# Patherly Project Review

**Date:** February 2, 2026
**Reviewer:** Claude Opus 4.5
**Project Phase:** Phase 2 - Tree Editor (In Progress)

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## Executive Summary

Patherly is in solid shape with **Phase 2 (Tree Editor) substantially complete**. The project has a well-architected backend with 23+ API endpoints and 30+ passing tests, a functional frontend with all core features, and production deployment working on Railway.

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## What's Complete

### Core MVP Features
- User authentication with JWT, refresh tokens, and invite codes
- Full tree CRUD with JSONB-based flexible node structure
- Decision tree navigation with session tracking and note capture
- Session export in Markdown, Text, and HTML formats
- Full-text search on trees

### Tree Editor (Phase 2)
- Form-based node editing with undo/redo
- Visual tree preview with solution indicators and shared link detection
- Markdown preview toggle in description fields
- All node types supported: Decision, Action, Solution

### Organization System
- Categories (global + team-specific, admin-managed)
- Tags with autocomplete and usage tracking
- Personal folder hierarchy (max 3 levels) with context menus
- Tree filtering by category, tags, and folders

### Infrastructure
- Production deployment on Railway (app.patherly.com / api.patherly.com)
- PR preview environments enabled
- Comprehensive structured logging with correlation IDs
- 7 seed trees covering Tier 1-3 troubleshooting scenarios

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## In Progress / Partially Complete

| Feature | Status | What's Missing |
|---------|--------|----------------|
| User Preferences | Schema exists | UI for export format default not built |
| TypeScript Strict Mode | Disabled | Some type safety gaps |
| Tree Editor Validation | Basic | No orphan node or cycle detection |

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## Recommended Next Steps

### High Priority (Improves Current Experience)

1. **Export Format Preference UI**
   - User preference schema exists but UI isn't built
   - Quick win: Add dropdown in user settings to set default export format
   - Impact: Reduces friction for frequent exporters

2. **Copy-to-Clipboard for Exports**
   - Currently must export to file
   - One-click copy of Markdown output would save time
   - MSPs often paste into ConnectWise/tickets directly

3. **Tree Editor Validation Improvements**
   - Detect orphan nodes (not reachable from root)
   - Detect cycles (infinite loops)
   - Required field validation before save
   - Shows warnings in visual preview

4. **Session Resume from History**
   - Can view session history but resuming isn't obvious
   - Add clear "Resume" button on incomplete sessions

### Medium Priority (Prepares for Growth)

5. **Frontend Testing**
   - No frontend tests currently
   - Add Vitest for unit tests, Playwright for E2E
   - Critical flows: login, tree navigation, export

6. **Keyboard Shortcuts Documentation**
   - Hook exists but not fully utilized
   - Add shortcuts for common editor actions (save, undo, add node)
   - Display shortcut hints in UI or help panel

7. **Tree Duplication/Clone**
   - Currently must recreate trees manually
   - "Duplicate tree" would enable creating variations
   - Useful for team templates

8. **Search Improvements**
   - Add search within tree editor (find nodes by text)
   - Filter session history by tree name or date range

### Lower Priority (Future Features - Phase 2.5+)

9. **Personal Branching** (as spec'd in PHASE-2.5-PERSONAL-BRANCHING.md)
   - Let users add custom steps during sessions
   - Step Library with categories and ratings
   - This is the next major feature per roadmap

10. **File Attachments**
    - Schema exists but storage not implemented
    - Would enable screenshots/logs in sessions
    - Requires S3-compatible backend

11. **Tree Analytics**
    - Track which paths engineers take most often
    - Identify common resolution points
    - Could inform tree optimization

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## Recommendation Summary

| Priority | Action | Effort | Impact |
|----------|--------|--------|--------|
| High | Export format preference UI | 2-3 hours | Reduces daily friction |
| High | Copy-to-clipboard exports | 1-2 hours | Major UX improvement |
| High | Tree editor validation | 4-6 hours | Prevents broken trees |
| Medium | Frontend tests | 1-2 days | Long-term stability |
| Medium | Tree duplication | 2-3 hours | Enables templates |
| Lower | Personal branching (Phase 2.5) | 1-2 weeks | Major new capability |

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## Path to Goal: "50% of Tickets in 3 Months"

To hit Michael's goal of using Patherly for 50% of tickets:

1. **Content first**: The 7 seed trees are good, but may need more trees for common scenarios
2. **Speed to clipboard**: Copy-to-clipboard export is the #1 workflow improvement
3. **Mobile/tablet access**: If often away from desk, responsive design matters
4. **Session continuity**: Easy resume for multi-day troubleshooting tickets

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## Technical Health

### Strengths
- Consistent async/await patterns throughout
- Proper timezone handling (documented lessons learned)
- Clean separation: pages, components, stores, API client
- Good commit hygiene with clear messages
- 30+ passing backend integration tests

### Minor Technical Debt
- Enable TypeScript strict mode and fix resulting issues
- Some components could be split for maintainability
- Consider React Query for server state management

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## Project Stats

| Metric | Count |
|--------|-------|
| API Endpoints | 23+ |
| Database Models | 10 |
| Backend Tests | 30+ |
| Seed Decision Trees | 7 |
| Alembic Migrations | 6 |
| Frontend Pages | 7 |
| Frontend Components | 25+ |

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*Report generated by Claude Opus 4.5 for Patherly project review.*
