/refine — dedicated triage + refinement surface

/refine — dedicated triage + refinement surface (gm-3ofd)

Status: accepted 2026-04-29. Supersedes: the ?layout=list&view=backlog crutch. Sibling: gm-5ekd and follow-ons — keep Backlog out of the default Board kanban, with a toggle for inspection, while the Board presents execution as Ready / In Progress / Done.

Goal

A workspace dedicated to triage and refinement of state_category=backlog work items, distinct from the Board’s execution kanban. Backlog work has different ergonomics from in-flight work — density-rich tabular layout, priority weighting, dependency visibility, suggested-epic placement, bulk triage actions.

Why this lives outside the Board

The Board is execution chrome — Ready / In Progress / Done flow, swimlanes, scope. Refinement is a sorting / triaging activity, not a flow stage. The Board’s list mode (?layout=list) was an interim affordance; it does fine for general list browsing but is anemic for actual refinement. /refine reclaims the surface.

Surface

• Route: /refine. Reclaims /backlog (which gm-e12.19.1 redirected to Board’s list mode); the redirect target shifts to /refine.
• Sidebar entry: top-level pane between Plan and Review. Same visual treatment as the other top-level entries; workspaceScoped: true so cold-start mutes it.

Default view

• Filter: state_category=backlog is hardwired. The state- category chip bar is hidden — this is a backlog surface by definition.
• Sort: priority desc, then age desc (older items bubble up inside a priority band so true neglect is visible).
• Power features: bulk-action surface, column presets, JSONL import are always on. /refine’s whole reason to exist is dense triage; no soft mode.

Columns

Tabular grid keyed to backlog rows. v1 column set:

Column	Source	Notes
(selection)	grid	Bulk-action checkbox
id	WorkItem.id	mono, fixed-width
kind	WorkItem.kind	chip
title	WorkItem.title	truncate; wrap on hover
age	now() - created_at	”12d”, “3mo”
priority	WorkItem.priority	inline-editable
blockers	derived from blocks/parent_child	count chip
suggested epic	Selection (planner-coach) opinion	dim when absent
last-touched	WorkItem.updated_at	”2h”, “5d”
labels	WorkItem.labels	chips
dispatch_status	WorkItem.dispatch_status	non-default only

Sortable on every column. Visible-column presets (operator-saved) ride on the existing power-mode preset infrastructure.

Single-row actions

• Triage to Unstarted — state_category → unstarted (graduate to the active funnel).
• Set priority — inline edit + bulk dialog.
• Drop into an epic — pick a target epic; sets parent_id via the gm-gsbj plumbing. Clears any prior parent.
• Defer — back to backlog with optional defer-until note.
• Dismiss — state_category → canceled with an optional reason.

Bulk actions

Mirrors the gm-uipx.17 power-mode list bulk surface:

• Cmd-E — bulk edit (priority, labels)
• Cmd-D — bulk dismiss (with confirm)
• Right-click — context menu carrying every single-row action applied to the selection
• JSONL import — bulk priority adjustments

The bulk surface is the existing WorkItemGrid machinery — /refine does not invent its own.

Capability gating

A WorkPlane adaptor that doesn’t expose state_category=backlog (a flow without a backlog stage) MUST hide the /refine route. The sidebar entry mutes; direct navigation 404s. Detection: if the WorkPlane’s manifest StateCategoriesSupported excludes backlog, /refine is unavailable. (Today every shipping adaptor exposes backlog; this gate is forward-compat.)

What it is NOT

• Not a Kanban — refinement is not a flow stage.
• Not a sprint planner — that’s /sprints (gm-e11.5).
• Not a coach surface — Selection / planner-coach lives in /coach and feeds suggestions in via the suggested-epic column.

Implementation plan

Children (filed under gm-3ofd):

1. Page scaffold + route + sidebar — RefinePage renders the existing WorkItemGrid with hardcoded backlog filter, default sort, power features always on. /backlog redirect re-targets /refine. Sidebar entry between Plan and Review.
2. Refine-specific columns — age, suggested-epic, blockers count, dispatch_status. Adds rendering to WorkItemGrid’s column registry.
3. Drop-into-epic action — single-row + bulk. Uses the parent_id PATCH path (gm-gsbj).
4. Defer action — single-row + bulk. State stays backlog; a defer_until:<iso> label rides as the implementation.
5. Dismiss action — single-row + bulk. State → canceled with optional reason note.

Out of v1 scope (filed but deferred):

• Suggested-epic computation pipeline (Selection feeds this; the column renders whatever the WorkItem carries).
• Cross-workspace refinement.