---
schema_version: 1
id: RAC-KTR5QS90QHYG
type: roadmap
---
# RAC v0.8.6 — Explorer Maturity

## Status

Planned

## Context

v0.8.0 through v0.8.5 deliver the Explorer capabilities: discover,
understand, assess, and act. The remaining gap is cohesion — Explorer should
feel like a persistent product knowledge environment rather than a
collection of screens.

This milestone delivers workspace continuity, the Explorer identity (mascot
and animations), and performance refinement across the whole experience.

## Outcomes

- Returning users resume where they left off.
- Explorer has a consistent visual identity, including the mascot, without
  compromising accessibility or focus.
- The full experience remains responsive at repository scale.

## Initiatives

### Initiative 1 — Workspace Persistence

Restore on launch:

- last repository
- last artifact
- last view

Remember recently opened repositories.

### Initiative 2 — Preferences

Support optional preferences per DESIGN-first-run-experience:

- theme
- startup behaviour
- default views
- artifact grouping

Preferences never block onboarding and require no login, cloud, or sync.

### Initiative 3 — Mascot Integration

Integrate the Explorer mascot per DESIGN-mascot and
DESIGN-mascot-interaction:

- present in welcome and empty states
- optional acknowledgement and guidance interactions that suggest existing
  workflows (for example `/health`, `/relationships`) without containing
  functionality
- no hidden features, no workflow interruption, can be disabled

### Initiative 4 — Animation States

Implement mascot animation states tied to system events per
DESIGN-mascot-animations:

- idle, searching, discovery, success, empty state, error state
- minimal, state-driven motion only
- `animations = false` supported with equivalent text feedback

### Initiative 5 — Performance and Navigation Refinement

- Profile and improve responsiveness against the 1000+ artifact target.
- Refine navigation flows and visual consistency across all views
  (DESIGN-visual-system).

## Implementation Contract

The following decisions are pinned for v0.8.6.

### Preferences

- `rac.explorer.preferences` persists optional preferences as JSON under
  `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rac/explorer.json`: `theme`, `mascot` (on/off),
  `animations` (on/off), and `artifact_grouping` (`type` or `flat`). Loading
  tolerates a missing or corrupt file by returning defaults — preferences never
  block onboarding and need no login, cloud, or sync. They are edited in the
  file (Explorer authors nothing, ADR-024); `/preferences` shows the current
  values and the file path.

### Workspace Persistence

- `rac.explorer.workspace` persists, under `$XDG_STATE_HOME/rac/`, the recently
  opened repositories and, per repository, the last opened artifact. Launch
  records the repository; opening a context view records the artifact.
  `/resume` reopens the last artifact for the current repository, and the
  welcome state offers it — returning users resume without an abrupt auto-jump.

### Mascot and Animations

- `rac.explorer.mascot` provides the lantern-carrying explorer and its
  state frames (idle, searching, discovery, success, empty, error). The mascot
  appears in the welcome and empty states only, never gates a feature or
  modifies the repository, and is disabled by `mascot = false`. Every mascot
  state carries equivalent text, so `animations = false` (static frame) and
  `mascot = false` (text only) lose no information (Initiative 4, ADR-028).

### Performance

- Responsiveness against the 1000+ artifact target is re-validated at the
  Explorer level with a headless app smoke over a generated corpus, alongside
  the existing Core perf battery.

### Scope

- Presentation and local state only: no Core or service changes, no repository
  intelligence, no JSON contract movement. New modules `preferences.py`,
  `workspace.py`, `mascot.py`; `preferences` and `resume` join the command
  registry. The explorer battery absorbs the tests.

## Non-Goals

- New capabilities or repository intelligence
- Mascot behaviour that gates features or modifies the repository
- Game-like or continuous animation

## Success Measures

- Explorer feels like a cohesive product rather than a collection of
  screens.
- Returning users resume their previous repository, artifact, and view.
- Disabling the mascot or animations loses no information and no
  functionality.
- Explorer remains responsive on repositories of at least 1000 artifacts.

## Related Decisions

- ADR-015
- ADR-019
- ADR-028

## Related Designs

- explorer-mascot
- explorer-mascot-interaction
- explorer-mascot-animations
- explorer-visual-system
- explorer-first-run-experience

## Related Requirements

- rac-product-knowledge-navigator-explorer

## Dependencies

- v0.8.1 first run experience
- v0.8.0 through v0.8.5 Explorer capabilities
