# FamilySync

## What This Is

FamilySync is a self-hosted, Dockerized family organization hub for a two-person household, modeled loosely on Skylight. It gives the family one unified, color-coded calendar and shared collaborative lists (groceries, gift ideas), reachable from a single low-friction React PWA — across a mixed Android/Fastmail and Apple ecosystem — built as one custom app on top of the family's existing paid Fastmail account. Email stays with members' existing mail clients and is out of scope.

## Core Value

The household can see and co-edit one color-coded family calendar (shared + each member's personal) and shared lists from a single low-friction PWA — cross-ecosystem, no app store, no per-member calendar credential juggling.

## Current Milestone: v1.1 Operability & Polish

**Goal:** Make FamilySync configurable, administrable, and maintainable for real multi-member use — guided setup, in-app admin, per-event reminders, faster write-back, CI/CD, and mobile test coverage — without hand-editing env files or the database.

**Target features:**

- **Per-event reminders** — reminder selector on the event form (incl. "none"), serialized as VALARM; scheduler honors each event's lead instead of a hardcoded 15-min, and fires nothing when an event has no alarm (was backlog 999.4)
- **Admin Settings section** — role-gated UI to manage per-member Fastmail app passwords and designate the shared calendar, replacing manual DB writes (was backlog 999.10)
- **Initial setup wizard** — first-run validated bootstrap of env vars, VAPID keypair, DB connection, and first app password (was backlog 999.11)
- **Faster write-back** — event-driven outbox drain so edits land in ~1s instead of up to ~15s, preserving the optimistic-202 durability guarantees (was backlog 999.13)
- **Gitea CI** — full regression (lint/typecheck/unit/API-integration against a MariaDB service container) on PR to main + build/publish Docker image (was backlog 999.14)
- **Mobile-browser testing** ✅ **delivered (Phase 7, 2026-06-11)** — Playwright harness, two-profile mobile matrix (iPhone/WebKit + Pixel/Chromium), DEV_AUTH_BYPASS auth, deterministic dev-DB seed; 58 specs across both profiles assert layout/state. TEST-01/TEST-02 validated. Consumed by Phase 8 CI (was backlog 999.12)

Deferred to backlog: self-service provider onboarding (999.5) and provider abstraction (999.1). Admin-managed credentials (999.10) partially cover the multi-member credential gap in the interim.

## Requirements

### Validated

<!-- Shipped and confirmed valuable. -->

- [x] Unified, color-coded calendar view aggregating all Fastmail-hosted calendars (shared family + each member's personal) — **Validated in Phase 2 (calendar-display)**: read-only day/week/month/agenda views, server-side recurrence expansion (DST-correct), all-day no-shift, color routing by member/shared. Operator UAT approved. (Shared/rose lane activates once a shared calendar is marked — deferred per D-16.)
- [x] Create / edit / delete events written back to the correct Fastmail calendar via the app's single broker token — **Validated in Phase 3 (Gate 2, live 2026-06-07)**: create (timed/all-day/weekly-recurring), edit, delete, and recurring-series delete all round-trip to caldav.fastmail.com; 412-conflict handled. Recurring repeat-bound + per-occurrence-duration UX are "create+display only in v1" gaps (backlog 999.7/999.8).
- [x] Authelia OIDC login for every member (true SSO) — **Validated in Phase 3 (Gate 2, live 2026-06-07)**: both members log in via real Authelia OIDC over Pangolin; distinct stable colors; session carried transparently by Authelia SSO. (Full-name legend needs an Authelia ID-token `claims_policy` — operator step.)
- [x] React PWA installable on iPhone via "Add to Home Screen" (no App Store) — **Validated in Phase 3 (Gate 2, live 2026-06-07)**: iOS install + full-screen standalone launch + standalone OIDC login (load-bearing) confirmed on the wife's iPhone. Android install walkthrough deferred (B5, not yet device-tested).
- [x] Shared collaborative lists (groceries, gift ideas) co-edited by both members, stored in MariaDB — **Validated in Phase 4 (shared-lists-live-sync)**: list + item CRUD, fractional-rank drag-reorder, member-scoped access (no cross-tenant leak proven at route layer).
- [x] Live list sync so co-edits appear without manual refresh — **Validated in Phase 4**: scoped SSE fan-out over Pangolin (transport smoke-tested), bounded-backoff reconnect, co-edits land within seconds.
- [x] Web Push notifications for event reminders and list changes — **Validated in Phase 5 (web-push-notifications)**: VAPID push for reminders, event-change, and coalesced list alerts; on-device UAT 1/2/5 PASS (iOS reminder delivery, iOS push, coalescing). Android event-change on-device confirmation + iOS standalone spinner remain device-only spot-checks at go-live.
- [x] Faster write-back so edits reach Fastmail in ~1–2s instead of ~15s (CAL-15) — **Validated in Phase 9 (faster-write-back)**: event-driven outbox drain via a zero-dependency in-process EventEmitter (`outboxTrigger.ts`); a committed enqueue publishes a fire-and-forget `signalOutboxDrain()` that funnels through the existing `isDraining`-guarded drain with a `drainRequested` trailing-re-drain, preserving optimistic-202, create-before-delete on moves, exactly-once per uid, and the 15s `setInterval` fallback. 5/5 success criteria verified; trigger-wiring tests assert SC-1/D-05/D-07.

