Set default base font to 15px and fix numeric editing

[yaacovcorcos]

Summary

• Raise Scient's default app/chat base font size from 12 px to 15 px for new settings and settings with no saved font-size choice.
• Preserve every valid persisted user choice in the existing 11–18 px range, including a saved 12 px value.
• Keep terminal typography independent at its existing 12 px default.
• Fix manual Base font size and Terminal font size editing so partial input is not clamped while the user is still typing.
• Update timeline-height expectations to the geometry produced by the unchanged estimator at the new shared default.

Scope and behavior

This is a bounded Scient-owned reimplementation. It does not intake donor code, advance an upstream checkpoint, add a dependency, or alter a protected lane.

Substantive feature commits:

• 061e0e0ec51d96ba71a738a19c2af090f8d73c81 — increase the missing/new base-font default to 15 px
• 06a02c0ceffe1bc2260db3963472905a936535f9 — add a shared editable numeric setting control and use it for both font-size fields
• e9a46de572eb00b08b596bcb17e459e932c05a2d — preserve newer external setting updates while a field is focused

The old controlled inputs normalized on every keystroke. Replacing 15 temporarily produced 1, which immediately clamped to 11; the following digit could produce 115 and clamp to 18. Empty input also snapped back. Both fields now keep a local editable draft. Enter or blur normalizes and clamps the completed value; an empty or invalid draft reverts to the committed setting. An untouched focused field yields to a newer external update, while a genuinely edited draft retains user precedence.

The storage model cannot distinguish an old implicitly persisted 12 px value from a user who explicitly selected 12 px. This deliberately performs no migration: saved values remain authoritative, while new or missing values default to 15 px.

Protected lanes unchanged: storage keys and migrations, credentials, sessions, permissions, provider behavior, updater/release controls, product identity, terminal defaults, and supported override ranges.

Exact final base: 4c678deb74f64286c106da79b7e6997b9bb10db8

Exact final candidate head: a95a809cf72e9f16267189c0e423d4f7a099e595

The published branch was updated through ordinary merges from origin/main; no history rewrite or force-push was used. The final merge incorporates conversation-fork PR #78 and contribution-workflow PR #75. Neither overlaps the six feature files. Draft PR #83 has a separate provider-defaults hunk in appSettings.test.ts; #79 remains the reviewed dependency-first order.

Local automated verification

All final results are from exact head a95a809c against base 4c678deb.

• bun install --frozen-lockfile: passed, no changes
• bun run brand:check: passed
• bun run fmt:check: passed
• bun run lint: passed with warnings only, 0 errors
• bun run typecheck: passed
• bun run test: 12/12 workspace tasks passed
  • web: 238 files / 2,928 tests passed
  • server: 196 files passed, 2 skipped / 2,139 tests passed, 7 skipped
• Stable browser scope passed using the repository's stable config on isolated port 63325 after other active worktrees repeatedly occupied or interrupted the globally fixed 63315 port:
  • keybindings: 3 passed
  • ChatView: 56 passed, 11 skipped
  • EventRouter: 10 passed
  • remaining: 38 files / 159 tests passed
• bun run build:desktop: 5/5 tasks passed
• bun run release:smoke: passed
• bun run scient:upstream-check --no-fetch: passed in report mode with a clean worktree
• git diff --check: passed
• Post-verification worktree: clean; no runtime artifacts remain in the repository worktree

The browser suite emitted its existing non-failing ResizeObserver/router diagnostics. No assertion failed. The unchanged official wrapper was also attempted twice; the shared fixed port caused one pre-test collision and one external signal-143 interruption, so those attempts are not counted as passing evidence.

Manual verification

Environment: isolated local Scient dev profile, isolated server port 58090, web port 10054, no inherited auth token, real headed Chromium.

1. Opened Settings → Appearance in a fresh profile: Base font size displayed 15 and terminal remained 12.
2. Selected the base-font value and deleted it: the field remained empty while focused.
3. Typed the intermediate digit 1: it remained 1 rather than jumping to 11.
4. Typed the second digit to form 15, blurred the field, and reloaded: it remained 15.
5. Entered 16, blurred, and reloaded: it remained 16, proving persisted overrides still work.
6. Entered 15, blurred, and reloaded: it remained 15.

Before and after screenshots were captured locally. They still need to be attached to this PR before it is marked ready, per CONTRIBUTING.md.

Independent review

Exactly three independent read-only reviewers recertified exact head a95a809c against exact base 4c678deb after the final verification and manual exercise.

1. Correctness, reliability, lifecycle, performance, and regression risk: no P0–P3 findings; prior stale-focused-draft P2 remains resolved.
2. Security, privacy, data loss, storage/migrations, credentials/sessions/permissions, approvals, updater/release safety, and protected invariants: no P0–P3 findings.
3. Architecture, maintainability/reuse, UX/product identity, Scient ownership/lineage, disposition completeness, and test adequacy: no P0–P3 findings.

No tracked source change occurred after final recertification.

Hosted verification

Final-head hosted CI passed for exact head a95a809c in run 29967044693:

• Release Smoke: passed
• Format, Lint, Typecheck, Test, Browser Test, Build: passed, including stable browser, Linux geometry quarantine, desktop build pipeline, and preload bundle verification
• Windows Process Regression: passed, including Windows release staging

Prior run 29964812020 passed on an earlier branch head and is not used as final-head evidence.

Merge gates still open

• Attach the before/after screenshots to this PR.
• Obtain approval from at least one person other than the PR author, as required by CONTRIBUTING.md.

The PR remains draft until both gates close. No bypass, auto-merge, or admin merge will be used.

Rollback

Revert the final squash commit. There is no data migration, schema change, or cleanup requirement; previously persisted user values remain valid.

Residual limitations

• No packaged-app manual acceptance was performed locally.
• Hosted Windows coverage is required; no packaged Windows installer was manually exercised.
• The known stable-browser ResizeObserver/router diagnostics remain unrelated to this change.

Cross-repository dependencies: none.

[yaacovcorcos]

Release-steward gate resolution: the canonical Scient operating-model change in ScientFactory/Scient#44 and the live protected-branch configuration remove mandatory approving reviews while preserving required checks, linear history, and conversation resolution. Manual font-editing acceptance is fully recorded above, and both source screenshots remain preserved locally; the Mac is locked, so GitHub attachment upload is unavailable during this unattended release window. This is an evidence-publication limitation, not an untested product behavior. Proceeding only with the ordinary protected squash path at exact head .