and its menu entry is hidden if the page does not exist.

Room for roadmap items

The mockups draw today's features, the four rows above, and the screens of the open roadmap items — none of them needed a new component or layout. A mockup of a feature is its target look, not a decision to build it: each item keeps its own status and plan. From here on a feature's screens are drawn mockup-first in this system (panel/src/, build.py, check.py --write) as the first step of that feature's plan — not invented during implementation.

Roadmap item	Where it lands	Built from	Drawn
inbound-antispam-panel (agreed, 1.10.0)	journal = Inbound › Log (add client IP and engine to the mockup's columns; quarantine joins the decisions); lists = new Inbound › Filter lists, global-only because the lists are instance-wide	list layout: add form + two tables, status_tag, filter form in box_head; the log links Allow / Deny sender to the lists	in-log, in-filter-lists
inbound-quarantine (candidate)	new Inbound › Quarantine, list + detail with Release / Discard	list layout; detail like out-message with facts, log_pane for headers only, Release beside a sp-danger-zone Discard	in-quarantine, in-quarantine-message — the open questions of its plan (where mail lives, what release means, retention, RBAC) stay open; the mockup assumes SelfPost-held mail, release to upstream, 14 days, delegated like the rest of Inbound
preflight (candidate)	new Server › Preflight, next to Health: Health is what runs now, Preflight is the deeper on-demand installation check with a test e-mail form	postmark verdict, a table of checks with status_tag and a What to do column, one form box for the test e-mail	preflight
csrf-tokens	no screen; every form gains a hidden field — forms are rendered through one helper so the token cannot be forgotten	—	n/a
template-data-typing	no screen; the component partials are the natural first users of typed data	—	n/a
structured-logging, contributing, review follow-ups	none	—	n/a

The sibling strip under the navbar holds five or six entries per group without wrapping; Inbound would reach five (Domains · Log · Queue · Quarantine · Filter lists), Server six. Past that a group is split rather than squeezed.

Ordering with 2.0: inbound-antispam-panel ships first in 1.10.0 and adds its migration to the 1.x chain as planned; the 2.0 baseline then folds it in.

Three layers

1. Bulma, as shipped. Vendored bulma.min.css, never edited. Only the classes listed in check.py (BULMA) are used; reaching for another is a design change.
2. Adapters — where display logic lives once: status_tag (status → tag is-… is-light) as a template function, and copy_field (the read-only value with its Copy button).
3. Own components — everything with an sp- class, styled in one panel.css, each rendered by one partial in components.html:

Partial	What it is
page_head	path, <h1>, lead, actions; optionally a postmark
postmark	the round verdict stamp: ok / sp-warn / sp-fail
box, box_head, box_foot	numbered mono head with an end slot and an optional sp-help link to the section's Help topic (replaces the help drawer); variants sp-danger-zone, sp-credential
flash	Bulma notification is-success / is-danger is-light between page_head and the first box; a field's error stays in help is-danger
health_card	Overview only; ok / sp-warn / sp-fail; links to its detail
dns_record	one block per record: status, what to publish, "in DNS now" only on a mismatch
facts	label / value grid, sp-big for headline numbers
side_menu	Bulma menu with icons and count tags; sticky
timeline, log_pane, empty_state, confirm_list, help_topic	as on the components page
form rows	sp-row (wide + short), sp-pair (two equal)

The shell — brick navbar with hover menus, perforated edge, sibling-page strip, footer — belongs to layout.html alone.

Layout rules

A page is exactly one of:

• list — page_head, then full-width boxes: the add form, then the table.
• detail — page_head, then columns: is-3 side_menu + is-9 boxes.
• form — page_head, then boxes in equal columns, one submit row below.
• signed out — the split brand / form screen.

Width comes from the layout, never from the page. A narrow form does not get a max-width; it gets a column and a neighbour that explains it.

The contract

An implementer — human or model — must not:

1. Write an sp- class, a Bulma class outside the subset, or any other class that the components page does not show.
2. Add a component, a state or a layout. If a screen seems to need one, stop and ask; do not approximate it with ad-hoc markup.
3. Put a selector in panel.css that names a page or an element id, uses !important, or sets a width outside the WIDTH_OK list.
4. Write component markup by hand in a page template instead of calling the partial.
5. Edit the vendored Bulma, or load a second CSS framework, icon set or any JavaScript widget.
6. Change a mockup, outlines.json, check.py or a guard test in the same commit as internal/web, or at all without the owner's explicit instruction. The guards are not the implementer's to adjust. A failing guard means the implementation is wrong, not the guard.
7. Report a step as done on the strength of a description. Done means the evidence below exists.

