feat: refine hot topics headlines and flame

KNOWLEDGE_BASE.md

@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ Commits, replies, quotes, scheduling, terminal submissions, and app (signed API)
 
 Approved top-level commits about technology, current affairs or substantive real-world events can receive brief, shared subject headlines. Technical and developer topics carry the most weight. /dev/null community activity also qualifies, including livestreams, Tom, app betas and feature updates. Quote commits include the directly quoted post's text when it is approved and still available, so a brief reaction can share the subject of the post it quotes. Replies, casual small talk and evergreen lifestyle or hobby advice are skipped. OpenAI's Decisions API assesses this text for suitability and checks the closest existing headline names, shortlisted by semantic similarity; when none match, DeepSeek through OpenCode generates a headline from the same text. Posts can be processed together, and similar newly generated headlines share the first headline rather than creating duplicates. No account metadata is sent. A headline expires after fourteen days without a new commit link. This categorization does not change the original post and does not yet add visible headline labels to the interface.
 
-The desktop sidebar shows signed-in members up to five **Hot topics** above **Who to follow**. These aggregate approved top-level commits posted in the past eight hours, with extra weight for trending discussions. Only each author's strongest post contributes to a topic's ranking, so repeated posts from one profile do not lift it. The list respects mutes and blocks. The sidebar no longer repeats your own profile summary; your profile is still available from the main navigation.
+The desktop sidebar shows signed-in members up to five **Hot topics** above **Who to follow**, with bold headlines and a truncated recap underneath when one is available. These aggregate approved top-level commits posted in the past eight hours, with extra weight for trending discussions. Only each author's strongest post contributes to a topic's ranking, so repeated posts from one profile do not lift it. The list respects mutes and blocks. The sidebar no longer repeats your own profile summary; your profile is still available from the main navigation.
 
 Hot topics can also receive a short AI-written recap based on approved, available top-level commits from the past eight hours. An AI usefulness check skips topics without enough substance to summarize. Recaps aim to explain the underlying situation or event in one or two short sentences, rather than cataloguing individual posts. They are not independently verified reporting and can be reused for up to two hours. Only post text and the headline are sent to the AI providers, without account metadata. Removing a source commit, rejecting it, or deleting its author's account clears the associated recap. Signed-in members can open a headline to read its available recap above semantic search results from the past week. Expired recaps are omitted, and a recap is hidden if linked public posts include an author the viewer has muted or blocked. The results respect visibility, mutes and blocks too.
 

app/Http/Middleware/HandleInertiaRequests.php

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 use App\Queries\BioProfilesQuery;
 use App\Queries\ConversationsQuery;
 use App\Queries\DevelopersCountQuery;
+use App\Queries\HeadlineSummaryQuery;
 use App\Queries\HotHeadlinesQuery;
 use App\Queries\LiveFollowingQuery;
 use App\Queries\NotificationGroupsQuery;
@@ -128,13 +129,16 @@ public function share(Request $request): array
             'showsWhoToFollow' => $showsWhoToFollow,
             ...$user instanceof User && $hasAside ? [
                 'liveFollowing' => Inertia::once(fn (): Collection => resolve(LiveFollowingQuery::class)->get($user))->until(60),
-                'hotTopics' => Inertia::once(fn (): array => array_map(
-                    fn (array $headline): array => [
+                'hotTopics' => Inertia::once(function () use ($user): array {
+                    $topics = resolve(HotHeadlinesQuery::class)->get($user);
+                    $summaries = resolve(HeadlineSummaryQuery::class)->getMany(array_column($topics, 'id'), $user);
+
+                    return array_map(fn (array $headline): array => [
                         'id' => $headline['id'],
                         'name' => $headline['name'],
-                    ],
-                    resolve(HotHeadlinesQuery::class)->get($user),
-                ))->until(60),
+                        'summary' => $summaries->get($headline['id']),
+                    ], $topics);
+                })->until(60),
             ] : [],
             'dimsLanes' => $request->cookie('lane_dimming') !== 'false',
             'repliesPerPage' => RepliesPerPage::of($request)->value,

