trails/openspec/changes/archive/2026-04-26-add-explore-page/proposal.md

Why

A user who wants to follow someone on this instance has no in-app path to discover them — they need a username from outside the app, type it into /users/<username> directly, or stumble onto a profile via the public activity feed on logged-out /. With four prod users today this is just a friction; with federation in Phase 2 it becomes a real gap. Add /explore as the in-app discovery surface so finding people to follow is a first-class action, not a workaround.

What Changes

• Add a new /explore route to the Journal app, reachable to both signed-in users and anonymous visitors.
• Render a paginated directory of local users with profile_visibility = 'public', ordered by most-recent activity (MAX(activities.created_at) per user, descending; users with no activities sort to the end by users.created_at).
• Within the directory page, surface a small "Active recently" section at the top — the top N (5 by default) public users who posted a public activity in the last 30 days. Same data set, just sliced and surfaced.
• Exclude private (locked) profiles, banned/suspended users (when those statuses exist), and the demo persona from the directory — they have explicit opt-outs from public discovery.
• Each directory row shows: display name, handle (@username), short bio (truncated), follower count (accepted only), and a Follow / Requested / Unfollow button (locked-account semantics from social-follows apply, so a public-target row shows Follow, etc.). The button only renders for signed-in viewers.
• Add an "Explore" entry to the navbar for signed-in users (visible alongside Feed / Routes / Activities). Anonymous visitors reach /explore via a link on the visitor home page, not via the navbar.
• No search in v1. With four prod users a paginated list is enough; search is deferred — typing /users/<username> already partially solves it for known handles.

Capabilities

New Capabilities

• explore: discovery directory of local users for follow recommendations. Owns the /explore route, the directory query rules, the "Active recently" sub-list, the access model (anonymous + signed-in), and the navbar entry.

Modified Capabilities

• social-follows: the directory needs a count of accepted followers per public user, which is already available via countFollowers. No new requirement; cross-reference only.
• journal-landing: the navbar entries grow by one ("Explore" for signed-in users). The visitor home gains a link to /explore so anonymous visitors have an in-app path to the directory.

Impact

• New code: apps/journal/app/routes/explore.tsx, apps/journal/app/lib/explore.server.ts (the directory query and "Active recently" slice), navbar entry in apps/journal/app/root.tsx, link from the visitor home in apps/journal/app/routes/home.tsx, i18n keys in packages/i18n/src/locales/{en,de}.ts.
• Modified code: none — the existing helpers (countFollowers, getFollowState) cover the per-row data; the new query is additive in explore.server.ts.
• No DB migrations: the directory query is a JOIN of existing tables (users, activities); no new columns or tables.
• No new dependencies.
• Privacy: the directory is public-by-default and respects the profile-visibility opt-out. No private profile leaks.
• Federation: out of scope for v1. Remote-actor discovery is social-federation's problem when that lands.
• OpenSpec index: openspec/CAPABILITIES.md gains an entry under the "Social" section.