Navigation IA update: native apps under APPLICATIONS, GSV ship menu, collapsed-first rail

[jess-cat]

Information-architecture update for the shell navigation, from the 2026-07-20 briefing. The built-in surfaces move under APPLICATIONS as native apps, the GSV group becomes the ship-level menu, the rail becomes a collapsed-first reveal menu, and the add/connect nomenclature is standardized.

New IA

MACHINES      [machine...]      + CONNECT NEW
MESSENGERS    TELEGRAM, DISCORD                    (unchanged)
INTEGRATIONS  [integration...]  + CONNECT NEW
APPLICATIONS  FILES, LIBRARY, TERMINAL, REPOS, [imported...]  + CONNECT NEW
GSV           OVERVIEW (/settings), AGENTS (/crew), MODELS (/models, new), TASKS (/tasks)

Navigation

• Native apps under APPLICATIONS: FILES/LIBRARY/TERMINAL/REPOS are NATIVE_APP_ENTRIES (shellModel) rendered as surface-backed children (DesktopChildObject.surface, route now optional) in the rail drawer, the desktop object strip, and the /applications list. They are excluded from every count and status roll-up, so "N web packages" and section dots keep describing the imported inventory.
• GSV ship menu: OVERVIEW / AGENTS / MODELS / TASKS. /crew and /tasks were already routable and are now linked; /models is a new top-level surface mounting the model list standalone with GSV -> MODELS -> [detail] breadcrumbs. The runtime surface is relabeled TASKS (the runtime config concept is untouched).
• SETTINGS -> SHIP OVERVIEW / OVERVIEW split: the page identity is SHIP OVERVIEW (desktop ship tooltip, surface label); nav chrome says OVERVIEW (rail item, breadcrumb root, GSV · OVERVIEW tab/tail, aria). Surface id and /settings route unchanged; legacy /settings/crew|models|tasks URLs still parse, while all in-app links point at the promoted pages (overview panels, chat dock).
• Rail model — collapsed-first reveal menu: the rail defaults to collapsed each session. Collapsed icons expand the panel and open that section's drawer without navigating (fallback to navigation when width pressure blocks expansion). Expanded main rows navigate to their list pages (GSV row -> ship overview); any rail-originated navigation collapses the rail again, riding inside the unsaved-changes guard so a cancelled prompt leaves it open. Collapsed<->expanded geometry is pixel-aligned (icons at identical Y in both states; math documented in gsvShell.css).
• Desktop: the GSV // CONTROL popover is gone — clicking the ship navigates to the overview (tooltip SHIP OVERVIEW); hint copy now reads "CLICK GSV FOR SHIP OVERVIEW". The HUD shows N MACHINES / N AGENTS (live targets; crew machine accounts) instead of the old object tally. The picker overlay and its state/CSS are removed; IconMenu became a generic cells component (catalog-only for now).

Nomenclature (audited, approved)

• Connect CTAs: CONNECT NEW (TYPE) with a leading plus on every add/connect control — literal + only where the control doesn't already draw a plus glyph (no double-plus). Rail drawer rows stay untyped + CONNECT NEW (typed labels wrap at rail width).
• Application import flow speaks connect: title "Connect application", primary + CONNECT APPLICATION / CONNECTING, CONNECT WITHOUT ENABLING, step CONNECT PACKAGE (mock mirror updated).
• Creation CTAs keep their names with the + style (+ NEW AGENT, + NEW TASK, + NEW MODEL, ...). Messengers intentionally untouched.

External applications (design pick: variant C)

Imported apps carry provenance; natives stay unlabeled (eyebrow APPLICATION · GSV):

• Desktop strip: a provenance band above each external card — boxed EXTERNAL + PUBLIC/PRIVATE tags + ellipsized source repo; natives/add-tile keep an empty band so card tops align.
• /applications list: boxed EXTERNAL tag (a pending review keeps the slot as UPDATE), · PUBLIC|PRIVATE appended to the sub. Data rides new sourceRepo/sourcePublic fields on application children.
• The External Application Tile catalog story documents the four explored variants with C marked as chosen and mirroring what shipped.

Verification

• tsc --noEmit clean; 280 vitest tests pass, including new coverage: native children shape + count/status exclusion, /models round-trip, legacy /settings/* parsing, provenance fields. (The pre-existing ChatTranscript.test.ts DOMPurify crash fails on main identically — untouched here.)
• Collapsed/expanded rail alignment verified with an in-page DOM harness (discs at 83/147/211/275/339 in both states).
• Manual pass on the running app by Jessica (nav flows, desktop, tile pick).

Known follow-ups (parked, deliberate)

• Crew page meta still reads N HUMANS / N MACHINES ("machines" there means agents; HUD now uses MACHINES for compute targets).
• Import stepper pip label IMPORT vs step title CONNECT PACKAGE; import helper prose still says "import".
• Library WRITE PAGE / CAPTURE SOURCE and Files CREATE NEW verbs don't lead with +.
• A11y backlog from the chat-overhaul audit unaffected by this PR.

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[jess-cat]

Navigation IA overhaul — round 1. @codex review

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