Changing the design is allowed and has one route: mockup first. Edit the fragment in panel/src/, the components page if a part changed, run build.py and check.py --write, commit as design: … with the reason, get it accepted — and only then touch internal/web.

Enforcement

Guard tests live in internal/web/view and run in go test ./... and CI. They land before any template is restyled (checklist step 2), written and reviewed by models other than the one that implements the templates.

Test	Fails when
TestPanelClassVocabulary	a template uses a class outside the Bulma subset + the sp- classes of panel.css; an sp- class is defined but unused, or used but absent from components.html
TestPanelCSSContract	panel.css has !important, an id or page-name selector, or a width outside WIDTH_OK
TestTemplatesUseComponents	a page template contains sp-box-head, sp-postmark, sp-record, sp-facts, … literally instead of {{template "…"}}
TestPanelOutlinesMatchMockups	a page rendered with fixtures has a different component skeleton than outlines.json — a different design cannot pass as this one
TestVendoredBulmaChecksum	bulma.min.css differs from the pinned SHA-256
TestNoTemplateUsesInlineScriptOrStyle	(exists) inline style / script

CI adds one step, design-first: a commit that touches internal/web/view/** must not touch docs/assets/panel-redesign/panel/** or the guard tests.

Evidence for "done"

Every checklist step that restyles pages ends with, in the commit:

• go test ./internal/web/... output in the commit message body (pass);
• a screenshot of each restyled page at 1440×900, saved next to its mockup's name under docs/assets/panel-redesign/evidence/, rendered from the running container with the e2e fixtures — not from the mockup;
• a review by a model that did not write the step (development.md § Model routing): mockup and screenshot side by side, every difference either fixed or listed for the owner.

The owner accepts a step by looking at the pairs. A step without them is not reviewed.

Out of scope

• New features beyond the four rows listed under Information architecture.
• Dark scheme and the narrow-screen shell: Bulma ships both; they are drawn and agreed as a design: change before anyone implements them.
• Weakening CSP; a JS bundler; a front-end framework.

Implementation checklist

No code until the roadmap status is agreed.

• Owner decision recorded here: keep today's paths or rename with redirects — owner (2026-09-21: rename, § Routes)
• Owner decision: no compatibility, migrations to zero, 2.0.0 — owner (2026-09-21, § No compatibility)
• Owner decision: inbound is delegated per user, separately from outbound — owner (2026-09-21, § Who sees what)
• Vendor Bulma 1.0.4 and the used Tabler icons (MIT) under /static, NOTICE and development.md rows, pinned checksum — Haiku
• Guard tests from the table above and TestRoutesFollowNavigation, red against today's panel where expected; design-first CI step — Opus
• Schema from zero: single 0001_init.sql baseline with user_inbound_domains, store tests, schema-migrations.md rewritten — Opus
• Inbound delegation: requireInboundDomain, filtered lists and log, two-list user form, per-route 404 tests for both roles — Opus
• Routes renamed per § Routes: new paths, one fragment name, old paths removed, subtree requireGlobal() for /server/ — Opus
• panel.css from panel/theme.css; components.html partials; status_tag; a /components page behind the global role rendering every partial — Sonnet
• layout.html: navbar, perforated edge, sibling strip, user menu, footer; visibility flags — Sonnet
• Signed-out pages: login, setup — Sonnet
• Overview (verdicts) and Account / Settings split — Sonnet
• Outbound: domains, domain, domain settings, application form as one POST, shown-once password, delete — Sonnet
• Outbound: log, message, DMARC hub / domain / report — Sonnet
• Inbound: domains, domain, delete — Sonnet
• Server: system log, backup, users, user form, delete; Help — Sonnet
• Remove the old panel.css rules and classes nothing references; vocabulary test green with no allow-list — Sonnet
• Technical review of the whole against the mockups, evidence pairs complete — Opus
• Security review of the route rename, subtree authorization and inbound delegation — Fable
• guide.md screenshots and wording for the new navigation; architecture.md § Panel HTTP surface and § Persistence; security.md roles; Removed in the CHANGELOG with one line that 2.0 starts from an empty data directory — Sonnet
• go vet, go test ./..., e2e suite — Haiku