git.stella-ops.org/docs/features/checked/web/search-readiness-degraded-answer-state-ui.md

Search Readiness Degraded Answer State UI

Scope

• Verifies the top-bar search surface tells the truth when suggestion-viability preflight is unavailable and the active search response reports zero indexed matches.
• Confirms the UI renders environment-readiness copy instead of clarify guidance for that bounded degraded-readiness case.

Files

• src/Web/StellaOps.Web/src/app/layout/global-search/global-search.component.ts
• src/Web.StellaOps.Web/src/tests/global_search/global-search.component.spec.ts
• src/Web.StellaOps.Web/tests/e2e/unified-search-experience-quality.e2e.spec.ts
• docs/modules/ui/search-self-serve-contract.md
• docs/modules/ui/search-zero-learning-primary-entry.md

Verification

1. Focused Angular coverage:
   • npm test -- --watch=false --include src/tests/global_search/global-search.component.spec.ts
   • Result: 26/26 tests passed.
2. Deterministic Playwright coverage:
   • npx playwright test tests/e2e/unified-search-experience-quality.e2e.spec.ts --grep "search-readiness guidance" --workers=1
   • Result: 1/1 test passed.

Outcome

• Search now refreshes suggestion viability on the same debounced query path that drives the search request instead of leaving the viability state stale for typed queries.
• When viability preflight is unavailable and the response diagnostics show zero indexed matches, the answer panel renders Search needs live data and suppresses clarify guidance.
• Docs now describe this as an environment-readiness problem, not an operator-query problem.