### Active

<!-- Carried into v1.x — partially validated or device-pending. -->

- [ ] Android PWA install walkthrough verified on a real Android device (iOS validated Phase 3; Android = carried Gate 2 row B5)
- [ ] Low-friction onboarding for the non-technical Apple member — visit one URL, sign in. **Partially validated Phase 3** (wife logged in + installed unaided); the per-member Fastmail app-password provider-setup step is still missing (backlog 999.5)

### Out of Scope

<!-- Explicit boundaries with reasoning to prevent re-adding. -->

- Wall-display / kiosk dashboard — deferred to v2; calendar + lists are the v1 core, display is the deferrable piece
- Email features — members keep existing mail clients; never the product's job
- Self-hosted calendar server (Baikal) — Fastmail hosts all calendars; one fewer service. Reversible if self-hosted calendar is ever wanted
- Vikunja / external task backend — lists live in the custom MariaDB; cross-ecosystem native task sync is impossible anyway
- DAVx5 — not needed
- React Native / App Store publishing — PWA delivers app-like UX without publishing overhead
- PostgreSQL — not in the existing stack; MariaDB is the database
- Forking existing apps — the value is the aggregation/display layer, not the backends

## Context

- **Household:** Primary user (project owner) on Fastmail + Android, uses the Fastmail app natively. Other member (wife) on Apple (iPhone/Mac). Wife adoption is a hard UX constraint.
- **One app to build:** backend + MariaDB + React PWA behind Authelia, sitting on top of Fastmail. This is far lighter than the prior Baikal + Vikunja + PWA design that was evaluated and dropped.
- **Calendars are all on Fastmail.** Personal calendars are also Fastmail-hosted calendar collections, so the app reads and writes everything (shared + personal) through a single Fastmail JMAP/CalDAV broker token — no external ICS feeds, no per-member credential management. The primary user gets the shared calendar natively in the Fastmail app; Apple members use the PWA (optionally subscribe in native Apple Calendar via CalDAV).
- **Prior exploration:** Architecture was revised across two sessions (explore → Opus verification). See `.planning/notes/familysync-architecture.md` for full reasoning behind the dropped options.
- **Shipped state (v1.0, 2026-06-10):** pnpm monorepo — `apps/api` (Hono + Drizzle/MariaDB + tsdav/ical.js CalDAV broker) and `apps/pwa` (React 19 + Vite + vite-plugin-pwa + Schedule-X). Live over real Authelia OIDC + Pangolin/Newt. ~338 files changed across the milestone.
- **Open questions — resolved this milestone:**
  - Fastmail API → **CalDAV via tsdav** (JMAP calendars unavailable on Fastmail); locked.
  - PWA Web Push → **sufficient with caveats**: VAPID direct push works on iOS 16.4+ installed PWAs and Android; iOS revokes subscriptions after 3 silent pushes (every push must be visible) and standalone install is mandatory. No FCM broker needed.
  - Per-member personal calendar → **CAL-08 GO**: a per-member Fastmail app password reaches all of that account's calendars; no cross-account ACL. Onboarding flow to collect each member's app password is backlog 999.5.
- **Known issues / tech debt carried to v1.x:** event write-back latency (15s outbox drain, 999.13); per-event reminder config / VALARM authoring (999.4); first-login provider setup (999.5); admin Settings + setup wizard (999.10/999.11); Gitea CI (999.14); mobile-emulated authed browser testing (999.12).

## Constraints

- **Tech stack**: MariaDB for the database — PostgreSQL is not available in the stack
- **Tech stack**: Redis available (optional, for live list sync / push)
- **Infrastructure**: Unraid host running Docker + Docker Compose
- **Auth**: Authelia (already deployed) — OIDC/OAuth2 for the custom app; all members authenticate through it
- **Calendar backend**: Fastmail (paid, existing) is the single source for all calendars via JMAP/CalDAV
- **Frontend**: React PWA only — no React Native, no App Store
- **Networking**: Split-DNS internal domain, private IPs internally; public exposure via Pangolin/Newt tunnel, no open ports
- **UX**: Must be slick and low-friction for a non-technical Apple member — hard constraint, drives design tradeoffs
- **Scope**: No email features; no forking existing apps

