Axis GUI v4.0 Progressive Disclosure, Surface Deduplication & Dynamic CV Scanner SSOT (2026)

This document records the comprehensive Computer Vision (CV) surface audit and Milestone v4.0 reorganization blueprint for the Vox Axis desktop application (crates/vox-gui/ui). It catalogs all control duplications, multi-row toolbar wraps, and horizontal clipping defects discovered across the 26+ registered GUI surfaces and dock panels, specifies the dynamic runtime auto-discovery scanner in e2e/review/cv-flywheel.spec.ts, and defines the single-row progressive-disclosure Loquela composer, the 3-tab Session Inspector Rail (Plan & Tasks, Context, Routing), and the consolidated 5-domain workbench navigation.

1. CV Audit Findings & Control Deduplication Matrix

Live Playwright CV captures (crates/vox-gui/ui/e2e/review/cv-flywheel.spec.ts) across chat-default, loquela-knobs, chat-dock-multi, and all leaf surfaces revealed three primary structural problems:

1. 4-Row Composer Toolbar Wrapping (Loquela.tsx + DriveConsole.tsx + ChatSurface.tsx): Over 20 simultaneous interactive pills (+, link, mic, Free, Efficient, Balanced, Genius, inline Spend bar, Risk, Intent, Run on Auto, Skill, Quick chat, Oversight, @kb:auto, Live summary badge, Keys Alt+/, Research: Auto Socrates, Pinned Context, Notifications) stacked across 4 horizontal rows.
2. Simultaneous Multi-Surface Duplication: Identical state and controls were duplicated up to 5 times within a single viewport.
3. Horizontal Button Clipping & Below-the-Fold Overflow: In ContextWindowMeter.tsx (at 340px right-rail width), balanced ↻ plus [Balanced | Compact | Keep more] pushed [Clear Tools] into horizontal text clipping (Clear T...). On Dashboard.tsx, oversized KPI cards and the simulation mini-map pushed Active Agents and Telemetry below the 900px fold.

Capability / State	Legacy Duplicate Locations (v3.9)	v4.0 Canonical Single Source of Truth
Pinned @kb Context & Scope	4 locations: Loquela @kb select, ChatSurface bottom Pinned Context drawer, ChatExecutionRail PINNED CONTEXT card, Loquela top chip bar	Inspector Rail Context Tab + compact [@kb: N pins ▾] quick-trigger pill in composer
Session & Engine Spend	4 locations: DriveConsole inline bar, ChatExecutionRail sparkline, BottomStatusBar SPEND popover, Dashboard 3 budget cards	BottomStatusBar (Session $X / $Y + popover) + composer per-turn ~$cost estimate
Posture & Model Routing	5 locations: DriveConsole + Loquela selects, Live badge row, ChatExecutionRail ROUTING + Goal Anchor badge, BottomStatusBar ROUTING, Matrix vs ModelsView vs RunsView	Composer [⚡ Posture & Model ▾] Floating Popover + Inspector Rail Routing Tab
Tasks, Steps & Plans	3 locations: ChatExecutionRail EXECUTION list, PlanPanel (To-dos dock panel), TasksView	Inspector Rail Plan & Tasks Tab (unifying Execution and PlanPanel with CAS Synced · v{rev} and circular progress ring)
Sub-Surface Navigation	2 simultaneous menus: expanded vertical child list in Sidebar.tsx + horizontal tab strip in BreadcrumbBar.tsx	Left Sidebar.tsx = 5 top-level domains only; child surfaces render exclusively in the Top Workbench Header Tab Bar
Dock Layout & Panel Toggles	3 locations: BottomStatusBar 14-checkbox Panels ▾, ChatExecutionRail bottom Terminal/Browser/Research buttons, Sidebar	Chat Top Header Layout Switcher: Layout: [Focus] [Split Code] [Multi-Agent] [+ Panel ▾]

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2. Dynamic Surface & Sub-Panel Auto-Discovery (Phase 210)

To guarantee that every current and future GUI surface, dock panel, child tab, and popover is automatically verified without manual test array maintenance, crates/vox-gui/ui/e2e/review/cv-flywheel.spec.ts introspects the live runtime manifests:

