chore: snapshot WIP across dashboard, engine, and core

Bundles staged work-in-progress modifications across multiple packages
(routes, store, agent-instructions, self-healing, QuickEntryBox, etc.)
plus the dashboard theme-data.css preload fix.

Note: an unstaged 621-line deletion in .fusion/memory.md was deliberately
NOT committed — it appears to be an accidental overwrite of architecture
notes and is left in the working tree for review.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

packages/core/src/store.test.ts

@@ -1323,7 +1323,7 @@ describe("TaskStore", () => {
       expect(paged[0].id).toBe("FN-002");
     });
 
-    it("slim mode returns metadata but drops heavy fields (log/comments/steps)", async () => {
+    it("slim mode drops the agent log but keeps board-visible fields (steps/comments)", async () => {
       const task = await store.createTask({ description: "Slim test" });
       await store.logEntry(task.id, "heavy log entry that should not appear in slim list");
 
@@ -1333,13 +1333,22 @@ describe("TaskStore", () => {
       const full = fullList.find((t) => t.id === task.id)!;
       const slim = slimList.find((t) => t.id === task.id)!;
 
+      // Sanity: the full row really has the log we wrote.
       expect(full.log.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+
+      // Slim must drop the heavy log payload (the only field worth slimming).
       expect(slim.id).toBe(task.id);
       expect(slim.description).toBe("Slim test");
       expect(slim.column).toBe(full.column);
       expect(slim.log).toEqual([]);
-      expect(slim.steps).toEqual([]);
-      expect(slim.comments).toBeUndefined();
+
+      // Slim must STILL include the small JSON columns the board UI reads:
+      // step progress, comment counts, workflow status, steering badges.
+      // (Dropping them silently broke TaskCard progress bars and the comments tab.)
+      expect(slim.steps).toEqual(full.steps);
+      expect(slim.comments).toEqual(full.comments);
+      expect(slim.workflowStepResults).toEqual(full.workflowStepResults);
+      expect(slim.steeringComments).toEqual(full.steeringComments);
     });
 
     it("includeArchived=false excludes archived tasks; default includes them", async () => {

packages/core/src/store.ts

@@ -1316,10 +1316,22 @@ export class TaskStore extends EventEmitter<TaskStoreEvents> {
      *  from each row to make list responses cheap for board-style consumers. Detail fields default
      *  to empty arrays in the returned Task objects; use `getTask(id)` to load full data. */
     slim?: boolean;
+    /** Restrict to a single column (e.g. 'in-review' for the auto-merge sweep). */
+    column?: Column;
   }): Promise<Task[]> {
     const includeArchived = options?.includeArchived ?? true;
     const slim = options?.slim ?? false;
+    const columnFilter = options?.column;
 
+    // Slim mode drops ONLY the agent log column. On busy boards `log` accounts
+    // for ~99% of the row payload (60+ MB across 1200 tasks); every other JSON
+    // column combined is under 500 KB and is needed by the board UI:
+    //   - `steps`            → step progress badge on TaskCard
+    //   - `comments`         → comment count badge on TaskCard
+    //   - `workflowStepResults` → workflow status indicators
+    //   - `steeringComments` → steering badge
+    // Use `getTask(id)` to load the full row (including `log`) for the
+    // TaskDetailModal's Activity tab and Agent Log subview.
     const slimColumns = `
       id, title, description, "column", status, size, reviewLevel, currentStep,
       worktree, blockedBy, paused, baseBranch, branch, baseCommitSha,
@@ -1329,17 +1341,25 @@ export class TaskStore extends EventEmitter<TaskStoreEvents> {
       mergeRetries, stuckKillCount, recoveryRetryCount, nextRecoveryAt,
       error, summary, thinkingLevel,
       createdAt, updatedAt, columnMovedAt,
-      dependencies,
+      dependencies, steps, comments, workflowStepResults, steeringComments,
       attachments, prInfo, issueInfo, mergeDetails,
       breakIntoSubtasks, enabledWorkflowSteps, modifiedFiles,
       missionId, sliceId, assignedAgentId, assigneeUserId,
       checkedOutBy, checkedOutAt
     `;
     const selectClause = slim ? slimColumns : '*';
-    const whereClause = includeArchived ? '' : ` WHERE "column" != 'archived'`;
+    const whereParts: string[] = [];
+    const params: string[] = [];
+    if (columnFilter) {
+      whereParts.push(`"column" = ?`);
+      params.push(columnFilter);
+    } else if (!includeArchived) {
+      whereParts.push(`"column" != 'archived'`);
+    }
+    const whereClause = whereParts.length > 0 ? ` WHERE ${whereParts.join(" AND ")}` : "";
     const sql = `SELECT ${selectClause} FROM tasks${whereClause} ORDER BY createdAt ASC`;
 
-    const rows = this.db.prepare(sql).all();
+    const rows = this.db.prepare(sql).all(...params);
     const tasks = (rows as any[]).map((row) => this.rowToTask(row));
 
     // Sort by createdAt, then by numeric ID suffix for tie-breaking
@@ -2699,6 +2719,11 @@ export class TaskStore extends EventEmitter<TaskStoreEvents> {
 
     // Store current lastModified
     this.lastKnownModified = this.db.getLastModified();
+    // Initialize lastPollTime so the first checkForChanges() cycle filters by
+    // "modified since now" instead of doing a full SELECT * + emitting an
+    // update event for every cached task. Without this, dashboard startup
+    // re-loaded the entire tasks table 1s after watch() began.
+    this.lastPollTime = new Date().toISOString();
 
     // Use a sentinel watcher object so existing code that checks `this.watcher` still works
     try {