app/Queries/HeadlinePageQuery.php

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 
 final readonly class HeadlinePageQuery
 {
-    public function __construct(private CommitSearchQuery $search)
+    public function __construct(private CommitSearchQuery $search, private HeadlineSummaryQuery $summary)
     {
         //
     }
@@ -24,18 +24,7 @@ public function get(Headline $headline, User $viewer): array
     {
         return [
             'name' => $headline->name,
-            'summary' => function () use ($headline, $viewer): ?string {
-                if ($headline->summary === null || ! $headline->summary_created_at?->gt(now()->subHours(Headline::SUMMARY_HOURS))) {
-                    return null;
-                }
-
-                // Without stored provenance, check all linked posts rather than risk repeating a hidden author's words.
-                $hasHiddenSources = $headline->commits()->topLevel()->approved()
-                    ->whereNotIn('commits.id', $headline->commits()->select('commits.id')->visibleTo($viewer)->withoutMutedAuthorsFor($viewer))
-                    ->exists();
-
-                return $hasHiddenSources ? null : $headline->summary;
-            },
+            'summary' => fn (): ?string => $this->summary->get($headline, $viewer),
             'commits' => fn (): Collection => $this->search->get($headline->name, $viewer, since: now()->subWeek()),
         ];
     }

app/Queries/HeadlineSummaryQuery.php

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace App\Queries;
+
+use App\Models\Commit;
+use App\Models\Headline;
+use App\Models\User;
+use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
+use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
+
+final readonly class HeadlineSummaryQuery
+{
+    public function get(Headline $headline, User $viewer): ?string
+    {
+        return $this->getMany([$headline->id], $viewer)->get($headline->id);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param  list<string>  $headlineIds
+     * @return Collection<string, string|null>
+     */
+    public function getMany(array $headlineIds, User $viewer): Collection
+    {
+        // Without stored provenance, check all linked posts rather than risk repeating a hidden author's words.
+        return Headline::query()->whereKey($headlineIds)
+            ->whereNotNull('summary')
+            ->where('summary_created_at', '>', now()->subHours(Headline::SUMMARY_HOURS))
+            ->whereDoesntHave('commits', fn (Builder $query): Builder => $query->topLevel()->approved()
+                ->whereNotIn('commits.id', Commit::query()->select('commits.id')->visibleTo($viewer)->withoutMutedAuthorsFor($viewer)))
+            ->get()
+            ->mapWithKeys(fn (Headline $headline): array => [$headline->id => $headline->summary]);
+    }
+}

database/seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php

@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ public function run(): void
             )->create();
 
             $this->seedOrganizations($localDeveloper, $users);
+            $this->call(HeadlineSeeder::class);
 
             $commits = Commit::query()->topLevel()->get();
 

database/seeders/HeadlineSeeder.php

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Database\Seeders;
+
+use App\Actions\UpdateCommitEmbedding;
+use App\Models\Commit;
+use App\Models\Headline;
+use App\Models\User;
+use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
+use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
+
+final class HeadlineSeeder extends Seeder
+{
+    public function __construct(private readonly UpdateCommitEmbedding $updateCommitEmbedding)
+    {
+        //
+    }
+
+    public function run(): void
+    {
+        DB::transaction(function (): void {
+            $users = collect([0, 1])->map(fn (int $index): User => User::query()->firstWhere('github_id', "headline-seed-{$index}")
+                ?? User::factory()->create(['github_id' => "headline-seed-{$index}"]));
+            $topics = [
+                ['Database indexing', 'Developers compare composite and partial indexes to speed up queries without adding unnecessary write overhead.', [
+                    'A composite index on tenant_id and created_at took our activity query from 240 ms to 12 ms. The query plan finally stopped scanning the whole table.',
+                    'Trying partial indexes for queued jobs in PostgreSQL. Indexing only the pending rows keeps the index small even as completed jobs pile up.',
+                ]],
+                ['Accessible developer tools', 'Keyboard navigation and screen-reader support are getting attention in editors, terminals and other developer tools.', [
+                    'Shipped keyboard navigation for our command palette. Every action now works without a mouse, including nested menus and search results.',
+                    'Testing our terminal UI with a screen reader found three unlabeled buttons. Accessibility checks are going into the release checklist.',
+                ]],
+                ['Laravel community updates and upcoming releases', 'The community shares upgrade notes and practical examples of queues, typed configuration and concurrency.', [
+                    'Our Laravel upgrade is ready. Typed configuration caught a missing setting before deploy, and the full test suite stayed green.',
+                    'Using Laravel concurrency for independent imports cut our dashboard refresh time in half. Writing up the trade-offs for the next meetup.',
+                ]],
+                ['Open-source maintenance', null, [
+                    'Opened a good first issue for improving the installation guide. Small documentation fixes are a great way to start contributing.',
+                    'Set aside Friday afternoon for reviewing community pull requests. Keeping the review queue moving matters as much as shipping new features.',
+                ]],
+                ['Browser performance', 'Teams explore ways to avoid layout shifts, reduce JavaScript work and keep scrolling smooth on slower devices.', [
+                    'Reserved the image dimensions in our feed and removed a layout shift on first load. The fix was two attributes, not another JavaScript observer.',
+                    'Profiling our scrolling list on a slower laptop exposed expensive work in every row. Moving that work out of render made the feed noticeably smoother.',
+                ]],
+            ];
+
+            foreach ($topics as [$name, $summary, $bodies]) {
+                $headline = Headline::query()->updateOrCreate(['name' => $name], [
+                    'summary' => $summary,
+                    'summary_created_at' => $summary === null ? null : now(),
+                ]);
+
+                foreach ($users as $index => $user) {
+                    $attributes = [
+                        'body' => $bodies[$index],
+                        'created_at' => now()->subMinutes(15 + $index * 30),
+                    ];
+                    $commit = Commit::query()->whereBelongsTo($user)->firstWhere('body', $attributes['body'])
+                        ?? Commit::factory()->for($user)->make($attributes);
+                    $commit->fill($attributes)->save();
+                    $headline->commits()->syncWithoutDetaching($commit);
+
+                    $this->updateCommitEmbedding->handle($commit);
+                }
+            }
+        });
+    }
+}

