Rowkit — Project Status

Living status dashboard for Rowkit, a native macOS SwiftUI/AppKit SQLite database GUI. Updated at verified milestones; every claim carries an evidence label.

Status at a glance

Direction reset (2026-08-28): the HyperCard/Card Designer authoring direction is retired and fully stripped from the codebase. Rowkit refocuses as a best-in-class relational database app — Airtable-like data entry over honest SQLite — with an MCP server next so AI assistants can read and (opt-in, guarded) update databases. The strip shipped today: 94 files changed, ~12,200 lines removed, full test suite green.

Current phase

Phase: Post-strip: manual UI verification, then the MCP server build

Latest verified checkpoint: HyperCard strip complete and pushed to main (commits through c05bc98, 2026-08-28); final test gate ran alone: 3,689 tests, 0 failures.

Recently completed

• Card Designer authoring layer removed: design mode, card palettes/inspectors, card buttons and their action system, quick capture (global hotkey + panel). [verified]
  • Six-task orchestrated run, each task gated by spec-compliance and code-quality reviewers; ~12,200 LOC deleted including ~250 authoring tests.
• Record renderer preserved: the row inspector, expanded record view, Saved Workspaces form pane, and record printing all survive on the shared renderer. [verified]
• Stored layouts that contained card buttons are preserved on disk untouched — button blocks decode into the codec's unknown-kind preservation path and round-trip verbatim; a regression test pins this (mutation-verified). [verified]
• One sheet dialect app-wide: the capture chrome (circular close button, accent pill) is retired; every sheet now uses the standard macOS bordered-button dialect. UX review of the restyled surfaces applied. [verified]
• Two design specs committed recording the direction reset: the strip spec and the MCP server spec (read-only default, compare-and-set writes, batch undo, blast cap). [verified]

In progress

• Manual UI verification of the strip by the owner — the checklist covers inspector editing, expanded record, workspace form pane, printing, restyled sheets, and legacy button-layout databases. [planned]
  • handoffs/manual-test-hypercard-strip-2026-08-28.md; the strip is UI work the automated suite cannot fully see.

Remaining work / roadmap

• MCP server (rowkit-mcp): stdio sidecar so AI assistants can navigate, query, and — per-database opt-in with compare-and-set — update records. Spec approved; implementation plan not yet written. [planned]
• Data-entry UX audit: review of grid editing, insert, paste, and inspector flows to build the best-in-class data-entry backlog (includes logged items: ungroup affordance, empty-group inserts, blank-row child entry, hide-ID-columns setting). [planned]
• Strip closeout cleanups logged to TODO: retired-kind row visible in the workspace form customizer for legacy button layouts, capture-era identifier renames, dead hotkey plumbing decision. [observed]

Blockers, decisions, human gates

• Human gate: the manual test checklist must pass before the strip is called fully verified; one known cosmetic artifact (raw 'unknown:button' row in the form customizer for legacy layouts) is documented there. [verified]

Verification evidence

• Full XCTest gate run alone at the final docs commit: 3,689 tests executed, 0 failures (down 252 from 3,941 — the delta is entirely deleted authoring coverage). [verified]
• Fresh-eyes review over the full strip diff (94 files, +993/−12,186): no correctness defects; no database, migration, or SQL-identifier code touched; zero surviving references to any deleted type. [verified]
• Each strip task passed parallel spec-compliance and code-quality review before the next began; blocking findings were fixed in bounded rounds within the run. [verified]

Project documents

• Strip design spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-28-hypercard-strip-and-core-refocus-design.md
• MCP server design spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-28-mcp-server-design.md
• Strip implementation plan: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-28-hypercard-strip-and-core-refocus.md
• Session handoff: handoffs/20260828-hypercard-strip.md
• Manual test checklist (open gate): handoffs/manual-test-hypercard-strip-2026-08-28.md

Freshness & provenance

• Last updated: 2026-08-28 14:40 UTC.
• This update replaces the prior five-phase Saved Workspaces checklist view; that initiative's remediation shipped 2026-07-26 and remains in the changelog.
• Test counts and diff figures come from the orchestrated run's final gate log and git, recorded 2026-08-28.
• Evidence labels: [verified] fresh commands/reviewed commits · [observed] in code/git, not runtime-validated · [user-reported] confirmed by owner, not independently verified · [planned] spec'd, not built · [stale] docs conflict with current state.