# Phase 30: Onboarding Redesign - Context

**Gathered:** 2026-04-12
**Status:** Ready for planning

<domain>
## Phase Boundary

Replace the current manual-entry onboarding wizard with a catalog-driven, hobby-personalized full-screen experience. New users pick their hobby, see popular items from that hobby's catalog, and batch-add items they own to their collection. Categories auto-created from selections.

</domain>

<decisions>
## Implementation Decisions

### Flow Structure
- **D-01:** Onboarding flow: **Welcome → Pick Hobby → Browse Popular Items → Review & Confirm → Done**
- **D-02:** Display name captured during signup (Logto field or first-login prompt) — NOT during onboarding wizard.
- **D-03:** Profile pic is not part of onboarding — users add it later from the profile page.
- **D-04:** Hobby selection is the key personalization step — it determines what catalog items are shown.
- **D-05:** Categories auto-created from the user's selections (based on the tags/categories of items they add). No manual "create a category" step.

### Hobby Selection
- **D-06:** Card-based hobby picker with icons — visual cards for each hobby area (Bikepacking, Hiking, Climbing, Cycling, etc.). Not a plain tag list.
- **D-07:** Hobbies map to catalog tags for filtering. Starting with outdoor categories, but the system is extensible to any hobby.
- **D-08:** User can pick one or more hobbies. Multiple selections show combined results.

### Catalog Integration
- **D-09:** After hobby selection, show popular items from the most popular tags within that hobby. Not a full search — a curated, browsable grid.
- **D-10:** "Popular" initially measured by **owner count** (how many users have linked the item). Real view analytics are a future enhancement.
- **D-11:** User taps/checks items they own — selections collected as a batch. No immediate adds.
- **D-12:** Summary/review screen before final commit — user confirms their selections, then all items batch-added to their collection at once.

### Visual Style
- **D-13:** Full-screen experience — each step takes the full viewport. Big visuals, generous spacing, immersive. Modern app intro feel (Notion/Linear style).
- **D-14:** Replace the current centered modal card approach entirely.
- **D-15:** Smooth transitions between steps. Step indicator still present but full-width, not dots.

### Trigger & Skip Behavior
- **D-16:** Triggers on first login (any auth method — email, Google, GitHub).
- **D-17:** Hobby selection step is **required** (not skippable) — essential for personalization.
- **D-18:** Other steps (browse items, add to collection) are skippable. Skipping marks onboarding complete.

### Claude's Discretion
- Hobby card design and icon choices
- How many items/tags to show per hobby
- Transition animations between steps
- Whether to use TanStack Router routes or a single component with internal step state
- How to handle users who sign up for a hobby with no catalog items yet (empty state)
- Exact categories auto-created logic (group by tag, by catalog category, etc.)

</decisions>

<canonical_refs>
## Canonical References

**Downstream agents MUST read these before planning or implementing.**

### Existing Onboarding Code (to be replaced)
- `src/client/components/OnboardingWizard.tsx` — Current 4-step modal wizard
- `src/client/routes/__root.tsx` — Onboarding trigger logic (lines ~98-105, ~193)

### Catalog Components (reusable patterns)
- `src/client/components/CatalogSearchOverlay.tsx` — Catalog search with tag filtering
- `src/client/components/GlobalItemCard.tsx` — Card display for catalog items
- `src/client/hooks/useGlobalItems.ts` — Catalog data fetching hooks

### Add-from-Catalog Flow
- `src/client/components/LinkToGlobalItem.tsx` — Linking user items to global items

### Settings/Onboarding State
- `src/server/routes/settings.ts` — Settings CRUD (onboardingComplete flag)
- `src/server/services/settings.service.ts` — Settings service

### Discovery (popular items data)
- `src/server/services/discovery.service.ts` — getRecentCatalogItems, getPopularSetups — similar patterns for popular items by tag

</canonical_refs>

<code_context>
## Existing Code Insights

### Reusable Assets
- `GlobalItemCard` component — card display for catalog items. Can be reused in the onboarding item grid.
- `CatalogSearchOverlay` — tag-filtered search. Patterns reusable for hobby-filtered browsing.
- `useGlobalItems` hook — fetches catalog items with search/filter. Can be extended for tag-based popularity queries.
- `LucideIcon` — icon rendering for hobby cards.
- Discovery service — `getRecentCatalogItems` pattern can be adapted for "popular items by tag".

### Established Patterns
- Onboarding state tracked via `settings` table (`onboardingComplete: "true"`)
- Full-screen modals exist in auth flow — pattern can be adapted
- Tag system already supports filtering catalog items by tags

### Integration Points
- `src/client/routes/__root.tsx` — Replace onboarding trigger with new full-screen experience
- `src/server/services/discovery.service.ts` — Add "popular items by hobby/tag" query
- `src/server/routes/discovery.ts` — Add endpoint for hobby-filtered popular items
- `src/db/schema.ts` — May need a user_preferences or hobby_selections table

</code_context>

<specifics>
## Specific Ideas

- The hobby selection personalizes the experience from the very start — it should feel like the app is being tailored for them.
- Starting with outdoor categories (bikepacking, hiking, climbing, cycling) but the system must easily accommodate future hobbies (sim racing, photography, etc.).
- Owner count as the initial "popularity" metric is good enough for launch. Real analytics/view tracking comes later (backlog 999.8).
- The current OnboardingWizard.tsx is a complete rewrite — nothing is reused from it except the onboardingComplete settings flag.

</specifics>

<deferred>
## Deferred Ideas

- View/click analytics for better popularity ranking — belongs in 999.8 Analytics Integration
- Category editing UI — separate improvement, not onboarding-specific
- Profile pic during onboarding — deferred, handled via profile page

</deferred>

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*Phase: 30-onboarding-redesign*
*Context gathered: 2026-04-12*