resources/css/app.css

@@ -268,6 +268,27 @@
         both;
     --animate-star-pop: star-pop 450ms cubic-bezier(0.175, 0.885, 0.32, 1.275)
         both;
+    --animate-flame-flicker: flame-flicker 5s ease-in-out infinite;
+
+    @keyframes flame-flicker {
+        0%,
+        80%,
+        100% {
+            transform: scale(1) skewX(0deg);
+        }
+        84% {
+            transform: scale(0.94, 1.08) skewX(-3deg);
+        }
+        88% {
+            transform: scale(1.04, 0.96) skewX(2deg);
+        }
+        92% {
+            transform: scale(0.96, 1.05) skewX(-2deg);
+        }
+        96% {
+            transform: scale(1.02, 0.98) skewX(1deg);
+        }
+    }
 
     @keyframes star-pop {
         0% {

resources/js/components/chat/chat-dock.tsx

@@ -75,9 +75,14 @@ function DockedChat({ user }: { user: User }) {
 
     const leave = () => updateChatDock({ conversation: null });
 
+    const blocked = () =>
+        router.reload({
+            onSuccess: () => router.reload({ only: ['hotTopics'] }),
+        });
+
     const leaveBlocked = () => {
         leave();
-        router.reload();
+        blocked();
     };
 
     const toggle = () => updateChatDock({ isExpanded: !dock.isExpanded });
@@ -246,7 +251,7 @@ function DockedChat({ user }: { user: User }) {
                             <InboxPanel
                                 user={user}
                                 onOpen={open}
-                                onBlocked={() => router.reload()}
+                                onBlocked={blocked}
                                 isCompact
                                 empty={
                                     <p className="px-4 py-10 text-center font-mono text-[13px] text-muted-foreground">

resources/js/components/hot-topics.tsx

@@ -15,20 +15,28 @@ export function HotTopics() {
                 id="aside-hot-topics"
                 className="mb-2 flex items-center gap-2 text-sm font-semibold"
             >
-                <Flame aria-hidden className="size-4 text-muted-foreground" />
+                <Flame
+                    aria-hidden
+                    className="size-4 text-(--lane-0) [&_path]:origin-bottom [&_path]:[transform-box:fill-box] motion-safe:[&_path]:animate-flame-flicker"
+                />
                 Hot topics
             </h2>
             <ul>
                 {hotTopics.map((topic) => (
                     <li key={topic.id}>
                         <Link
                             href={show(topic.id)}
-                            className="group -mx-2 flex min-h-8 items-center rounded-lg px-2 py-1 text-sm transition-[background-color] hover:bg-accent focus-visible:outline-ring"
+                            className="group -mx-2 flex min-h-8 flex-col justify-center rounded-lg px-2 py-1 text-sm transition-[background-color] hover:bg-accent focus-visible:outline-ring"
                             title={topic.name}
                         >
-                            <span className="min-w-0 flex-1 truncate group-hover:underline">
+                            <span className="w-full truncate font-bold group-hover:underline">
                                 {topic.name}
                             </span>
+                            {topic.summary !== null && (
+                                <span className="w-full truncate text-xs text-muted-foreground">
+                                    {topic.summary}
+                                </span>
+                            )}
                         </Link>
                     </li>
                 ))}