## Key Decisions

| Decision                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | Rationale                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        | Outcome                                                                                                                                                                     |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Calendar hosted on Fastmail, not self-hosted (Baikal dropped)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | Fastmail reaches the whole household native-or-PWA with one fewer self-hosted service; Fastmail Android app can't show self-hosted CalDAV anyway                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 | ✓ Validated (v1.0)                                                                                                                                                          |
| Personal calendars also Fastmail-hosted collections, aggregated via one broker token                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Avoids external ICS feeds and per-member credential management; uniform read/write path                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          | ✓ Validated (v1.0, CAL-08 GO)                                                                                                                                               |
| Shared lists in custom MariaDB, not Vikunja                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               | Cross-ecosystem native task sync is impossible; a list table in the backend being built anyway is trivial vs another container + SSO integration                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 | ✓ Validated (v1.0, Phase 4)                                                                                                                                                 |
| React PWA only, no React Native / App Store                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               | App-like UX with one codebase for all surfaces; lowest onboarding friction (one URL)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | ✓ Validated (v1.0, Phase 3)                                                                                                                                                 |
| Authelia OIDC for all members                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | True SSO consistent with existing infra; no separate calendar-credential problem                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 | ✓ Validated (v1.0, Phase 3)                                                                                                                                                 |
| Web Push notifications in v1 (not deferred)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               | Family alerts judged essential day one; build push into the foundation                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           | ✓ Validated (v1.0, Phase 5)                                                                                                                                                 |
| Personal-calendar overlay in v1 (not shared-only)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | Unified view of everyone's schedules is the Skylight magic worth shipping early                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | — Validated (CAL-08 GO, Phase 1): per-member app password reaches all of an account's calendars; no cross-account ACL needed                                                |
| **D-14:** Defer Phase 1 Gate 2 (live Authelia/Pangolin verification). SSE-over-Pangolin smoke = hard gate before Phase 4; live AUTH smoke incl. iOS standalone-PWA folded into Phase 3; full 2-member prod login verified there. Phases 2–3 develop behind a documented dev-auth bypass.                                                                                                                                                  | Gate 2 needs operator infra (Authelia config + tunnel) + docs that didn't exist; deferring unblocks Phase 2/3 code without rework risk, since the broker data path (CAL-01/CAL-08) is already proven live. SSE must still be verified before Phase 4 to avoid building live-sync on an unverified transport (#1034).                                                                                                                                             | Tracked: `01-HUMAN-UAT.md`, `docs/deployment.md`                                                                                                                            |
| **D-15:** Validate the real external topology via a **local Newt connector + test subdomain** through existing Pangolin (Mode A), not an Unraid deploy. Unraid (Mode B) reserved for go-live.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | Authelia OIDC + SSE pass-through behaviour live in Authelia + Pangolin/Newt, not in where the origin runs — so a local Newt rig faithfully tests both, decoupling "does the topology work" from "is it in production." Newt dials outbound (no open ports). Only shared touch is an additive, reversible Authelia client.                                                                                                                                        | ✓ Validated (Gate 2 executed live in Phase 3 / D-17)                                                                                                                        |
| **D-16 (2026-06-05, Phase 2):** No dedicated Fastmail "broker" account. The **shared-family calendar is a calendar collection created on the operator's primary Fastmail account** (`me@lucasberger.ca`) and shared out to the wife + others via Fastmail's own calendar sharing. The app's single app password enumerates it like any other collection; the `calendars.is_shared` flag (operator-set) marks which row is the shared one. | Clarified during the Wave 2 checkpoint: "broker account" was only ever the role the primary account's app password plays. id=1 ("Calendar") is the operator's **personal** calendar, not the shared one — so it must NOT be marked `is_shared`. Aggregating each _other_ member's **personal** calendar still follows the D-09 per-member app-password model (open for Phase 3 onboarding: a member may get a personal color lane, or only the shared calendar). | ✓ Resolved (2026-06-10): "FamilySync" shared calendar created on the primary account, synced as `calendars.id=10`, marked `is_shared=1`; shared lane + reminders now active |
| **D-17 (2026-06-07, Phase 3):** Phase 1 Gate 2 (deferred per D-14) was executed live during Phase 3 against real Authelia OIDC over Pangolin/Newt (Mode A), clearing the load-bearing iOS-standalone-login risk. The full event write path (create/all-day/recurring/edit/delete/conflict) is verified end-to-end to Fastmail.                                                                                                            | Live bring-up surfaced bugs the dev-bypass build could not (newt MTU blackhole, OIDC state-cookie race, write-path timezone/identity/join/cache bugs, all-day off-by-one, color collisions). All fixed; UX gaps captured as backlog 999.3–999.9.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 | — Validated (Gate 2, `03-GATE2-RESULTS.md`). Carried: Android install (B5), SSE smoke (Phase 4 entry gate, D-14).                                                           |

## Evolution

This document evolves at phase transitions and milestone boundaries.

**After each phase transition** (via `/gsd-transition`):

1. Requirements invalidated? → Move to Out of Scope with reason
2. Requirements validated? → Move to Validated with phase reference
3. New requirements emerged? → Add to Active
4. Decisions to log? → Add to Key Decisions
5. "What This Is" still accurate? → Update if drifted

**After each milestone** (via `/gsd-complete-milestone`):

1. Full review of all sections
2. Core Value check — still the right priority?
3. Audit Out of Scope — reasons still valid?
4. Update Context with current state

---

_Last updated: 2026-06-12 — Phase 9 (Faster Write-Back) complete; CAL-15 validated_
