# Help Center

## Objective

Give customers a searchable help site they can read before they open a support ticket.

A public help site of articles grouped into collections, with search, browse, and a contact fallback.

## Before You Begin

This feature is being added to an application that already exists and already
works. Do not scaffold a new project, and do not assume a blank slate.

Inspect the codebase first and establish:

- The existing application structure and where code of this kind already lives.
- The framework and version in use.
- The existing design system — colours, spacing, typography, and component conventions.
- Existing UI components you can reuse instead of writing new ones.
- The existing database structure, if this feature needs to persist anything.
- The existing authentication and authorization system, if this feature is user-scoped.
- Dependencies already installed, so you don't add a library that duplicates one.
- The existing test setup and conventions.

Only start writing code once you understand the above. If the application
already implements part of this feature, extend it rather than replacing it.

## Implementation Instructions

1. Treat the article as the single source of help content. If the app already has Contextual Help, Knowledge Base Chat, or an AI knowledge base drafting flow, point them at these same records rather than keeping a second copy of the answers that will drift.
2. Index articles into the app's existing search rather than standing up a separate search box with its own ranking. Extend Global Search and reuse the existing match highlighting so a result looks the same wherever it appears.
3. Give every article a stable slug and every collection an ordered list of articles, and show breadcrumbs from the collection down to the article so a visitor who landed from search knows where they are.
4. Ship the minimum coherent version: title, body, collection, slug, published state, and a last-updated date. Defer translations, approval workflows, and article versioning rather than half-building them.
5. Do not build a second content editor for this. Reuse the app's existing rich text or markdown editing surface, including its autosave and unsaved-change warnings.

## UI and UX Requirements

Match the application's existing design system exactly. Reuse its components,
spacing, and typography. This feature should look like it was always there.

## Responsive Requirements

Works on mobile, tablet, and desktop. Touch targets are large enough to hit on a
phone, and nothing overflows horizontally at 320px.

## Accessibility Requirements

- Fully keyboard navigable.
- Correct semantic elements and ARIA roles.
- Visible focus states.
- Meets WCAG AA contrast.
- Dynamic changes are announced to screen readers.
- Respects prefers-reduced-motion.

## Edge Cases

- A collection with no published articles must not render as a dead-end page. Either hide the collection from navigation or show what is coming and a route to contact support.
- Moving an article to a different collection changes its URL. Keep the old path working with a permanent redirect, because that link is already in support emails and search results.
- A search that returns nothing is the moment a customer gives up. Show the zero-result state with the most-read articles and a direct way to contact support.
- Was-this-helpful votes must be rate limited per visitor and per article, or one frustrated person refreshing will bury an article that is actually fine.
- Draft and unpublished articles must be unreachable by direct URL for anyone without authoring permission, and must be excluded from the search index and the sitemap.
- Articles referencing screens or plans the visitor cannot access should still render, but must not imply a feature is available to everyone.
- Images and embedded video inside an article need reserved dimensions and alt text, so a long article does not reflow while it loads.
- A deleted article that still has inbound links needs a real page explaining it has been removed, with a search box, not a bare 404.

## Testing

Exercise the feature end to end in the running application. Cover every edge case
above, then run the existing test suite and confirm nothing regressed.

## Acceptance Criteria

- [ ] Articles are grouped into collections and reachable by browsing and by search.
- [ ] Help articles appear in the app's existing search index rather than a parallel one.
- [ ] Draft articles return not-found for unauthorised visitors and never appear in search or the sitemap.
- [ ] Renamed or moved articles redirect from their previous URLs.
- [ ] Zero-result searches offer popular articles and a contact route.
- [ ] Helpfulness votes are rate limited and cannot be submitted repeatedly by one visitor.
- [ ] Every article shows a last-updated date.
- [ ] The feature matches the existing design system.
- [ ] No existing functionality is broken.

## Adaptation Rules

- Match the existing design system. Do not introduce a new colour palette,
  spacing scale, or component library.
- Reuse existing components and utilities wherever they fit.
- Follow the naming, file layout, and code style already present.
- Do not upgrade, replace, or remove existing dependencies to make this
  feature fit. Adapt the feature to the app, not the app to the feature.
- Do not break existing functionality. If a change is genuinely required in
  existing code, make the smallest one that works and say so.
- If something in these instructions conflicts with how the application is
  built, follow the application and explain the deviation.

## Final Verification

Before you report the work as done:

1. Re-read the acceptance criteria above and check each one against what you
   actually built.
2. Run the application and exercise the feature end to end.
3. Run the existing test suite and confirm you have broken nothing.
4. Check the feature on mobile, tablet, and desktop widths.
5. Check keyboard navigation and focus handling.
6. Summarize what changed: files added, files modified, and anything you
   deliberately did differently because of how this application is built.

If any acceptance criterion is unmet, fix it before reporting completion.