resources/js/components/user-safety-menu.tsx

@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ export function UserSafetyMenu({
                 options.onSuccess?.(page);
 
                 router.flushAll();
+                router.reload({ only: ['hotTopics'] });
             },
         });
     };

resources/js/lib/commit-mutation-options.ts

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ export function commitMutationOptions(component: string) {
             'ancestors',
             'continuation',
             'hasUnmoderatedCommits',
+            'hotTopics',
             ...(component === 'headline/show' ? ['summary'] : []),
             ...(component === 'moderation/show' ? ['commits'] : []),
         ],

resources/js/pages/conversation/index.tsx

@@ -79,6 +79,12 @@ export default function Index({
     const message = (person: User) => open({ kind: 'direct', partner: person });
 
     const leave = () => visit(ConversationController.index());
+    const blocked = () =>
+        router.visit(ConversationController.index(), {
+            preserveScroll: true,
+            preserveState: true,
+            onSuccess: () => router.reload({ only: ['hotTopics'] }),
+        });
 
     return (
         <>
@@ -169,8 +175,10 @@ export default function Index({
                         user={user}
                         activeKey={target === null ? null : targetKey(target)}
                         onOpen={open}
-                        onLeaveActive={leave}
-                        onBlocked={() => router.reload({ only: ['inbox'] })}
+                        onLeaveActive={blocked}
+                        onBlocked={() =>
+                            router.reload({ only: ['inbox', 'hotTopics'] })
+                        }
                         empty={
                             <EmptyInbox onCompose={() => setIsPicking(true)} />
                         }
@@ -188,6 +196,7 @@ export default function Index({
                                     partner={target.partner}
                                     user={user}
                                     onLeave={leave}
+                                    onBlocked={blocked}
                                 />
                             ) : (
                                 <header className="flex h-16 shrink-0 items-center gap-3 border-b px-4">
@@ -252,10 +261,12 @@ function ThreadHeader({
     partner,
     user,
     onLeave,
+    onBlocked,
 }: {
     partner: User;
     user: User;
     onLeave: () => void;
+    onBlocked: () => void;
 }) {
     const { threads } = useChat();
 
@@ -294,6 +305,7 @@ function ThreadHeader({
                 user={user}
                 isArchived={threads[partner.handle]?.is_archived ?? false}
                 onLeave={onLeave}
+                onBlocked={onBlocked}
                 className="ml-auto size-9"
             />
         </header>

resources/js/pages/safety/edit.tsx

@@ -86,7 +86,12 @@ function PeopleList({
                                     )
                                     .visit(action.href, {
                                         preserveScroll: true,
-                                        onSuccess: clearMentionSuggestionsCache,
+                                        onSuccess: () => {
+                                            clearMentionSuggestionsCache();
+                                            router.reload({
+                                                only: ['hotTopics'],
+                                            });
+                                        },
                                     })
                             }
                             aria-label={`${action.label} @${person.handle}`}

resources/js/pages/user/unavailable.tsx

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Head, Link } from '@inertiajs/react';
+import { Head, Link, router } from '@inertiajs/react';
 import { Ban } from 'lucide-react';
 import UserBlockController from '@/actions/App/Http/Controllers/UserBlockController';
 import { EmptyFeed } from '@/components/commit-feed';
@@ -45,7 +45,12 @@ export default function Unavailable({
                                             blockedUser,
                                         )}
                                         as="button"
-                                        onSuccess={clearMentionSuggestionsCache}
+                                        onSuccess={() => {
+                                            clearMentionSuggestionsCache();
+                                            router.reload({
+                                                only: ['hotTopics'],
+                                            });
+                                        }}
                                         data-test="unblock-button"
                                     >
                                         <Ban />

resources/js/types/global.d.ts

@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ declare module '@inertiajs/core' {
             now: number;
             suggestedUsers?: SuggestedUser[];
             liveFollowing?: User[];
-            hotTopics?: { id: string; name: string }[];
+            hotTopics?: { id: string; name: string; summary: string | null }[];
             [key: string]: unknown;
         };
     }