workflow: a read-only window's Stage still offers Hand a task / Re-match / Edit / Pause / Stop — the lock stops at the list #2213

Implementation: FlyBot (ours) — PR follows within 24h. Do not pick up without a pickup-ok comment on this issue.

Written-by: FlyBot Lead
Claimed-by: FlyBot Lead
Claim-Id: 3630470a56e548cea679c468236054f8
Branch: dev/2-workflow-stage-readonly
Base: 77a6b4d
At: 2026-11-02T17:48:15Z

Owner: Dev-2
Tier: T1
Kind: bug (read-only surface)
Source: FlyBot Product audit P-432, verified by FlyBot Lead on 77a6b4d4

Dedupe (searched before opening)

type:issue searches for read-only + workflow + stage, Stage + locked + workflow, "Hand a task to a Workflow": the only open hit is #2202 (a refused dialog edit announced twice — different surface, same file). Closed hits are #1457/#1458/#1468 (Assign dialog details), #1738 (drawer layout), #2199/#2204 (Settings pages), #2200/#2205 (the sidebar list). No issue covers the Stage that opens from the list. Product searched read-only on open issues and found none either.

What happens today

#2195/#2190 put locked on the Settings → Workflow graphs page, and #2205 put it on the sidebar list row. The Stage you open from that row never receives it: the call site passes every handler but no locked (plugins/workflow/client.js:2211-2240), Stage has no locked in its signature (:551), so RunStrip, DrawerBody and the editor still render their write controls.

Read at 77a6b4d4:

• :578 — Hand a task to a Workflow in the Stage top bar
• :585 — Re-match
• :543-545 — RunStrip Resume / Pause / Stop
• :640 — DrawerBody's Edit (and :1196 the drag palette while editing)
• :1660 — the host's read-only sentence, drawn only by the Settings page; the Stage never shows it

The core channel refuses every non-READ call in a read-only window (core/src/host/channel.js:296, READS at :227; the workflow plugin's read verbs are state/templates at plugins/workflow/index.js:107/:120), so these controls are all dead ends: the press fails and the page reports the refusal.

Reproduction (measured by FlyBot Product, 77a6b4d4, rendered with the repository's own client.test.js renderer and the real plugins/workflow/client.js)

Probe: client.Section + roster.readOnly + a live run + heldTasks: ['t-9'], then open the row.

Today's output:

write controls in the read-only graph page: ["Hand a task to a Workflow","Re-match","Pause","Stop"]
after opening the drawer: [...,"Edit"]
calls after Pause: ["workflow/pause"] -> alerts: ["The Bot team in … is open in another dsh … close the other one and reload."]
editing palette nodes: 3 | Finish editing offered: true

So a read-only reader can open the assign dialog, enter edit mode and drag nodes — every path ends in a refusal.

Expected behaviour

In a read-only window the Stage is a view: no Hand a task to a Workflow, no Re-match, no Pause/Resume/Stop, no Edit, no drag palette. Row click and Progress / Flow / Run viewing keep working. The Stage shows the host's read-only sentence (role="status", the same primitive #2187 uses).

A writable roster (readOnly missing, '', ' ') must render every control exactly as today.

Scope

• plugins/workflow/client.js — thread locked through Stage → RunStrip / DrawerBody, gate the six write controls, draw the host sentence in the Stage.
• plugins/workflow/test/client.test.js — the two tests below (whole-tree, not findAll(dialog, …)).
• docs/subsystems/workflow.md + changelog.d/<this issue>-stage-readonly.fixed.md.

Not in scope: core, a new primitive, the host's refusal behaviour, #2202's duplicate-announcement case.

Red first

New plugins/workflow/test/graph-readonly.test.js, red on today's code:

1. read-only roster + one live run + one held task, open the row ⇒ the whole tree has no Hand a task to a Workflow, no Re-match, no Pause/Resume/Stop; after opening the drawer no Edit and no wf-palette; the host's sentence is present with role="status".
2. writable roster (missing / '' / ' ') ⇒ all of those controls are present.

Acceptance

1. Both tests fail before the change and pass after.
2. plugins/workflow suite green, npm run verify green, arch-docs: OK.
3. No write control in a read-only Stage; no regression when the roster is writable.