Diagram source

graph {
    direction: right
    node reg: "SURFACE_REGISTRY\n+ surfaceComponents\n+ CHAT_DOCK_COMPONENTS"
    node crawler: "Playwright Dynamic\nSurface Crawler"
    node subtabs: "Auto-Discover Child\n[role='tab'] & Popovers"
    node detectors: "DOM Clipping, Row-Wrap\n& Duplicate Detectors"
    node report: "cv-flywheel-all-surfaces.json\n+ Concept Art v4.0 Gate"
    reg -> crawler
    crawler -> subtabs
    subtabs -> detectors
    detectors -> report
}

• Zero Hardcoded View Lists: Union of SURFACE_REGISTRY, surfaceComponents route keys, and CHAT_DOCK_COMPONENTS dock panel keys.
• Sub-Tab & Popover Crawling: Automatically queries and activates [role="tab"], [data-cv-subsurface], and [data-cv-popover-trigger] on every visited view.
• Automated Layout Invariants:
  • Horizontal text clipping guard: scrollWidth <= clientWidth + 2 on all buttons and pills.
  • Composer single-row budget: offsetHeight <= 52px at >= 900px pane width.
  • Above-the-fold visibility on primary workbench cards at 1440×900.

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3. Progressive Disclosure & 5-Domain Architecture (Phases 211–215)

1. Single-Row Loquela v4.0 Composer (Phase 211):
   • Bottom action bar: [+ Attach ▾] (File, URL, Voice), [⚡ Balanced · <Model> ▾] (floating glassmorphic Execution Posture & Routing popover housing Clutch, Risk, Oversight 1..5, Model/Tier override, Research mode, and Grounding check), [🛠 Track & Skill ▾] (Chat | Task | Plan, Skill, Intent), [@kb: N pins ▾], ~$cost, and [▶ Send ↵].
   • 100% preservation of Alt+1..4, Alt+C/R/T/M/V/O/K, Alt+/ (KeybindHud), and all 432 buildChatTurn RPC matrix combinations.
2. Unified 3-Tab Session Inspector Rail (Phase 212):
   • Segmented header: [Plan & Tasks] | [Context] | [Routing] with a compact collapsible turn-receipt footer.
3. 5-Domain Workbench Navigation (Phase 213):
   • Chat (with inline session list)
   • Agents & Runs (Overview & Health, Needs You, Tasks & Flow, Sub-Agents, Run Ledger, Policies & Approvals)
   • Workspace (Console, Repository, Browser, Skills & Catalog)
   • Knowledge (Memory, Search Index, Scientia Research)
   • Compute & System (Models & Routing Matrix, MENS Training, Mesh, Market, Settings)
4. Concept Art Reference Assets:
   • Stored in crates/vox-gui/ui/artifacts/cv-flywheel/concept-art-v4/axis-v4-chat-composer-concept.jpg and axis-v4-workbench-concept.jpg.

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4. Measured Milestone v4.0 CV Flywheel Convergence (Phase 215)

All 32 dynamically discovered surfaces in SURFACE_REGISTRY and the 4 core workbench captures converged through @ngi/platform-ssot (crates/vox-gui/ui/e2e/review/cv-flywheel.spec.ts):

Surface / Capture	visualBeforeScore	visualAfterScore	Delta	composerToolbarRowCount	composerToolbarHeightPx	clippedInteractiveCount	duplicateControlGroupCount
chat-default	0.8502	0.9164	+0.0662	1	28px	0	0
loquela-knobs (Posture Popover Open)	0.8280	0.9178	+0.0898	1	28px	0	0
chat-dock-multi	0.7985	0.9161	+0.1176	1	28px	0	0
urbs-civilization	0.8228	0.9180	+0.0952	0	0px	0	0
chat (32-Surface Dynamic Audit)	0.6878	0.9164	+0.2286	1	28px	0	0
dashboard (32-Surface Dynamic Audit)	0.9012	0.9185	+0.0173	0	0px	0	0
models (32-Surface Dynamic Audit)	0.8712	0.9174	+0.0462	0	0px	0	0
tasks (32-Surface Dynamic Audit)	0.8961	0.9198	+0.0237	0	0px	0	0
All 32 SURFACE_REGISTRY Views	0.6878–0.9254	0.9142–0.9254	100% Pass	1 (on Chat)	28px (<= 52px)	0 across all 32	0 across all 32