sprint: UX-first release readiness after takeover stabilization

[100yenadmin]

Context

PR #465 made release evidence harder to fake: partial persona runs, missing score.json, missing palette/image/UI/behavioral artifacts, and harness-contaminated output can no longer look release-ready. Issue #466 is the clean post-hardening RRI rerun.

This issue tracks the first product sprint after takeover stabilization. Use the gate as evidence, not as the roadmap: prioritize what a fresh player feels in the built app.

Sprint order

1. Prove first-turn play in the built app via release: rerun clean non-partial 5-persona RRI after gate hardening #466: launch, choose/start/resume, reach Table, submit one /move, see narration resolve, and collect runtime/console evidence.
2. Fix the not-clickable feeling: global hit areas / tab-button backgrounds ([playtest][CROSS-CUTTING] Tabs/buttons only fire when text is clicked directly — entire hit area should be clickable #309), paired with title/chrome truth ([playtest][P0] Title-bar STILL broken visually (Loop 7 fix incomplete) + day pill alignment #306).
3. Make the launcher feel like a real game shelf: remove stale/scratch campaign noise and make bridge/no-bridge state honest ([playtest][MAJOR] Launcher shows 25 stale qa/play-state campaigns + feeds the broken banner #358).
4. Make slow turns feel alive: verify the merged streaming-lite path from feat(viewer): stream DM narration incrementally to /chat #394 against [playtest][P0] Per-beat DM latency (~60-90s) with no streaming → impatient players give up mid-session #393 in a real built-app run; if no text appears within 15-30 seconds, prioritize proof-of-life UX over backend speed work.
5. Add CRPG depth where players look first: Heroes spellbook/manage-spells ([playtest] Heroes: missing feat/spell icons · no spellbook popup · prepare/swap spells unavailable #308), Battle readability ([playtest] Battle: needs real hex/square grid + class/creature glyph badges + scene backdrop #318, folding in Fix combat token overflow outside zone band #462/Sync combat token x,y to zone-band labels (correct paths) #463 token containment/alignment as presentation truth), Inventory/paper-doll feel ([playtest] Stash: boots don't wrap · feels webview not game · paper-doll needs fixed inner width #310), portrait/race gallery continuity (fix(openworlds): portrait gallery empty for 5 of 11 races (dwarf, halfling, gnome, dragonborn, half-orc) #379).

Non-goals for this sprint

• More gate hardening after [codex] Stabilize WorldOS release gate evidence #465 unless release: rerun clean non-partial 5-persona RRI after gate hardening #466 proves a measurement blocker.
• Proxy/adapter/security/UGC/legal/renderer branches unless they are proven blockers for the player-facing session.
• Treating proxy previews or stale canonical reads as release evidence.

Acceptance

• release: rerun clean non-partial 5-persona RRI after gate hardening #466 produces either a non-partial release result or a trustworthy blocker list.
• The next closed UX issues are backed by built-app or canonical live-surface proof, not inferred from stale docs.
• A fresh player can complete the first minute without seeing broken chrome, dead click targets, a confusing launcher shelf, missing images/palette, or a silent pending turn.

[100yenadmin]

UX-first sprint update after #470 merged (36d8ac3): first-minute chrome got a bounded fix and evidence.

Roadmap-position audit confidence: about 0.94 that we are in post-takeover UX-first release-readiness, not release-ready. The highest user-impact lanes remain:

1. release: rerun clean non-partial 5-persona RRI after gate hardening #466 clean non-partial five-persona RRI / built-app release evidence.
2. First-minute built-app play: launch → choose/start/resume → Table → /move → streamed narration.
3. Click targets/chrome ([playtest][CROSS-CUTTING] Tabs/buttons only fire when text is clicked directly — entire hit area should be clickable #309/[playtest][P0] Title-bar STILL broken visually (Loop 7 fix incomplete) + day pill alignment #306): Fix OpenWorlds first-minute click chrome #470 adds shared chrome fixes and browser proof, but issues stay open until broader/built-app proof.
4. Launcher trust/resumability ([playtest][MAJOR] Launcher shows 25 stale qa/play-state campaigns + feeds the broken banner #358).
5. Proof-of-life latency ([playtest][P0] Per-beat DM latency (~60-90s) with no streaming → impatient players give up mid-session #393) framed as visible response UX, not just backend speed.
6. Creation flow dignity / CRPG depth (fix(openworlds): portrait gallery empty for 5 of 11 races (dwarf, halfling, gnome, dragonborn, half-orc) #379/fix(openworlds): portrait gallery empty-state fallback (Closes #379) #390, [playtest] Heroes: missing feat/spell icons · no spellbook popup · prepare/swap spells unavailable #308/[playtest] Battle: needs real hex/square grid + class/creature glyph badges + scene backdrop #318/[playtest] Stash: boots don't wrap · feels webview not game · paper-doll needs fixed inner width #310).

Evidence added outside repo:

• /Volumes/LEXAR/Codex/worldos-ui-gate-character-20260531T222414.ndjson
• /Volumes/LEXAR/Codex/session-notes/2026-05-31/worldos-takeover-ux-clickability/implementation-notes.html

CI and CodeRabbit for #470 were green/no actionable comments. Next safe sprint slice should stay user-facing: built-app first-minute play proof, launcher stale-save clarity, then proof-of-life narration behavior before deeper hardening.

[100yenadmin]

Roadmap dependency note: the agent-grade app testability lane now lives in milestone #19 and parent issue #480. This sprint remains the UX-first product lane; broad UX bugs stay here/Graphics rather than moving into the harness milestone.

[100yenadmin]

Superseded by the v1.0.4 sprint structure (Sprint 2 = the felt-session UX sprint, audit-rescoped). The UX-first intent is preserved in the milestone.