docs: capture in-progress design for task change log & restore feature

Paused mid-brainstorm at user request. Records the approved architecture
shape (DB-trigger-based change capture, run-scoped restore, hourly rollup
for oversight) and the open items to pick up on resume.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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lorentz 2026-07-17 18:46:02 +00:00
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# Task Change Log & Restore — Design (paused, in progress)
**Status:** Paused mid-brainstorm at user's request. Overall architecture shape is
approved. Rollout specifics (which existing code paths need wrapping, and the
hourly rollup query) are NOT yet designed — that's the resume point.
## Problem
Horizon has no way to see the history of a task's state over time, or to undo
the effect of a specific automation run (sync, auto-generate) or a bad manual
edit. This came up directly after a manual backfill script created ~86 tasks
for two clients (Sultan Trans, Dagostino Electronic Services) by writing raw
SQL — a change with no audit trail beyond a generic `audit_logs` row.
Goal: an oversight system that (a) snapshots open-task state hourly for
trend/impact visibility per advocate/client/etc, and (b) lets an Admin
literally restore tasks to a prior state, scoped to a specific run or trigger
— covering both automation-triggered changes and manual UI edits.
## Decisions made so far
| Question | Decision |
|---|---|
| Primary use case | Literal restore capability, not just diffing |
| Restore scope | Scoped to a specific run/trigger, not whole-system point-in-time |
| Coverage | Both automation (sync, auto-generate, admin backfills) AND manual UI edits |
| Retention | 1 year, then prune |
| Restore access | Admin-only, via a page listing runs (pick one, restore just those tasks) |
| Capture mechanism | Postgres DB trigger (not app-level-only helper) — see rationale below |
**Why a DB trigger over an app-level helper:** an app-level helper (a shared
TS function all mutation code paths call) is simpler and more idiomatic for
this codebase, but silently misses any write that doesn't go through it — like
today's raw-SQL backfill script. A trigger on the `tasks` / `task_assignments`
tables fires on every INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE regardless of what wrote the row,
so nothing is invisible by construction. Run-tagging (which run caused a
given change) is layered on top via a Postgres session variable
(`SET LOCAL app.run_id`) that callers set before writing; if unset, the event
is still captured, just tagged `UNTRACKED` instead of getting a rich label.
## Architecture (approved shape)
### Data model
**`changes_runs`** — groups events from one logical action:
- `id`, `trigger_type` (`MANUAL_EDIT` / `SYNC` / `AUTO_GENERATE` / `CRON` /
`ADMIN_BACKFILL` / `RESTORE` / `UNTRACKED`), `triggered_by` (nullable FK →
users), `started_at`, `completed_at`, `description`
**`task_change_events`** — one row per actual field change on a `tasks` or
`task_assignments` row (not per-request, per-column):
- `id`, `task_id`, `run_id` (nullable FK → `changes_runs`), `change_type`
(`INSERT`/`UPDATE`/`DELETE`), `old_values` (jsonb, null for INSERT),
`new_values` (jsonb, null for DELETE), `changed_at`
**`task_rollup_snapshots`** — the hourly oversight/trend view from the
original ask, kept separate from restore data since it's just for
trend-watching, not restore:
- one row per (hour, advocate | client | department | status) combo with an
open-task count. Cheap aggregate, not full-row duplication.
### Capture mechanism
`AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE` trigger on `tasks` and `task_assignments`
writes to `task_change_events`. Skips no-op updates (`OLD` = `NEW`). `run_id`
comes from the session variable set by the caller; unset → `UNTRACKED`.
### Restore flow
Admin-only page lists recent runs (trigger type, who/what, timestamp, task
count affected). Picking a run and confirming:
- For each task touched in that run, take the *earliest* event in that run
(state immediately before the run started).
- `INSERT` → delete the task. `DELETE` → recreate from `old_values`.
`UPDATE` → write `old_values` back.
- The restore itself runs through the same capture path, becoming its own new
run (`trigger_type = RESTORE`) — so a restore is itself visible in the run
list and can be undone.
### Retention
Nightly prune job (same systemd-timer + `x-cron-secret` pattern as the
existing `ondeck-sync.timer``/api/cron/sync`) deletes
`task_change_events` and `task_rollup_snapshots` older than 1 year.
## Existing patterns this builds on
- Scheduling: `ondeck-sync.timer` (systemd) → `curl -X POST
http://localhost:3000/api/cron/sync -H 'x-cron-secret: ...'`. New cron
endpoints (hourly rollup, nightly prune) should follow this exact pattern.
- `audit_logs` (generic action log) and `task_audits` (an unrelated
document-matching audit feature) already exist — this new system is
distinct from both; avoid name collisions (`task_audits` is taken).
- Task mutation surface to eventually wrap/verify against the trigger:
task edit modal, complete/NA/cancel dialogs, bulk assign/transfer routes,
`src/lib/sync/auto-generate.ts`, `src/lib/sync/sync-engine.ts`
(`runPostSyncAutomation`), the three admin `generate-*-tasks` routes,
`/api/tasks/generate-and-assign`.
## Open / not yet designed (resume point)
1. **Rollout specifics** — exact list of every existing task-mutation code
path, and whether/how each needs to set `SET LOCAL app.run_id` (vs relying
on the trigger's `UNTRACKED` fallback for lower-value paths).
2. **Hourly rollup query** — the exact aggregation query/schema for
`task_rollup_snapshots` (dimensions: advocate, client, department, status;
need to confirm which combos matter for the oversight dashboard).
3. Prisma modeling of trigger-based tables (Prisma doesn't manage triggers
natively — will need a raw SQL migration for the trigger + trigger
function, with the tables themselves modeled normally in
`prisma/schema.prisma`).
4. UI for the Admin run-list/restore page — not discussed at all yet.
5. Whether restoring a task whose *client or policy itself* was deleted since
the run needs special handling (FK now dangling).
6. Spec self-review and user sign-off on the written spec (paused before this
step — do this when resuming, before moving to implementation planning).
## Next step on resume
Continue the brainstorming flow from "rollout specifics" (item 1 above) —
enumerate every task-mutation code path and decide the wrapping approach —
then finish the spec self-review and get explicit sign-off before invoking
the writing-plans skill.