brain-of-reese/.agents/phases/todo/78_static_background/00_phase.md

Phase 78 — Static background (the animated glow layers are removed)

Source: TODO.md L4 — "Remove the animated css background, it's too resource intensive" Story: n/a (TODO-derived — supersedes the fading-glow contract of .agents/user_stories/background-no-motion.md (phase 25), which itself superseded background-animation.md (phase 08)) Context: frontend/assets/styles.css (the background block, ~lines 70–155: the STATIC grid texture on body::before, the three opacity-fading glow spots on body::after / html::before / html::after, the @keyframes bg-glow-a/b/c blocks, and the prefers-reduced-motion rule that stills those layers), tests/unit/test_background_animation.py + tests/unit/test_background_no_motion.py (source-level pins of the glow contract), tests/e2e/test_background_no_motion.py (the phase-25 suite — computed-style fade assertions) + tests/e2e/test_background_animation.py (the phase-22 E2E repurposed as the phase-25 no-motion regression — same story, background-no-motion.md — its fade assertions directly contradicted by the new contract), tests/e2e/test_dark_tech_theme.py (palette assertions — must stay green UNCHANGED), frontend/assets/themes/ (configurable theme files — the built-in palette is the scope; verify they carry no glow rules).

Objective

Delete the animated background: the three opacity-fading glow pseudo-layers and their keyframes stop existing — the owner reports they are too resource-intensive (the infinite CSS animations run continuously on every page, in every tab). The background becomes fully static: the 44px grid texture stays (it is static — zero animation cost).

Owner decisions (chat, 2026-09-06 — recorded per AGENTS.md rule 3)

• A2 confirmed: "the animated css background" = the three fading glow spots (the ONLY animated part of the background). The static grid (body::before) STAYS. If the owner later wants the grid gone too, that is a one-line follow-up — out of scope here.
• Other UI animations (the mobile nav slide, modal fades, typing dots, …) are NOT the background — they stay untouched.

Design (shared by both tasks)

• body::before (the grid) stays BYTE-IDENTICAL: 44px cells, 1px lines at 60% --line alpha, the widened radial mask.
• Deleted from styles.css: the body::after, html::before, and html::after glow rules; the three @keyframes bg-glow-* blocks; the prefers-reduced-motion rule whose only job was stilling these background layers — FIRST verify it references nothing else (if any non-background selector sits in it, strip only the background selectors).
• The block's comment header (the phase-08/25 owner-direction prose) is replaced with a 3–4 line phase-78 note: the animated layers were removed at owner direction (TODO.md L4) as too resource-intensive; the static grid remains.
• Test rewrites (the house pattern — the premise changed, so the suites pin the NEW contract; the phase-76 precedent rewrote the phase-20 suite the same way):
  • tests/unit/test_background_no_motion.py → rewritten as the static-contract source pin: no @keyframes bg-glow-* in styles.css; none of the four pseudo-element selectors (body::before/after, html::before/after) carries an animation: declaration; body::before (the grid) is present with its 44px background-size and no animation.
  • tests/unit/test_background_animation.py → DELETED (the phase-25 unit source-pin suite — its entire premise, three fading glows / exactly three bg-glow-* keyframe blocks, is gone; superseded chain 08 → 25 → 78).
  • tests/e2e/test_background_no_motion.py → rewritten: Playwright computed-style checks — the three glow pseudo-elements report animation-name: none and no background-image; body::before still carries the grid background. Docstring updated to the phase-78 contract.
  • tests/e2e/test_background_animation.py → DELETED (the phase-22 E2E repurposed as the phase-25 regression — its premise, that the glow layers fade, is removed; its story (background-no-motion.md) is carried on by the rewritten test_background_no_motion.py, the single story suite going forward).
• tests/e2e/test_dark_tech_theme.py must stay green UNCHANGED — the PALETTE is untouched; only the light spots go.
• tests/unit/test_themes.py + frontend/assets/themes/indigo.css — verify no glow/keyframe carry-over; if a theme file re-introduces animated background layers, the owner's direction applies to the whole background (report before deviating — the built-in palette is the confirmed scope).

Dependencies

— (none)

Tasks

1. 01_remove_glow_layers.md — the CSS deletion + the four test-file rewrites/deletions.
2. 02_regression_sweep_commit.md — theme + smoke E2E, the visual check, the full gate, the atomic commit.

Testing & Quality

• Unit: the rewritten source-pin file + tests/unit/test_themes.py green.
• E2E: the rewritten static-background suite in isolation (DB up) + test_dark_tech_theme.py + test_smoke.py unchanged-green.
• Coverage: >90% on app/ (CSS-only phase — the floor is preserved).

Completion Criteria

• No animation / @keyframes remains for the background in styles.css (rg "bg-glow" frontend/ tests/ app/ → zero hits); the grid renders as before (visual check in a real browser).
• The rewritten suites are green; the deleted suites are gone; test_dark_tech_theme.py green UNCHANGED.
• uv run pytest green; uv run pytest --cov=app --cov-report=term-missing >90%; uv run ruff check . && uv run pyright clean.
• One atomic --no-gpg-sign Conventional-Commits commit (e.g. perf(ui): remove the animated background glow layers — static grid only); phase dir moved to .agents/phases/complete/.