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UAI Explorer 2.0 UX Blueprint

Synced UAI Explorer plan documentation from docs/plans/explorer-2.0-ux-blueprint.md.

Updated 2026-06-21·Freshness: Reference·No secret-like patterns were observed in this view.

UAI Explorer 2.0 UX Blueprint

Created: 2026-06-20

Product Direction

UAI Explorer 2.0 should become a device-aware knowledge lineage system.

The core experience is not "browse files." It is:

  • survey devices,
  • preserve old material,
  • classify drift,
  • expose safe knowledge,
  • promote useful ideas,
  • connect project versions over time.

Primary Users

Human Operator

Needs to know:

  • Which devices have been surveyed.
  • Which machines are stale or missing.
  • Which projects have drift.
  • Which old ideas are worth saving.
  • Which material is safe to expose.
  • What needs review before cleanup.

AI Worker

Needs:

  • A fresh START_HERE_AI.md.
  • A bounded context packet.
  • Current project truth.
  • Warnings about stale/out-of-sync material.
  • Pointers to archived ideas without treating them as current truth.

External Reader

Needs:

  • Polished, authorized documents.
  • Clear redaction and freshness states.
  • No raw filesystem exposure.
  • No ambiguity about denied content.

Design Vocabulary

Modes

  • Dashboard: operational overview and next actions.
  • Devices: survey status, trust level, roots, and drift.
  • Projects: active projects and version timelines.
  • Ideas: salvage inbox and promotion workflow.
  • Catalog: authorized documents.
  • Reader: document content with lineage and context.
  • Admin: access and catalog administration.
  • Readiness: migration and operational evidence.

Status Language

Use consistent states across the UI:

  • Current: canonical or active.
  • Stale: not current, but known.
  • Stale valuable: old but worth preserving.
  • Unknown: needs survey or classification.
  • Promoted: moved into current work.
  • Parked: retained for later.
  • Superseded: replaced but traceable.
  • Archived: preserved and searchable, not active truth.

Visual Language

  • Keep the base enterprise shell calm.
  • Use the United AI site palette as the Explorer theme source: dark graphite surfaces, warm gold accent, muted stone text, and small green, yellow, blue, and purple status colors.
  • Use compact cards only for repeated assets.
  • Prefer dense, scannable bands for dashboards.
  • Use badges for status, trust, source device, project version, and sensitivity.
  • Group global navigation by work mode: human work, AI surface, and admin ops.
  • Use compact trust bands for public-safe, redaction, and human/AI separation instead of oversized explanatory heroes.
  • Use timeline strips for project versions.
  • Use a right rail for lineage/context on reader pages.
  • Avoid decorative hero sections, decorative blobs, or fake analytics.

Core Screens

Dashboard

Purpose:

Answer "what needs attention today?"

Required sections:

  • Command surface for safe dashboard, catalog, standards, redaction, and context discovery.
  • Collection shelf for project, standards, archive, runbook, and restricted raw-zone grouping.
  • Source passport for owner, freshness, trust, lineage, access boundary, and next action across device and documentation lanes.
  • Survey intake for raw-zone metadata clusters, file mix, suppressed aliases, and redaction/classification state.
  • Access layers for role, tag, surface, audit, and public-safe deny-gate explainability.
  • Operator console with saved views and next actions.
  • Survey coverage.
  • Device drift.
  • Project/version risk.
  • Idea inbox.
  • Review queue.
  • Migration/readiness health.

Devices

Purpose:

Answer "what machines contain UAI memory?"

Required fields:

  • Device name.
  • Role.
  • Last seen.
  • Last surveyed.
  • Trust level.
  • Active roots.
  • Unknown folders.
  • Stale project versions.
  • Next action.

Projects

Purpose:

Answer "what is canonical, what is old, and what might come back later?"

Required fields:

  • Project name.
  • Current version.
  • Known older versions.
  • Device locations.
  • Canonical source.
  • Drift notes.
  • Reuse candidates.

Ideas

Purpose:

Prevent good ideas from disappearing.

Required states:

  • New.
  • Needs classification.
  • Parked.
  • Promoted.
  • Merged.
  • Superseded.
  • Archived.

Design Standards

Purpose:

Preserve UI/UX doctrine from Devine, Cadence, and MacBook-held notes without making the interface complicated.

Required behavior:

  • Survey MacBook standards material into manifests before catalog publication.
  • Classify standards by project, version, freshness, and source device.
  • Promote reviewed standards into short, practical catalog entries.
  • Keep historical standards traceable as lineage, not current truth by default.
  • Show active standards in the reader and context stack only after redaction and tag review.

Reader

Purpose:

Make content useful and safe.

Required improvements over v1:

  • Document outline.
  • Related artifacts.
  • Source device.
  • Project version.
  • Freshness.
  • Redaction state.
  • Lineage panel.
  • Context notes split by human and AI audience.

First UI Slice

The first design slice should not wait for the full backend model. It should add a dashboard preview using current catalog data plus clearly labeled survey planning data:

  • Device survey cards for NUC, MacBook, dormant Proxmox candidate, and lab.
  • Safe command/search surface over curated catalog entries and dashboard lanes.
  • Collection shelf panel for Cortex operations, design doctrine, Cadence lineage, runbooks/evidence, and restricted raw survey material.
  • Source passport panel for UAI Explorer, Zenbook, MacBook standards, Cadence archive, and sandbox verification lanes.
  • Survey intake panel based on Zenbook metadata counts, topic clusters, suppressed aliases, and raw-zone-only promotion boundaries.
  • Access layers panel for public reader, Cortex viewer, code reviewer, AI worker, and admin operator permission previews.
  • Operator console for Mac standards survey, Cadence salvage, redaction, and context launch views.
  • Mode-governed sidebar navigation and compact public-safe trust band.
  • Drift warnings.
  • Cadence version timeline.
  • Relationship map for backlinks, lineage, redaction, and device-drift edges.
  • Idea salvage lane.
  • Design standards intake for MacBook-held Devine and Cadence UI/UX material.
  • Review queue for survey, preservation, lineage, AI context, and redaction tasks.
  • Documentation spine inspired by Backstage TechDocs, Docusaurus, MkDocs, MarkItDown, Pagefind, and DocSearch.
  • Source passports inspired by DataHub/OpenMetadata asset profiles, Graphiti provenance, and local-first note systems' backlink discipline.
  • Standards intake matrix for Devine, Cadence, and UAI Explorer rules.
  • Safe operating loop from survey to redacted public output.
  • Context stack for START_HERE, project briefs, runbooks, retrieval, archives, and restricted raw survey material.
  • Feature clone radar with source, category, value, and adoption timing.
  • United AI dark/gold theme applied to the shell and dashboard.

This gives the product a visible north star while backend entities are still being designed.

Completion Standard

Explorer 2.0 design is credible when the app can show:

  • which devices exist,
  • when they were surveyed,
  • where project versions live,
  • what stale material is still valuable,
  • what ideas need review,
  • which docs are safe to expose,
  • what an AI should read first,
  • what must never be deleted without archive evidence.