#369 Make Draft Deletion Recoverable, Preserving Historical Answers

[cielbellerose]

Closes #369

Summary

• deleteDraftApplication now soft-deletes (deletedAt/deletedById) instead of hard-deleting the Application row and both answer tables, so an applicant's historical answers survive a delete.
• A new restoreDraftApplication clears the same fields on the same row — no new row is ever inserted, so @@unique([userId, positionId]) is never at risk and no migration is needed.
• createDraftApplication, createOrUpdateApplicationAnswer and submitApplication each reject a soft-deleted draft with an actionable message instead of silently writing through it or reporting the wrong reason.
• /my-applications surfaces a Deleted badge, a muted unlinked title, and a Restore action for a deleted draft; /positions/[id]/apply shows a "You deleted this draft" card with the same Restore control.
• The delete confirmation copy no longer claims deletion is permanent.
• Reconciliation after a restore (new global/position questions, changed questions, deleted questions) needed no new code — it reuses the same live-question-list and resolveGlobalAnswerValues paths that already handle a draft whose questions changed underneath it; a new db suite pins that claim.

Changes

• prisma/actions/applications.ts — soft-delete deleteDraftApplication; new restoreDraftApplication; shared DRAFT_DELETED_MESSAGE; deleted-row guards in createDraftApplication, createOrUpdateApplicationAnswer, submitApplication.
• prisma/actions/question-files.ts — readAndWriteAnswerValue's inner application lookup now excludes a soft-deleted draft too.
• prisma/data/applications.ts — applicationSelect gains deletedAt; getMyApplications surfaces deleted drafts (and only drafts); getApplicationForApply stops filtering deletedAt, staying in lockstep with createDraftApplication.
• lib/types.ts — MyApplicationListItem mirrors the new deletedAt field.
• lib/constants.ts — DELETED_APPLICATION_LABEL.
• components/features/restore-draft-button.tsx — new client leaf, the Restore control shared by the list row and the apply-page card.
• components/features/my-application-row-actions.tsx — Restore branch for a deleted row; rewritten delete-confirmation copy and toasts.
• components/features/my-application-primary-action.tsx — no primary action on a deleted row.
• components/features/my-applications-table.tsx — Deleted badge, muted unlinked title, Status-column sort grouping for deleted rows.
• components/features/status-badge.tsx — optional deletedAt on ApplicationStatusBadge, outranking status.
• app/(main)/(auth)/positions/[id]/apply/page.tsx — "You deleted this draft" card between the closed-window branch and the profile-gate branch.
• app/(main)/(auth)/my-applications/[id]/page.tsx — threads deletedAt through to MyApplicationRowActions.
• tests/db/draft-recovery.test.ts — new: delete/restore lifecycle, write-path guards, reconciliation after restore, and list/reviewer-query visibility.
• docs/WORKFLOWS.md — rewrote AP-15, added AP-17, updated AP-5/AP-6/AP-9/AP-10.
• docs/PERMISSIONS.md — updated the draft row of the application-lifecycle table and added a bullet on recoverable deletion.

Testing plan

• Start a draft, answer a global and a position question (include a file upload), then delete it — confirmation reads "…will be marked deleted. Your answers are kept…" and the toast offers restore.
• The deleted row stays at the top of /my-applications with a Deleted badge, an unlinked title, "—" for Applied, and only a Restore action; the title is not a link; /my-applications/<id> still 404s directly.
• The dashboard draft count and every position's application counts exclude the deleted draft; it appears nowhere in /applications or a position card as a manager/admin.
• Visit /positions/<id>/apply while deleted → "You deleted this draft" card with Restore, View my applications, and Back to position.
• Restore from /positions/<id>/apply → the stepper reopens with every answer, including the uploaded file, present and downloadable.
• Delete again, add a required global question as admin, restore → stepper opens in Customize mode with the new-required-questions callout; submit is blocked naming it; answering it lets submit succeed.
• Delete again, add a required position question as a manager, restore → step 2 shows it unanswered and blocks submit until answered.
• Delete again, change an answered global question's type, restore → the answer surfaces via AnswerMismatchNotice instead of vanishing.
• Delete again, soft-delete an answered question as admin, restore → submit still succeeds; the orphan answer doesn't block it.
• Two tabs: delete in tab A, then Start application / edit a field / Submit in tab B → each shows "You deleted this draft. Restore it from My Applications to keep working on it." and tab B refreshes onto the restore card.
• Two tabs: restore in tab A, then Restore in tab B → "This draft can no longer be restored."
• Restore a draft whose position has since closed → it restores; the apply page shows "Applications are closed" and submit stays blocked.
• Keyboard-only pass over a deleted row and the apply-page card: Restore reachable, visible focus, spinner state reflected via the disabled button.
• 375px / 768px / 1280px: the mobile card shows the Deleted badge and Restore without overflow.
• npm run prettier:check && npm run eslint:check && npm run tsc:check && npm run test (db suite requires local Postgres — not runnable in this sandbox; test:unit passes).

Automated checks

• npm run prettier:check — pass
• npm run eslint:check — pass
• npm run tsc:check — pass
• npm run test:unit — pass (227/227). The db project, including the new tests/db/draft-recovery.test.ts suite, could not run in this sandbox — the repo's docker-compose.yml binds host port 5432, which was already occupied by an unrelated container, and no DATABASE_URL was otherwise configured. CI's run-tests job runs the full suite against Postgres.

Notes

• Blobs on a deleted draft are never reclaimed — deliberate, since the file answer is one of the "historical answers" the ticket exists to preserve; cleanupOrphanedBlob never runs on delete.
• There is no permanent-delete path anymore. An applicant who deleted a draft to start over has to restore it and clear the fields — worth a follow-up ticket if it comes up in practice.
• The detail route (/my-applications/[id]) stays a 404 for a deleted draft, matching AP-11's existing soft-delete behavior; widening it would also widen downloadQuestionFileAnswer's shared ownership where.

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
aplio	Ready	Preview	Aug 25, 2026 6:30pm

[cielbellerose]

Code Review — Cycle 1 · approved

0 open — no findings